Napturally Me

Welcome, if it's your first time here. A group of us have accepted the Blog Challenge to blog every day for the month of October, so there will probably be less poetry posts. We can choose a subject or freestyle. Since I believe I have adult ADD at times, freestyling it is...

It was August of last year that I decided, after noticing substantial (to me) hair loss, caused by the blood thinner Heparin, which is used to thin my blood for dialysis, to stop getting my hair relaxed.



At this point, my hair was nearly down to the middle of my back and though my stylist had a FIT, she agreed it was best.

My natural journey wasn't that hard since I was blessed by my ancestors. (Say what you want, I KNOW there's native american blood and hair on both sides of my family, LOL) I thank them all the time, because my hair doesn't "nap up" like some complain about.

About 5 weeks into my journey, I decided that the 2 inches wavy, then bone straight look wasn't working for me, no matter how I tried to disguise it, so I had my aunt cut all the relaxer out of my hair.

Yes, you read that right. I went from hair to mid-back, to 2 inches. It felt great! It was soooo liberating!

I really starting having fun with my hair. Wearing it different ways. I got it twisted, two-strand twisted, picked out, curled up. I dyed it a reddish brown and have been enjoying my natural-self. My hair had really gotten HUGE. Of course, every black woman with a fro, gets compared to Jill Scott. My smart-ass kids (yeah, they got it honestly) called me Florida Evans *eyeroll*. I was going more for Coffy.

And then I got to looking at old photos...

I MISSED MY STRAIGHT HAIR!!!

So I did the only thing I could do...I made an appointment. When I walked into the salon, my stylist looked at me in disbelief. My hair was huge and red and I'd lost about 80 lbs., since the last time she saw me.

She asked if I was ready to get my relaxer back and I said no. Truthfully, after watching Chris Rock's Good Hair, I'll probably never go back to relaxing my hair.

When she got done washing, conditioning, sitting me under the dryer, blow drying me completely dry, flat ironing and hair spraying my hair it was gorgeous. She'd trimmed my ends and my hair is so healthy. I told her I would be sending her a hospital bill because I would surely get whiplash when I got my Willow Smith on!

I got so many compliments on my hair. A couple of white men said right to my face "Oh, it looks so much better!" I said, it's only temporary. I LIKE my afro! Emphasis on I, cuz I really didn't give a fuck who didn't.

I got my hair done on Wednesday. An ex was trying to run his fingers through it on Thursday *extra hard eyeroll* and by the following Monday, I was telling myself that I had to at least leave it straight for a week to get my money's worth.

It lasted a week and a day. Yesterday afternoon I washed that flat iron right outta my hair. Do you know when my hair got wet, it actually smelled like the flat iron on my hair? *wrinkles nose*

When I ran the moisturizer through my natural curls, I knew I'd never relax again. Flat iron maybe, permanently relax, no...

Remember my claiming of my native american roots? Well, not all of my hair has curled up again. There are straight sections here and there that won't curl for anything. I'm hoping it just takes a little time, as my SiStar said.

From here on out, I'll be napturally me...