My Hair: Creme of Nature.

i`ve decided, after a long, long, thinking about this all day, to go natural with my hair. & sadly, it won`t be the FULL natural, but meh, i want to maintain this hairstyle atleast.

now, what prompted my change of heart? well see, i have no problem with not getting perms. in fact, i`m use to it. the longest i went without getting a perm was probably 10 months. & those 10 months i didnt have a perm, i remember, my hair was the longest it`s ever been. 2 inches past my shoulders & let me tell you; i was so proud, but those dreams were killed when my sister permed my hair & my hair became subsequentially shorter. that should tell you something. my hair grows like CRAZYYYY, but since i get perms, it breaks it off. you should see how much new growth i get after a 4 month period. there is atleast an inch of crinkled hair, so that means when you straighten it out, it`s longer.

my first intention was to go six months without perming my hair because i burned off my edges with my last perm & blatant use of not taking care of it. but i would rather not start in the "6 week vicious cycle" that so many of our black sisters engage in. the time & money to achieve what we think of beauty is simply, not worth it. we claim to embrace who we are, but obviously we are ashamed of it because we can`t fully accept our hair for what it is. the way we think . . . . now let`s think of this. i`m going to use the singer Brandy as an example. this chick was the bees knees in the 90`s! everyone LOVED Brandy (esp me i had both of her CD`s from the 90`s & watched Moesha faithfully: i wanted to BE Brandy). everyone calls her ugly now & blah, blah, blah, but these are the same people who were praising how beautiful she was. Brandy is of a darker skin tone. Now let`s take the last couple of years stars: Beyonce, Ashanti, Christina Millian, Keyshia Cole, Aaliyah, Monica, Mya, Rihanna. . . . now aren`t you seeing a pattern here? I`m not downplaying any of those women`s talents (epsecially the late & great Aaliyah) however, the darker toned sisters get NO love, & when we the last time they blew up to MAINSTREAM success? Aren`t you trying to think of a darker skinned beauty that has mainstream success? Now, it should NOT take you that long, right? Purely sad. Brandy was one of few darker skinned sisters who people could appreciate. Even Chili from TLC, WAS darker skin, but was mixed & had fine hair, so she was seen as "exotic". . . . but where are our darker skin sisters at? Like in all seriousness, corporate America do not see dark skin women as being marketable. How many times have you heard insults about dark skin people in general, especially women? Thats why we have a very serious skin bleaching cream market that specifically target women of color (not just black people) in the hopes of looking more white. Lil Kim is a GOOOOOOOOD example of that. Find out how Lil Kim looked BEFORE she even released her 'Hardcore' album & you`ll be surprised. This lady went up like 4 shades! WTFH! Lil' Kim was like dark brown skin now she`s like light brown skin.

Now i don`t want to sound cliche, but let`s think of it here. How many times as a child did you wish that you could just be a little bit lighter? i use to wish this all the time & i`m not even dark skin, so i can imagine how hard it is for people who are darker then me. In a nutshell, lighter skin is seen a sign of status. why do you think Kelly Rowland never blew up? Outside of the whole Beyonce conspiracy thing, the chick IS dark skinned & not marketable to the masses. Go check out your videos, you hardly see any dark skin chicks (even though their are some beauties). Matter of fact you see Lauren London types: light skin, with no boobs, & permed hair. UNLESS you have a huge ass. Which clearly does not represent Black American women. Go figure.

Anyways, my whole point is that we don`t embrace who we are as people. I`m sick of wasting time & energy putting that SHIT & death in my hair. if you want hair, your hair will never ever grow using perms. if you want to maintain healthy hair, just lose it & ur hair will be better. you should not be putting shit that smells like that in your head. i don`t mean to put a biased POV, i do understand that sometimes it is necessary to perm your hair, like for work purposes, however, it`s just no worth it. it thins your hair out in the long run & no one wants thin hair. also, don`t be confused at the "natural" hair perms. theyre just as harsh as regular perms.

a lot of products that are actually marketed for african americans hair aren`t good for our hair, like grease, so instead of using grease, it`s good to use natural oils, like coconut oil or shea butter. i also have to throw out my lusters pink lotion & possibly JAM! for something that is more healthy on my head. if i want my edges to grow back to what they were, i have to control what goes in my hair & how i wrap it up at night (in a hair bonnet). alot of this garbage just makes our hair greasy & our hair will still be damaged. & also, greasing your scalp really doesn`t make a difference in how healthy ur hair is.

i want to be more comfortable with my hair. i won`t be wasting money on a hairdresser anymore, whom never satisfies my needs as a customer & consumer. so i will be doing the majority of my hair from now on. i am not a natural head guru, because i will still be using the blow dryer, hot comb & flat iron to maintain my hairstyle (which is damaging to the hair if used a lot), but oneday i hope to get dreads. i think their absolutely beautiful. but that won`t be for a while to come.

who cares about "nappy" hair when it really is an underlying issue within ourselves? what happened to the natural hair days of our mothers & fathers? but none that has went into obliqueness due to our following of the media. we follow what the masses do & what our mom tells us to do, but it`s not too late to change it up & have hair that is truly beautiful without the chemicals. there is a way to take care of your hair & make it soft, most of us are just to lazy to do this so we opt for the easy, unhealthy way to & what we`re told that`s beauty, but all we`re really creating is a self-loathing of ourselves.

In the end, every shade & kind of black does not get represented & i don`t want to add another penny in this billion dollar business. corporate america knows how to target black people & how to make us hate ourselves, just look at the perm, skin bleach, weight loss, hair product businesses. we`ve been all conditioned to thinking that white beauty standards is THE BEAUTY & best you can look. every race tries to emulate us, however, we can`t appreciate ourselves for who we truly are.