Natural hair. Fun or Chore?

Deceived

I can understand your pain. The internet makes everything look so easy. I mean, how does someone with 4c hair even get to waist length? As if that’s not bad enough, they come up with 10 minutes of video tutorials looking completely fabulous. And after hours of trying to pull it off, you just end up looking like a chicken dipped in water or not.

Maybe, you know how to work your hair, and you can get your hair to look even “fabulouser” (if that’s a word. I know it’s more fabulous. Honestly!).

Perspectives

Like most things, there are different ways to look at it. I’ve met people who have given me over a billion reasons why they can’t go natural like: “Oh, my hair is way too strong” or “I just don’t have time for it”. I have also seen people who have been totally obsessed with natural hair, they treat it like an egg.

My mistake

At the beginning of my journey, I was so obsessed about reaching my hair goal. It was literally all I thought about. Common, who cares about how healthy your hair is? I was always about the length. I would surf the web to figure out how I could grow my hair faster. The inversion method, rice water, Jamaican castor oil, healthy diets, co-washing, hair supplements; I saw them all. I tried most of them to be honest. Guess what? It all felt like a myth.

It wasn’t till I stumbled on a vlog by Naptural85 (she’s my hair crush by the way and I am totally in love with her hair) that I found out I was focused on all the wrong things. I mean, I wasn’t even enjoying my hair, I wasn’t confident when I wore it out. But I always felt I looked unkept. So, I would wear protective styles all the time (there’s nothing wrong with that. Don’t get me wrong). The point is I was just growing my hair to impress people with its length. So after watching her video, I made a conscious decision to enjoy rocking my hair.

The reality

Most people treat their hair like its a burden. To master anything, you have to comprehend it. The same applies to your hair. The truth is not everyone fancies long hair. You may even look cuter in shorter hairstyles. For a long time, after reaching waist length hair, most people didn’t even know how long my hair was because of shrinkage. I mean, there were days when my hair looked like it was shoulder length and there were days it looked like it would sweep the floor( I’m just kidding). Somedays people would argue with me that I was wearing hair extensions. People hardly ever really know how long your hair anyway, so why kill yourself about reaching tailbone length

The Truth

Healthy hair grows. To get healthy hair you don’t need to buy tons of products or visit expensive salons. All you need is to understand your hair, what it loves and what it makes it grow. After you’ve figured it out, you just need to be consistent. Remember it’s about enjoying the journey. It’s not always about the destination, but it’s about loving and being comfortable in your own skin.

So there is this vlogger I follow online Razorempress. Her hair was 28 inches long ( I mean, it was so long. Tailbone length hair). Guess what? She cut it! I mean, who does that? She said it wasn’t healthy (she actually inspired me to focus on healthy hair) and that she wanted to grow it again, only that this time, she was going to focus on its health, not length. It’s been about two years since she cut it and you won’t believe that is it already waist length and way beautiful because it is healthy.

My point

There was a stage when I would pick hair length over anything but I’ve been down that road and now I know better.
Focus on healthy hair and enjoy your hair journey, no matter how long or short it is. You’re a work of art, so be one.