Founder's Journey to Natural Hair

Going natural is a life-changing experience. It is definitely a roller coaster ride that is promised to be easy by no one. You may endure criticism from your significant other, your friends, family, coworkers, and even bystanders. The support that you thought you would have may be extremely fragmented or completely absent. At times, you may become frustrated with your hair and believe that you have no other option than to go back to relaxers. Sometimes you may even shed a few tears. Just know that it is all part of the territory and it does get better.

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Personal Story  

I honestly never had any plans of "going natural." As weird as it may sound, I did not think I could. Firstly, I didn't even know "going natural" was even a thing. Once I found out it was, I seriously believed that my hair was “too nappy” and that “I couldn’t go natural even if I wanted to.”

My original idea was to just simply stretch my relaxers. At that time, I was getting a relaxer every 4-6 weeks (which I highly discourage). When I told my hairstylist that I was going to go longer without a relaxer, her only comment was, “Oh girl, good luck with that!” Not very encouraging, right? — I know! However, I still pressed on, and in the beginning, it wasn’t too bad. About 3 months into my stretch, I started to strongly consider going natural. My family was not the most supportive and was convinced that it was simply a phase that I would just get over, and eventually give back into relaxers.

Anyways, to make a long story short, one Saturday morning (April 21st, 2012) after washing my hair, I grabbed my hair scissors and started cutting away. I was literally shocked and not too happy with the end result. After about 2 days, however, it grew on me and I was much more comfortable.

Unfortunately, that was not the case for others. Proud of the big step I had made, I took a picture in my dormitory bathroom and sent it to as many people as I could think of — I didn’t really get the feedback I expected. I received several negative comments such as, “Why would you cut your hair!?” “So you want to be bald?” “You look ugly now!” and these mostly came from guys. Of course, these negative comments killed my spirits and to be completely honest, I even cried. Luckily, though, I quickly recovered, remembering the bigger picture and why I originally cut off my hair in the first place. Now, I am happy to say that my mother, grandmother, and aunt all went natural and the majority of the people who originally criticized the way I looked when I first “big chopped,” love my hair now. Go figure!

If you are wanting to go natural, my advice to you is to think long and hard about why you want to go natural. No matter what your reason may be, make sure that you are doing it for YOURSELF — nobody else. When times get hard, this will be your strongest rock to fall back on. If you can remember the big picture, your overall goal, why you originally went natural, and what you are hoping to gain from this experience, you will find it much easier to overcome any rocks,boulders, cracks, and/or holes in the road. Always remember to keep your head up and walk around confident, even when you are not. Confidence is truly a powerful weapon. ”

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