(hair) why i went natural

September 2008 

Why did I go natural?

It all started very simply. I wanted curls. I saw a celebrity (I think It was Kelly Rowland or someone) with shoulder length wavy curls and I wanted to mimic that look. I had done the short angular Rihanna cut that was so popular in 2008 and my hair was growing back so I wanted a different look. As I researched online I found that the black girls who I saw wearing a straight or wavy looks were wearing sew-ins. That was out of the question for me because I had seen too many bad weaves in my life to go there. So I kept searching curly hair, African American hair and I eventually stumbled upon afrobella.com and blackgirllonghair.com. I saw the incredible curly fros, fro-hawks, twistouts and I wished I could have that, I wondered how all these amazingly fly women got their hair like that. My hair never did anything cool like that. So I actually started reading the posts, instead of just looking at the pictures (lol) and started to catch on. I didn’t have to get relaxers. There are some people that don’t get relaxers. Lots of them. And they look cute. I wanna look cute!! And it finally clicked that if I didn’t get relaxers my hair would be all awesome  like the girls on the blogs.

September 2010

I know it sounds remedial, but in real life I had never seen anyone who looked like me with naturally curly hair. The mixed girls either got relaxers too or they straightened. And  the maybe (MAYbe)  two girls who were actually natural didn’t wear their hair out, only in braids or buns. I had never witnessed “the dopeness of natural hair” in person.

September 2010
excuse the blown face lol i was working on a paper 

So of course I lived vicariously though the girls on the computer screen. I read their stories, about self love and strife. How society doesn’t always embrace us, so we have to love ourselves that much more. I started to live and breathe it. I fell in love with the community, the natural mindset and the emphasis on health. I started transitioning right away in February 2009 and never looked back :)

more to come. 

love. jess.