My Science Project

As a Black woman I have many challenges with this stuff that grows out of my head...my HAIR.

As a little girl, I, like most little Black girls, wished I had "good hair". My mother (who does have "good hair"), would snap back at me and say, "Stop saying that! You DO have "good hair". If you have hair on your head then you have "good hair". So I don't want to hear that anymore!"

Well...that settled that.

Over the years I've had many many styles. Long, short, straight, relaxed, braids (once), never a weave...unless you count the extra hair that was added when I had my braids (which by the way, I only left in for a week because they were waaay too heavy on my head. I don't know HOW women wear those things for months). If so, then I guess we can check off "1" in the weave category.

I like my hair and I am thankful for it. For those who've followed the blog for any time you'll recall my hair loss a little over a year ago as a result of great stress that I was under at work. Never in my life had I experience anything like that. First, one patch. Then another. Then another. And it stopped with patch #4. FOUR huge bald patches in my hair because my body didn't know how to react to the stress that it was abnormally under.

Thankfully, my situation at work changed and with the change, my hair grew back. What a "coinky-dink".

Usually, I wear my hair straight. "Pressed" as Black people call it. And when it's "pressed" it's long and flowy...bouncin' and behavin'. Really pretty.

But recently, with the onset of Summer, I thought I'd try a "new thing". I thought I'd try wearing my hair "natural"...the way it grows out of the follicle. No heat applied.

Gotta tell ya...this has been a REAL science project. Who knew that wearing my hair "natural" was going to be such a challenge.

Yeah, I could do the "wash & go" thing, but when I do that, it's not pretty. Maybe after years of "pressing" my hair it's lost it's natural curl. So it ends up just looking stringy, like rats have sucked on it. Not quite the look I'm goin' for.

My kids keep describing my new look as "wild". Ummm,no...wild isn't gonna work for me.

I've asked some of my friends who wear their hair natural to advise me on the hair care products they use. I'VE TRIED THEM ALL. My bathroom looks like a beauty supply store. Yet I've still not been able to get my desired result.

I've even watched You Tube videos of women applying the product and showing their end result, but the problem with that is that the women are either "mixed" so they have naturally curly hair anyway, or they have very kinky hair. My hair lives at the intersection of the two.

So the search continues and through lots of "trial and error" I will hopefully get the naturally curly look that I'm goin' for...before Fall sets in (which is when I will probably go back to straightening my hair). We shall see.

Let the DIALOGUE begin! Is there a hair style that you've been trying to get but haven't quite been able to perfect it yet?

Talk to me!

Til next time...