My Hair

My hair is a fuzzy mass that is a combination between a rat's nest and ringlet curls. My friends seem amazed when I pull the kinky curls out to their full length - thereby almost tripling the length that they THINK my hair is (or at least doubling it). Seems it's gotten to be mid-back, so I might give it a straightening. I'm starting to think people assume that because I don't straighten my hair I am trying to follow some fashion trend. That is not necessarily the case. My issue is more that I don't want to go the chemical route and have the issues that my biological mother has where hers won't grow more than a few inches, and she gets bald patches. I am TIRED of paying $65-70 a month to get my hair chemically straightened. It leaves scabs on my scalp, and takes about the same amount of time for me to straighten the chemically straightened hair after I wash it as it does when "natural". Between the length of time it takes for styling it ALSO means I get to pay for the priveledge of having pretty damned unruly, burnt, damaged hair. Even when I just use the flat iron (which gives me darned similar results as far as a perm goes) there is some damage caused to my hair. have never since been able to attain because of the chemical torment placed upon it: down to my ass. About 3 years ago, I cut my hair and almost got disowned...well...here we go with what is becoming my catch-phrase "a little backstory":

After basically ignoring my hair for a few months I had to give a presentation for one of my college computer courses. We were supposed to be professional, and I figured it was time to straighten my hair. My grandmother saw my hair and was amazed "I didn't know your hair was so long..It's so beautiful". (My hair was about 3-4 inches past my bra strap at that point.) I said "Oh...cool". Took a shower, and promptly hacked my hair down to about 2 inches. I was sporting a TWA (Tiny Weeny Afro). I LOVED it for a time. It was too short to pull back, so I found the joys of wetting my hair in the shower, shaking like a dog and dabbing leave-in-conditioner on it. I had a mass of ringlet curls and it no longer took me 3-4 hours to do my hair. When it got longer, I could put little twists in my hair, and get cool textures with little effort. There was a HELL of a payoff for taking the switch...my hair wasn't brittle and never seeming to grow. The thickness of my hair was an asset, not a hindrance to hairstyles. (I got charged extra because of length and thickness when I went to the hairstylist; and more than one had gotten 1st degree burns handling my hair due to retained heat.) Anyway, I digress. My grandmother had a birthday two days later and she would hardly talk to me. About all she mentioned where I was remotely involved as a person was "You should have seen her hair, it was so long and pretty, then she CUT it all off." Every time I wore my hair natural in the house without some kind of covering for the next year, my grandfather would comment "what's wrong with your hair?" Where everyone else was commenting that it was kind of cool (mostly caucasian), my own black relatives were acting like I was a pariah...WTF? It wasn't until this time that I came to realize the importance of hair in the black community. Previously, I had been getting those braided extensions (mostly for fullness because my hair was pretty darned long) and I would get compliments "Ohhh, ahhh, pretty" kind of crap. It always seemed sort of creepy to me...Having synthetic hair on your head...*shudders*. But, having long, shiny, STRAIGHT locks are/were of great import to the earlier generations. Some called if "whitification"...I called it stupid. It's hair, and this was well before "The Swan" and "Extreme Makeover". I didn't consider my going natural to be an embracing of my roots or of acceptance. I just figured it was a moneysaver and a HUGE convenience. (It was also nice that most of my relatives were jealous of my hair texture...I guess the ringlet curl affect my hair naturally has isn't that normal on my maternal side.)

OK...I'm sure you've heard enough about my hair. It was just something I was sort of ruminating over for a brief period of time because I came to the realization today that my grandparents at least have accepted my hair...and the fact that I think I am going to straighten it today (or at least get a new hairstyle). My hair has been the topic of at least 3 separate conversations in the past two weeks....better than my bumpies, eh?