5 Reasons why I went natural
Where do I even start? As a young African girl who lived in Nigeria for the first 10+ years of my life, I had no clue about the concept of having natural hair. From a young age, my mum, my sister & I would use relaxers on our hair; it was the norm. We’d usually spend the day at the salon getting our hair done and the result would be straight hair.
Typically, we’d use a relaxer, leave it on for roughly 20 mins but mine always had to stay in longer because my hair was apparently ‘stubborn’.
Needless to say, as a result of this, I had scalp burns often… for some reason, I wasn’t concerned because this was normal for girls with coarser & thicker hair. Eventually, the hair stylist would then wash it out, set the hair in those rollers with pins and have us sit under a dryer for what seemed like eons.
At the time, my hair would grow quite fast, but this wasn’t necessarily a good thing because we had to avoid ‘undergrowth’ (aka new growth) at all cost. I was at the salon weekly, always ‘getting my hair done’ which slowly became unsustainable for me.
This entire process of ‘getting my hair done’ was normal to me, I had an amazing childhood, loved having girl time with my mum and sister but I guess I just never questioned the process. I never thought about it as ‘chemically straightening’ my hair… I just thought this is what you do to hair.
My family & I then moved to Europe, the Netherlands to be specific. The only thing that changed was the fact that instead of going to salons, the girls in my family would just have to take turns in relaxing each other’s hair.
Looking back, I was completely oblivious to the social constructs and Eurocentric standards of beauty we as black women were conforming to (especially in a Nigerian community that had little to no white people).
I began to see how this British colonial legacy had impacted our culture and perception of what is beautiful. I knew I wanted to move away from the idea that hair should be long and straight for it to be beautiful and also find out more about my own natural hair.
Fast forward to my 2nd year of University in Vancouver Canada, I undid my braids and saw some new growth. I honestly was too lazy, tired and broke to go buy a relaxer so I just washed my hair and that was one of the first times I saw my natural hair. I don’t know how else to say it but I was shocked that my natural hair was coily/curly.
I distinctly remember wondering if my natural hair had been coily/curly this entire time or if that was a new curl pattern emerging as I hit 20 years old. HAHA! It sounds ridiculous but I was genuinely so lost & confused.
After lots of research and conversations with my best friends, I realised that 4c hair was my natural texture and that there was this natural hair movement gaining visibility with black women across the world.
I was slightly saddened and embarrassed that assimilation toward whiteness had prevented me from ever seeing what my actual natural hair texture looked like beforehand.
Better late than never right?!
At this point, I knew that I had to explore this further and figure out what my natural hair actually looked like with the ultimate goal of embracing and loving myself more, including my kinks and coils.
In short, these are the 5 reasons why I went natural:
I was relaxing my hair very often due to ‘undergrowth’ (new growth) and for me, it became unsustainable when I went to University.
I had multiple scalp burns due to using strong relaxer formulas for ‘coarser’ hair, this left my scalp sensitive and vulnerable.
I wanted to consciously move away from a Eurocentric ideal of beauty and embrace my afro in a socially disruptive way/ as a form of daily protest and simultaneous self-love.
I didn’t know what my natural hair texture was until I was 20 years old; my hair was always relaxed.
I wanted to learn more about how my hair naturally looked, how to take care of it and how to love it.
Let me know in the comments if you can relate to any of these reasons or comment stating what your reasons were for going natural. Feel free to share with a friend and have amazing conversations about this topic.
Love
Ez
x
