The Quiet After the Storm

So tomorrow I celebrate my two month anniversary of my big chop. Happy two month to my lil' fro! I am not sure if it is because I have been busy with school and life, but the time breezed on by! I am now going on 8 weeks as a natural and I just wanted to give you all insight on how my experience has been thus far.

Naturals Have More Fun!


You riiiight! No just kidding lol. Before I decided to transition and finally cut my relaxed hair off, I did a lot of research. I found myself looking up various articles and watching naturals on YouTube during my study breaks (which sometimes went on for hours). Let's just say that I have some what of an addictive personality. I was obsessed with everything pertaining to natural hair! I joined lots of forums, two of which I still frequent often. I was/still am obsessed with natural beauties! So much so that my sister would point out women with natural hair to me if we were walking down the street and I happened to be looking in a different direction. Soho in the beginning of the summer was my playground of beautiful naturals :-)

Despite all of the hype, I have not noticed much of a change that articles on this topic often try to highlight. I do not see different men approaching me. As a Human Evolutionary Biology concentrator and a science nerd, I would love to see some qualitative and quantitative studies done on this, although it would be insanely difficult. But back to the topic of discussion: no, I am NOT having more fun. Blimey. I am having fun learning more about my natural hair and exploring different styles. I'll tell you this though, right after I big chopped, a guy told me I was beautiful and my face lit up.

It's Skin Deep

When I first ventured into natural hair-dom, my natural hair guru, FoolProofDiva, advised me to begin looking at  more pictures of natural beauties. Initially I was thinking, "yes, great way for me to accumulate hairstyle ideas", but there was much more to it than that. Piercing the transparent veneer of looking at images for hairstyles, my perception of beauty slowly shifted and no, it was not over night. We all learn about and experience the euro-centric view of popular culture that permeates our society, but the views surrounding hair did not become real to me until I was making that transformation myself. As I mentioned before, I became more cognizant of women with natural hair. Bombarding myself with images of bombshell naturals normalized it in my mind. This was definitely clutch for me when I decided to finally chop my hair off!

I noticed a shift in myself and my perception of beauty. A lot of women are afraid to go natural because they believe it will not look good on them. I had a lot of friends tell me this when I informed them I was transitioning. UMM hello?!?! Seeing as I rocked relaxed hair for a long time,  I definitely understand the sentiments. My point of contention is when our society has made it so that women are afraid to rock what natural grows out of their head. I fantasize about a time when all of my friends will be natural. What a beautiful day that will be.

It is interesting to return to campus and see the same women who have had natural hair. I'll be honest, I used to give side eyes every now and then and that speaks volumes to the effects of ignorance. I simply did not understand. I thought natural 4a/4b hair was difficult to manage and was unable to grapple with why these women didn't go to the creamy crack for immediate relief. I'm glad I now understand. When I pass another sis-tah with a twa, I can't help but smile.


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These are my go to youtubers! Please suggests others to me.
Br0nzeqt and KimmayTube