MANIFEST MAAT May 2014 | Page 9

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I cannot speak for other natural women, but in can speak for myself and tell you my story. Ever since I was about 11 years old, I have had my hair relaxed, and religiously. In my early teenage years, I noticed that my hair was shedding badly, and when I say bad I mean my shirt constantly being covered in small pieces of hair. So, during the summer months, I would not relax my hair. Being a teenager in high school, the last thing I wanted was to go to school without my hair being bone straight ( yea, I was that bad than ).

One thing I began to realize during those summer breaks was that my hair would actually grow about 3-4 inches in that short amount of time. Also, my hair was thicker felt so much healthier. I got to enjoy 3 months without looking like a shedding dog, and came back with longer and healthier hair. Though my hair was forever in a puffy ponytail, bun, or cornrolls it was the best 3 months for my hair.

Than September rolled around, and the relaxer came. My hair was bone straight, thicker, and healthier until the next relaxer came. Slowly but surely my hair would start shedding, become thinner, and overall unhealthy. After a few years of going through this cycle of relaxing and not relaxing int the summer, I finally decided to go natural.

Now, I can say that I have transitioned for a little over a year, big chopped this April that has passed, and have a small fro. I can honestly say that I am extremely happy with my choice to be natural. I love, and honestly kind of obsessed with, my curls. My hair is thicker and fuller than it was before, even on the rare occasions that I actually do flat iron my hair. Over all, I am happy that when my child is born in October I will be an example for s/he that you do not have to wear your hair straight to be considered beautiful. That your natural curly hair is just as beautiful.

Though I love my natural hair, it is not the easiest to maintain. I have extremely thick hair, which is always dry. I can literally oil my hair and scalp, and by the end of the end of the day it will be dry. So for me, I have to constantly oil my hair at least every 2 days if not every day. One of the major factors of maintaining natural hair is keeping it properly oiled. If you do not, you will have shedding, breakage, and overall unhealthy hair.

So for the ladies contemplating going natural, I would suggest finding natural hair websites for advice. It helped me a lot when it came to properly oiling my hair and learning different protective styles. One of the websites that is great to start out with is Curly Nikki. If you go on the website, you will find a great range of articles from other natural women about hair styles, moisturizing, dying, and more. When I first started, I downloaded the Curly Nikki app which was also a great help. It takes you to a message board where woman who just started transitioning, to women who have been natural for years come to support each other.

There are plenty of natural hair websites, and you tubes videoed which answers many questions that you come up with on your natural hair journey. So for those who are on the fence about going natural, I encourage you to do some research on natural hair websites to read some articles about what other women with natural hair are saying. You never know, a year later might love the different you the same as I did.