THRIVING Melanin Family Magazine November 2018 | Page 7

NEW GROWTH
When you hear “new growth,” what initially
comes to mind? As an African-American
female, when I hear “new growth,” I
immediately think of my hair when I was
growing up. More specifically, before when I
used to relax my hair, that section of hair that
was still in its natural state…pre-treated, if you
will. The section of hair that hadn’t been
trained to be like the others yet. That section of
hair that I tried to hide as long as possible
before I had to do something with it. You
know…the “bdb’s” or the “kitchen” as that new
growth was so lovingly referred to within my
family and amongst my friends. My hair was so
thick that you could almost look at me and tell
how long it had been since my last relaxer and
it didn’t help that my hair grew really fast too.
To be honest, that “new growth” was annoying,
frustrating, and embarrassing at times. But
why? Why was something that was so natural
seemingly frowned upon within my household
and friends?
MAY 2017
Fast forward to today. I have been natural
(again) since May 2017 with the “big chop”
occurring in August 2017. With a series of bad
haircuts under my belt, I decided to just let my
hair “do what it do” and just grow. But the
process seemed slow. It made me question my
decision to try again. My hair used to grow so
quickly when my hair was “relaxed.” According
to the relaxer instructions, I was only supposed
to treat my hair every 6-8 weeks but that’s not
how my hair grew. I needed a relaxer every 3-4
weeks but my mom would make me wait
which in turn, taught me to wait even if it
didn’t seem right. It always made me question
who made up that timeframe and why I had
to abide by those “rules” since my growth
seemed faster than most. But what was
different now? Why wasn’t I noticing any
growth? I mean, granted, with my big chop,
my whole head was new growth (hahaha) but
I would think that by following the rules in the
natural hair community, I should have
Rapunzel length hair by now. But that wasn’t
the case
BIG CHOP
AUG. 2017
NOVEMBER
2018 • THRIVE |
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