My natural hair journey began in the Fall of 2009. My relationships with relaxers wasn’t a bad one. I wasn’t traumatized. In all honesty, my mother didn’t allow me to relax until about 9th grade and it wasn’t important to me up until that point. My 9th grade attitude shift occurred when I went from attending all white schools to schools with a large black population. Let me say this, Black kids are cruel. I knew nothing about light skin/ darkskin or good hair/bad hair until I was surrounded by more brown classmates. I was picked on for having puffy hair and wanted straight hair like the rest of the black girls. Because my mom’s insistence on not perming my hair until that point, I never experienced breakage. My hair actually flourished and at its longest point, was bra length.

Moving to NYC greatly influenced my decision. My relaxed hair was always f’ing relaxed. Just….. straight. Sure I could get a straw set, spiral set, or weave to shake things up a bit, but for the most part cutting, curling, weaving, or braiding were my only versatility options. Gone was the era of fingerwaves and updo’s. hello boring ass hair.

In NYC I saw so many beautiful natural women with versatility. Buns, afros twist outs, thickness. So in Fall 2009 I started to transition. In March 2010, tired of two textures, I decided to literally face myself and cut it all off. I’ve never experienced anything like it. To have basically no hair head and still feel beautiful is an experience that transforms you for life. I wore a brush cut the duration of the summer and loved it. It was freeing, I could wet my hair without fear. I honestly miss my brush cut days and the simplicity.

Here I am approximately 18 months into my natural journey and it is just that, a journey. Some days I think back to when my hair was as simple as unwrapping it and going. But I wouldn’t trade this for the world. I love seeing my hair in its natural state and having options. I choose not to straighten my hair with heat, but I choose to weave occasionally. I like the ability to change, and I use it as protective styling so that I can give my hair a rest. I don’t hide under weaves, you can see me on any given day wearing my hair, as God intended for it to look.

I wrote this post because there are so many people hung up on naturals and that they have to do this or that. Next month I will be getting  a surgical procedure that will alter my body for the rest of my life (its not a rhinoplasty nor anything to resemble other etnicities). The first thing everyone said was, “How you gonna do that and be natural?”

Simple.

At the end of the day , Yes, I’m natural and quite frankly, I can do whatever the hell I want.