Hair part II

After I heard the presentation on “Processed Hair” I was very fascinated by the information that was given to me. I met with the author to learn more. I knew I wanted to make a change, but didn’t know where to begin. For the following few weeks I had a dialogue with myself, to perm or not to perm. That is the question. The dilemma was if I stopped perming my hair what was I going to do with it. I didn’t know anyone at the time that had natural hair. What would my natural hair look like? Would I like it? Would others like it? I was afraid to see myself because I hadn’t seen myself in such a long a time. Would I recognize myself? I was tormented. I was frustrated. Why hadn’t anyone share this information with me prior? It all made sense, the people I was expecting to provide with this type of knowledge was not aware. They were also lost.

On December 12 2003 I decided to save myself from the rat race. I was a struggle at first because I didn’t know how to style it or treat it. After a month I started to notice new hair growth, I was excited to see what my natural hair looked like. With in four month my hair looked like it had a jerry curl, s curl, perm, twist, and kinky all at the same time. The roots of my hair were revealing itself and the ends were straight as an arrow. I had to make a decision again, this time I had to literally cut the perm out of my life. The hair I had been growing all life was about to be removed. As I sat down I could actually hear my grandmother saying “You never gonna find a husband now”, “Ya gonna missed that hair and when you come to your senses it won’t be there”. I could hear close friends and family members saying, “I pay $150 to get this weave and you want to cut your hair” “What are they teaching you at that school”, “Mrs. X.”

The decision I was making was going to benefit me and possible inspire my friends and family to consider what they are doing to themselves and their children. During spring break of 2004 I went into a salon and demanded the stylist to cut as much of the perm as she can. She repeated exactly what I said to her and asked me what I wanted to do with my hair. I figured her English must be limited so I repeated myself, she then said with a surprising tone “You want to cut all that hair?” My response was yes. After going back and forth for a while she convinced me to cut it up to the neck area; instead of cutting 17 inches she cut 12. The stylist blow-dried my hair so straight I couldn’t tell I didn’t have a perm. But after a few weeks I saw the remaining perm strands and had to muster up the courage to cut it off. With in one year I went from having hair down to my butt to looking like Don King. I didn’t know what to do. I begin to notice other women with natural hair and I would ask them what products they used or who does their hair, or what suggestions they night have for me……
To be continue