Going Natural

It seems like so many locked women reached a point in their lives where they decided they couldn't take the harsh chemicals anymore. I went natural somewhat by accident. I had my last relaxer in June or July of 2004. I never liked my hair when it was relaxed. It always looked thin unless I washed and blow dried it with a round brush. Then it would have some body and bounce to it but that wasn't feasible for everyday styling. So by August of 2004, I was back in braids. Then I moved from CT to AZ where it didn't seem like there were many Black people, much less Black salons. After a year or so of not having a relaxer, I realized how much stronger my hair was. Suddenly, my braids around the edges stopped falling out (and taking my hair with it), so I decided then that it made no sense to relax my hair just to have it braided. Over the next few years, my hair grew longer than it had ever been in my life. Whenever I would take the braids out I would twist my hair and look at it in the mirror and think how great locks would look. I remember telling my mother and sister a few years back that I wanted locs like Lauryn Hill's and they told me that normal people's locs never looked that nice. Well thank goodness I finally came across sisterlocks and lock it up because now I know that there are lots of normal women out there who have beautiful locked hair.

So in the end, I never did the big chop or even had a hair cut since that last relaxer. As tightly curled as my hair is, you'd think it had never been relaxed. I suppose that means that the hair on my head isn't completely natural. That's alright though because it seems to be locking just fine even with the traces of lye that must be left in there.