Monday 8 July 2013

Chinweike's Journey to Natural Hair



Hi Bloggers,

I was asked to do this piece by my wonderful friend, Faridah, so here is my Natural Hair journey .

When I used to relax my hair, I hated how my hair would fall flat and lose its bounce. It felt dead to me. Through the course of time, I used different types of relaxers (Motions, Dark and Lovely, etc….. you name it). I eventually switched to using the famous “Olive Oil Root Stimulator relaxer” which gave my hair some life but it was still relaxed.





I decided to go natural for a couple of reasons. First, I realized that I was spending a lot of money on relaxers. Second, I hate chemicals (I had this weird thought that the chemical relaxers were seeping through my scalp and into my brain and could cause brain cancer. I know it is silly but that was how scared I was). Third and most importantly, my hair kept cutting especially the little hairs in front.

I did not shave my hair completely as some people might do. Instead I transitioned from my relaxed hair to my natural hair. I don’t remember the date I last relaxed my hair. All I remember is that I noticed in December 2010 that my hair was due. I had a lot of undergrowth which I covered up by doing braids and weaves. It took another five months before I did my Big Chop (May 2011). I literally had to hunt people down to help me cut my hair just because a lot of people did not want to cut my hair. They said it was too long to cut and they liked it relaxed.


Anyways, I finally found one of my very good friends who decided to give it a go. I cut off most of the relaxed parts and left a little bit of relaxed hair and the bottom part natural. Eventually the relaxed hair broke off and I have been natural ever since. I noticed that my scalp was super sensitive and there were sometimes that I felt like just putting relaxer back into my hair. For my ladies out there transitioning, my advice would be to hang in there. In the famous words of India Arie “This too shall pass”. Eventually, my scalp got used to my natural hair (It accepted the fact that my natural hair was going nowhere).


Now, taking care of my natural hair was not a problem because my mum refused to allow me to relax my hair until SS1 (Grade 10). So, I was natural from birth till I was about 13 or 14 years old. However, there were numerous things that I had to learn such as the need to comb my hair when it is wet as opposed to when it is dry, the importance of using protective hair styles, how to condition and wrap my hair, trying different hair styles especially more mature ones (as opposed to our beloved Nigerian cornrows and threads) and so on. I would love to thank YouTube, and my natural friends for their support and advice when I needed it. 

I have to say, I love running my fingers through my hair and feeling my natural curls. I won’t change this experience for the world because my natural hair has taught me a lot of things about myself and my body that my relaxed hair was too weak/dead to do. 

Love,
Chinweike

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