Photo by Audrey Fretz on Unsplash
Natural hair has broken through the beauty glass ceiling and cemented itself as worthy of being seen and experienced. To that end, making the shift to natural hair didn’t only come with a change in haircare, product choice and hair texture but, in order for the transition to be truly successful, a change in mindset was (is) needed. Now, many naturalistas have really made this shift and understand the deeper message and importance of black hair being seen and celebrated. But if you’re new to the natural journey or are a few years in and you’re contemplating relaxing because natural hair is “so much maintenance” or “too difficult to manage” then keep reading , this one’s for you.
Many things can be said about natural hair and being high maintenance or difficult to manage is just not one of them. The truth is, your natural hair isn’t difficult, you are just trying to get it to behave unnaturally.
The natural movement moved us away from straight hair obsession and we formed a brand new one in its place, the curl craze. The curl craze is the obsession with defined curls. Instead of allowing our natural hair to behave how it wants and actually be natural, we want our curls to pop, we want curl definition and we want it everyday otherwise this hair might need to go! Sound familiar?
What is the cause of this craze? Quite simply, it’s not accepting your hair’s natural texture. By moving away from desperately needing straight hair to feel beautiful, we seem to have moved toward desperately needing our curls defined to feel beautiful. We seem to still need our hair to behave unnaturally to feel beautiful and this begs the question, when will you make the natural shift mentally? Going natural isn’t just about how we treat and grow our hair, it’s actually, fundamentally about how we view our hair. And if that is the measuring stick, how far in your natural journey are you really?
If you decide to just accept the texture or textures you have on your head then your focus becomes less on styling your hair into submission but enjoying your hair and caring for it the right way.
So if you are dealing with texture disappointment give yourself the time to deal with the mindset. Forgive yourself for the internalised shame and free yourself with self-love and texture acceptance. Do whatever it takes to get to the good part of your journey because that is where the fun lies. And your natural hair life will be so much easier! Free yourself and your hair from obsessions so you can step into acceptance and love.
To a healthier hair journey.