Sometimes, it can be pretty frustrating most especially when someone with relaxed hair boasts about how healthy and long her hair is becoming after removing her weaves. She doesn't have to go through what you're going through, doesn't have to stress her hair just because she wants soft hair, neither does she have to go through the expense.
I've often asked myself if it's worth it...
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I believe it is
Don't give up. You tell me you've done all you can, you've been on your natural hair for like a year and it's still not as long as you wish it to be..
Don't let anyone discourage you.
What do you do after trying, You Watch and Wait. Just Wait and See How Your hair will keep growing inch by inch, step by step, horizontally and vertically. This FACT should give you hope.
It can never be the same as it was a year ago. That's impossible!
I've been a natural hair keeper for more than five years now and believe me when I say My hair is not even close to @ilola's hair who I'm sure wasn't a natural hair keeper before me.
And yet, she has long twists!..people ask me how come my hair is looking smaller and I tell them it shrunk. I encourage myself in the Lord..lool...The hair is growing...that's all I know. At least, there was a time I was on low cut and it's now medium length.
You might even start wondering what are the advantages of this whole Natural hair thing, well, it has loads and loads that I will discuss with you next week.
And so, wondering what next after trying and trying and doing all you can just to see your hair grow?..
Just Watch, Wait and See while you keep doing what you can.
It's like a seed planted and wetted. It wont just sit in the soil, but it will sprout out to bask in the sun.
Wait for your hair to keep sprouting to bask in it's own glory 'cos it will surely happen
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I think a whole lot of problem comes with the attitude we carry into our natural hair journey. So many of us go with so much melodrama like "Help me, I am going to hell, where I would have to go through so much stress, and spend so much money, and still have ugly and shrunken hair *wails*". Then we complain and complain. Why the melodrama?
ReplyDeleteFinally, they get what they expect. i.e. the negativity. Natural hair is not one hell that many think it to be.
If we can just know that natural hair is truly fun (and I'm not saying that to console anyone), we will come to love the journey, and even all the 'stress' associated with it.
Shebi relaxed people have the stress they go through too, waiting under dryers, gluing their hair here and there, dealing with scalp injuries like a badly-iron blouse, etc, but I don't see so much melodrama among them.
Natural hair is fun, and as you have said, let's watch and wait and see. The results would speak for itself in the end.
I think a lot of the time we expect our hair to behave like the weaves or relaxed hair we've gotten so used to. It comes as a shock when we realise that it will never bounce, lie flat, be straight or even behave! But that's the beauty of natural hair; it does what it wants to do, when it wants to!
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that it responds to the right stimuli. Keep it moisturized, massage your scalp and love your oils and your hair will grow.
I just did a second BC (my first was in 2007) last week after transitioning for 10 months, and while my TWA fills my heart with glee (I have always loved short hair as a style, not just a step on the path to long hair), some days I get frustrated with it. It thinks for itself, arranges itself, and does what it likes up there on my head. But I've come to accept it.
And sometimes your natural hair surprises you. If anyone had told me that simply spritzing my TWA and "feeding" it oils daily would make the curl pattern loosen up, I wouldn't have believed it. But there it is.
The idea that your hair is going to reach epic lengths in a short time frame is ridiculous. That's like trying to lose 50 kg in a month! It's just another way women put pressure on themselves to meet up with others. Go at your own pace, do everything right, and your hair will grow. If you faithfully cowash, condition, oil, massage and protective style, things will turn out okay.
Patience is key though.
It will take a while to get anywhere near the YouTube queens, but in the interim, I'm loving what God gave me, and so should all the other beautiful African Queens (natural and relaxed!).