Happy Saturday to you lovelys!
I have an obsession with hair. I can talk about hair all day! Maybe because I am fascinated by all the different textures of hair we all possess within our different cultures. Growing up, hair was a PAIN for me because I didn't know how to manage it.
I am tri-racial (lol): Black, White, and Native American. I was adopted at a young age into a Black family, all of whom had Black hair. God bless my Mom, I know she truly tried, but I am convinced she had no clue how to take care of my hair. She tried using Black hair care products (like Blue Magic-AUGHGH!), which were always too heavy for my hair and made it greasy. She tried braiding my hair before, but it always started getting flyaways and coming loose after a couple days. And she NEVER used heat on my hair; I had to beg her to straighten my hair with the pressing comb or to curl it with the curling iron. In her defense, I had OODLES of hair...it was thick and all over the place, but it was beautiful! My mom always made me brush it out when I did it (thus frizzing out my curls, ugh!) and my hair wasn't considered "done" unless it was brushed back.
I actually grew to hate my hair. I didn't know how to take care of it, and obviously neither did my mom. My natural texture is wavy/loose-curly. Whenever I wanted to wear my hair down, my mom would tell me it looked ugly. That really hurt my feelings, and to this day I resent my mom for telling me that. What parent tells their child that anything about them looks ugly? When I look at my mom's hair (short, nappy, always breaking-off,etc.) I came to the conclusion that she may have been jealous. When I was in high school and taking care of my own hair, she would keep the hair care products in her room, and I would have to ask to use them. If I asked when she wasn't in a good mood, she would come up with a reason why I couldn't use the products, and I had to go to school with dry, frizzy hair-NOT a good look. I felt terrible about myself and had low self-esteem at a very critical time in my young life.
By now, you're probably figuring out that something about my upbringing may have been a little amiss. And indeed it was. But that's another post. Long story short, I didn't learn to love my hair (and me) until I was in college. In college, I washed my hair whenever I wanted. I didn't always put product in it and wore it natural. And I ALWAYS wear it down. I will rarely ever put my hair up. I tell myself that my hair is beautiful, and I believe it. Now, along with learning to love my hair came learning how to take care of it. I learned that curly hair care requires different products and caretaking routine than coarser/nappier types of hair, and of course a different regimen than fine/straight hair. I went through a phase where I dyed my hair all the time, every month sometimes. I've chopped it off, had it long, and tried sew-in weave (once!).
I used to wish my hair was more "black" when I was growing up, meaning more coarse and nappy. I would admire other Black or mixed girls with different texture hair and admire how they could gel their hair down, conform it how they wanted to, and I wanted that. I wanted STABILITY with my hair too. Part of learning to love my hair in college involved learning that I am unique, as is my hair. All hair is good hair, we just have to learn how to take care of it. I will post a few pics of my hair throughout the years.
Love yourselves, and your hair, my beauty queens!
Moni
I have an obsession with hair. I can talk about hair all day! Maybe because I am fascinated by all the different textures of hair we all possess within our different cultures. Growing up, hair was a PAIN for me because I didn't know how to manage it.
I am tri-racial (lol): Black, White, and Native American. I was adopted at a young age into a Black family, all of whom had Black hair. God bless my Mom, I know she truly tried, but I am convinced she had no clue how to take care of my hair. She tried using Black hair care products (like Blue Magic-AUGHGH!), which were always too heavy for my hair and made it greasy. She tried braiding my hair before, but it always started getting flyaways and coming loose after a couple days. And she NEVER used heat on my hair; I had to beg her to straighten my hair with the pressing comb or to curl it with the curling iron. In her defense, I had OODLES of hair...it was thick and all over the place, but it was beautiful! My mom always made me brush it out when I did it (thus frizzing out my curls, ugh!) and my hair wasn't considered "done" unless it was brushed back.
I actually grew to hate my hair. I didn't know how to take care of it, and obviously neither did my mom. My natural texture is wavy/loose-curly. Whenever I wanted to wear my hair down, my mom would tell me it looked ugly. That really hurt my feelings, and to this day I resent my mom for telling me that. What parent tells their child that anything about them looks ugly? When I look at my mom's hair (short, nappy, always breaking-off,etc.) I came to the conclusion that she may have been jealous. When I was in high school and taking care of my own hair, she would keep the hair care products in her room, and I would have to ask to use them. If I asked when she wasn't in a good mood, she would come up with a reason why I couldn't use the products, and I had to go to school with dry, frizzy hair-NOT a good look. I felt terrible about myself and had low self-esteem at a very critical time in my young life.
By now, you're probably figuring out that something about my upbringing may have been a little amiss. And indeed it was. But that's another post. Long story short, I didn't learn to love my hair (and me) until I was in college. In college, I washed my hair whenever I wanted. I didn't always put product in it and wore it natural. And I ALWAYS wear it down. I will rarely ever put my hair up. I tell myself that my hair is beautiful, and I believe it. Now, along with learning to love my hair came learning how to take care of it. I learned that curly hair care requires different products and caretaking routine than coarser/nappier types of hair, and of course a different regimen than fine/straight hair. I went through a phase where I dyed my hair all the time, every month sometimes. I've chopped it off, had it long, and tried sew-in weave (once!).
I used to wish my hair was more "black" when I was growing up, meaning more coarse and nappy. I would admire other Black or mixed girls with different texture hair and admire how they could gel their hair down, conform it how they wanted to, and I wanted that. I wanted STABILITY with my hair too. Part of learning to love my hair in college involved learning that I am unique, as is my hair. All hair is good hair, we just have to learn how to take care of it. I will post a few pics of my hair throughout the years.
Love yourselves, and your hair, my beauty queens!
Moni
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