rhonart

The natural hair vs protective hairstyles discourse is one we will always keep having. In fact, what rekindled this discussion earlier this month was this TikTok user, who essentially asks us to honestly look in to how and why we feel a certain way towards our natural hair. Why do we take better care of our bundles instead of the hair that grows naturally from our scalp? Why do we feel that our natural coils are hard to manage? Why are we scared of wearing it out, and opt to doing back-to-back protective styles?

Of course our feelings towards our hair are a result to the institutionalised racism, policing and stereotypes that we face in our everyday lives. So it’s going to take a lot of time and grace to unlearn everything we have been conditioned to believe, especially when our hair types are all so different. However, I’m not here to add anything more to the discourse. Instead, I’m going to simply reflect on my own personal journey towards loving my natural hair.

The question as to why we treat our wigs with much more gentleness and care than we do with our natural hair, is one that I personally found hilarious. Because, in actuality, I’ve never treated my wigs with care at all. All that investment in those quality bundles, just for it to look laid for a good week or two after installation. It got to a point where I had to stop wearing them altogether and opt to braids instead. But even braiding my hair wasn’t something I could do as often either as for one, it’s so expensive. Also, the excessive use of gel to braid my hair (which ends up taking out my edges) quite defeats the purpose of protective styling. 

And so, when the covid-19 lockdown happened, I had no other choice but to do my own hair. Some styles worked well, like the flexi-rod sets I did briefly. Others didn’t hit the same, like the wash and gos. But in the end, I’ve only managed to stick to my go to styles: a middle-part low bun or wrapping my hair in a headscarf. 

I do love my hair and how much healthier it’s gotten, although I’m due for a treatment and haircut now. However, I can do more when it comes to styling my natural hair. I just need to treat the process of doing my hair the same way as I’d do with any other beauty routine, and finding the joy in doing so too. So, I’ve set myself three goals to achieve this year:

• Braid my own hair. It’s nice to pay for the convenience of someone else doing it for you, especially when you lack patience like I do. But I need to get out of my comfort zone and improve my braiding skills, as it’s embarrassing that I don’t even know how to cornrow my hair.
• Dye my hair (temporarily). I want to experiment with colour that isn’t permanent this spring/summer, as I feel like it will make me want to wear my hair out more. Plus, a colourful fro in the sun just looks so good!
• Perfect a twist out. I really want to find a routine that actually works for my hair length, texture. Because in the past no matter how many tutorials I followed, the result just wasn’t the same.

I simply hope that by changing my mindset and finding inspiration through Pinterest and my circle of people, it will help me fall even deeper in love with my hair.