hair.

i thought about this in part because while i was reading on salon.com i learned that white people apparently have just realized that black women have a shitload of hair issues. and chris rock has a new documentary out about black women's hair all brought about by his daughter asking him why she didn't have "good" hair.
it's always fun explaining black people hair to white people. [sarcasm. i love when people marvel when it's actually soft.]


and i decided to stop relaxing my hair about 2 months ago.

my mom braided or pressed my hair up until i was about 11, then she got tired of doing it so often and had it relaxed to save time and effort. if i had a say in the matter i probably would never have gotten one. but i have hair issues just like everyone else. i feel like most "regular" black chicks if they don't want straight hair [i don't] they want the stereotypical "mixed" girl curly hair [i saw stereotypical because i've seen some pretty nappy headed mixed girls] that they can flat iron whenever they want. you know, the "good" hair. i loathe that term so much. if you hair is healthy and strong it's good, period.

but i really hated relaxers and only kept getting them to maintain my hair length. before i cut my hair almost 2 years ago, for the most part i had what is considered to be long hair for a black girl [since most people assume that black women's hair doesn't grow]
example -->

i've gotten over the feeling that i need to have longer hair to feel attractive. i've been steadily cutting my hair since that haircut and don't mind it being shorter anymore. and i love the natural texture of my hair. i like to play with it when it grows and i would loathe having to part with it when it was time to get a touch up. so a few months ago when i was playing in it and looking at photos of muhsinah with her awesome hair, i thought why the fuck am i still doing this to myself when i hate it? and i thought about graduating and moving and having to find somewhere to get it done and blahblahblah. i already use all natural hair products anyway so it's not like i'd have to find all new stuff and i stopped blowdrying and flatironing it quite some time ago so this would be the next logical step.

it was more of a pragmatic decision really. that and permed hair kind of sucks. it's only fun right after you get the relaxer and after that it doesn't really work right.

i'm not going to become some granola-munching, incense-waving, warning about the dangers of the creamy crack and shunning the lye. i hate those broads.

i just didn't want to get anymore relaxers. but that simple decision has prompted questions of why the hell would i want to do that. and still having the hair issues that i have, i really don't feel comfortable just chopping it off especially since i have a peanut shaped head. an acquaintance suggested i just shave it off like she did but she's tall and statuesque, me? not so much. so i'm just going to keep it in braids until about december and cutting it more in between getting them redone.

besides. everyone is doing it!


damn this is long.
congrats if you actually read all this