That’s Right…What You Decide to Do with Your Hair is Your Decision
So why do people believe that I am the ultimate Nazi for Natural Hair? I mean, I keep this blog to document my Natural Hair journey and to turn negative conceptions of natural hair to the side. I never thought that keeping this blog for so long would turn me into a Non-conforming natural Hair Nazi, which I am certainly am not…but I’ve been treated that way recently and decided to sit with you and talk about it for a bit. The whole purpose for me taking time to document my journey was because at the time, there were opportunities for outlets such as the blog to be created to give readers a diverse method for research for their new and existing journeys. I never return to one source for research and I thought that my methods (whether failed or not) would be able to help other Naturals as well. I also had it in my head that I would document how beautiful natural hair was. When I first started on my journey, I had a lot of people telling me that their natural hair was not beautiful and because I had ‘good’ hair, I was able to complete the journey of going natural. I decide that even if you are not comfortable with your hair in its natural state, you should still love what naturally grows out of your head and not consider your hair which is a part of yourself as ugly.
Eventually, I started this crusade to show black women that despite what people say, under all of the makeup, weave and falseness, our natural beauty is just that—beautiful. My crusade was to show black women that despite our shade of brown, despite the texture of our hair and despite the shapes of our bodies, we are all beautifully made and we should conduct ourselves as such. I had no idea that this would turn into people saying that I am a purist and that I want people do what I say. Just because I believe in something doesn’t mean what I believe in is right. All I ever wanted was for us to practice sisterhood and collectively believe we are all beautiful despite what we do to alter our beauty. I’ve noticed during this journey, that women will use what I am doing as a way to further separate themselves. They will say, ‘well, I guess you are not my friend anymore because I relax my hair’ or ‘Kimba, I know you will hate me because I did this to my hair.’
I am writing this today to lovingly tell these people who I do not care about what you do to your hair. I want you to know what you do to yourself should be something that you do to satisfy yourself and you shouldn’t look to any one for affirmation. I will neither love you more nor hate you because of the decisions that you make. I’ve highlighted my natural tresses more than one time. A lot of Nazist Naturals shunned me for my decision, but at the end of the day, I was happy about the decision I made because it was something that I wanted to do; and deep down inside, I knew that with the highlights or not, I felt beautiful. I encourage you all to do the same. Whatever decision you make in your life, make sure it’s something that you want to do; and make sure that the decision is made to complement the beauty that you feel for yourself and not something you do to mentally make yourself feel beautiful.
In parting, I just wanted to say that I love you all, despite how you sport your look. Girl, be confident, be unique…be you…and I will be me…and as long as we do not pass unwarranted judgement toward each other, we will be moving more toward the key to sisterly love and mutual respect.
Until Next Time
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