Over the years of being natural I have heard, ‘my hair isn’t pretty,’ ‘my hair needs to have a curl definition,’ or ‘my texture isn’t how most people’s textures are like’ and believe it or not I was one of those people.
My name is Nkhensani and I am a natural hair enthusiast, I have been natural for three years and two months to be exact. If you were to look at my hair now you would assume that I did not go the big chop route. You would never think that at some point in my journey I hated my natural hair. Let’s rewind for a bit shall we, for the majority of my life my hair was relaxed and back then having natural hair wasn’t considered ‘cool’ then I got to high school and had a friend with the most gorgeous Afro hair, I loved everything about it so my quest to returning natural began. I contemplated whether or not it would be worth it and I considered transitioning but woke up one day ready, ready to return to my God given hair. I went through with the BIG CHOP and seeing all my relaxed long hair fall on the ground brought me so much joy and I felt refreshed and in my mind I thought it would be a smooth ride.
As my journey continued I began to feel discouraged because my hair didn’t look like other naturals hair, my textures wasn’t the same and it felt like is wasn’t growing, that bothered me because I am a hairy person. I didn’t know what to do to my hair or what products I should use and it discouraged me. I began resenting my hair and it stopped being glorious – but the day I did research and slowly started loving my hair for what it really is it began to flourish and here I am three years later with a crown of beautiful coils and kinks.
So yes, we all want to retain length, but it won’t be possible if you don’t love you hair and take care of it, stop over thinking it all, about it is time consuming to care for it, in the end it will all be worth it. I believe that it is not the products that grow your hair, I believe that your natural hair begins to grow and flourish when you truly love it no matter what. I can’t emphasize how much you should love your natural hair. Natural hair is like a flower, you love it and give it all the nurturing it needs and it will bloom.
Someone once told me that all races are given their own type of hair and black people are the only ones set apart with our type 4 hair. Doesn’t that make you feel special, that God made your hair different and added to that our gorgeous melanin. All forms of natural hair is beautiful but type 4 hair ‘I have no words for it.’ Your hair is beautiful so honor your crown, because we are all queens crowned in our kinks and coils.
EMBRACE YOUR MANE AND LOVE IT FIERCELY.
My goal is to share light and inspire you all to love your natural hair and be unapologetic about having it.
Peace & Love
Nkhensani
Natural is the way to go. hence, I opted for dreadlock six years ago. And I must say I have no regret going natural . on a side note my dreadlocks are kept hey. lol
Hey Simangele,
Natural hair is indeed a beautiful journey. I also have no regrets 🙂
six years is so long, I would love to see them.
xx