But why?
I'm extremely unadorned - so much so that my (female) family members are quite embarrased by it. At a cousin's wedding, I had my ankara (African fabric) made in the simplest design possible. I didn't wear make up. My hair was in a puff (couldn't. Be. Asked.)
No glitter. No glitz. No glamour. I can't deal with that.Buuut, I'm growing my hair in what seems like a pursuit of the purely vain kind. And it kind of is.
When I relaxed my hair, I was always told that my hair was so long - but it barely brushed shoulder length. So I would look at people who envied my length like:
T_T What the heck is wrong with you? T_T
But when I went natural, I had a lot of opposition and one of the reasons people were so against me were the fact I would no longer have 'long hair'. So I guess, if I'm really honestwith myself, one of the reasons I'm doing this is because I'd like to have long hair, in lieu of a middle finger up at them.
I'm not going to lie - a part of me has bought into the Rapunzel complex. I'm not even sorry!
Also, this is the first opportunity I've ever had to style my own hair and decide what I want to do with it - when it was getting relaxed, I didn't get to make any of the major choices concerning my hair care. So it's also a part of the liberation aspect too.
Thirdly, I'm doing this because I want to see how far my hair will actually grow. I've always had the relaxer as an excuse, or someone else to blame for my hair breaking. But now, it's all on me. I'm kinda excited.
Fourthly, and most importantly, I'm proving this to point a to my mum. I've shown her the fotkis and youtube videos, of stunning women such as Pamera, Sera252, Mwdezi, Naturaline, and the Moptop Maven, all with similar hair textures to mine.
Her responses included:
"They must have Indian in them"
"She looks mixed race"
and finally, about to be defeated with my overwhelming evidence that it's possible to grow coiler hair to quite long lengths, she pulled a hard punch where it hurt - in my personal pride:
"Well, maybe they can do it. But your hair can't grow that long."
My response was as calm and mature as one can reasonably expect from me:
She reckons her hair will grow longer than mine with her methods, than with mine. It's not only vanity - it's now a competition. And I don't like losing.
I will not fail. Believe it!
The Naruto geeks will get the point ¬_¬
lol my mom always loved my natural hair so I loved it too. She was hugely surprised by the length of my hair though because my hair broke easily as a kid (fine tooth combs!). She naturally asked me what oil do I use.......because it always has to be oil lol. I laughed and told her I just wash, condition and braid it up for weeks without extensions. She looked at me like I was crazy lol
ReplyDeleteGrow on Girlie!
That's so lucky! Mine was always deemed 'too thick'. My mum's got that mentality that stuff makes hair grow, rather than hair...just...growing!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I hope I can do it! ^_^