Sneak Peek!!

Here is a sneak peek from the M. Daniels Textiles Serengeti Collection. So excited! 

Messy Hair, Don't Care

Some would call it a movement and I'm not sure what it is. I know for myself, over the past five years, I have embraced my natural hair as many other curly headed people have.  It didn't start out as some profound statement or public declaration. I was pregnant with my first child and was very conscious about what I put into my body, even by way of my scalp. Perming or relaxing my hair had been my way of life for 15 years, but the idea that somehow continuing to do so could harm my baby in any way was enough to get me to stop. 

So I began to let my perm grow out. My transition was anything but easy, however I stuck with it.  I got my hair washed and blown out instead and I began to fall in love with my natural hair. I loved the texture when it was wet. The curly frizzy strands seduced me. And when my hair was blown straight it had so much more body.  It was beautiful. My routine became to get it blown out every two weeks but I longed to wear it natural. No heat natural. Wild and free natural. This was much harder to achieve. 

Once again, my choice to go no heat natural wasn't very planned or deliberate. I was happy with my blowouts and not very hopeful about achieving natural styles sans heat. Quite content with my hair blown straight I continued that routine until one humid and brutal summer. Every time I got my hair blown out it would shrink or revert in a couple days because of the heat and humidity. And paying $40 for my hair, every week at this point, was more than I wanted to spend. So I began to explore no heat styles. 

This is where ish got real. I had many days of epic hair fails. Days I looked like a 12 year old and not 30. I had to learn my hair all over again. What products to use, which ones would work, and what hair regimen was going to work for me. Any natural will go through the product junkie phase. She has too. She's searching for the magic potion that's going to make her hair do what she wants. I can't say that I have found that but I think me and my hair have an understanding. There are days when it performs how I'd like but then there are days that I don't know what's going on up there. And I've come to accept that THIS IS JUST MY HAIR. It's a natural hair characteristic. It is versatile, unpredictable, temperamental, vulnerable, susceptible to change, easily impacted by climate, and mine. 

Regardless of what my hair is doing, I own it! (Some days more than others-lol) But I accept my hair which is part of accepting myself. I am black and  I have black hair. Whoever doesn't like it doesn't matter. For so long I was conditioned to believe that unkempt hair was unprofessional or even offensive. It should be tamed, controlled, straight, and neat. And those characteristics are fine if they are my choice and not imposed or implied. But the idea that anything outside of that is unacceptable is, well unacceptable. 

Now that I have a daughter, I want her to embrace her hair too. She's a toddler and I recently cut her hair into an Afro. Once again, not because I was making some grand statement. It started as a trim to even out her hair that had broken and become uneven due to a scalp condition. After cutting it, I just thought she looked absolutely adorable. I threw a bow or a headband in her curly frizzies and let her rock and I loved it! I even started questioning why I had pulled and styled her hair so vehemently up to this point. Because even though I embraced my hair, I was still trapped in the mindset that her hair must be neat, styled and controlled. It's the "must" that's the problem. 

I enjoy the fact that we share a mother and daughter bond that extends to our hair. She can learn to love herself, her hair, as is, because she can relate to her mommy. Mommy wears twists and braids and Afros too. If I was all weaved out I think it would be harder for her to embrace (not saying there is anything wrong with straight or faux tresses). It's like do as I say,not as I do. If mommy says my hair is beautiful as is, and she believes it, why doesn't she wear her hair that way. It's about credibility I suppose. 

So do I get offended when someone says,"when you gonna do her hair?" Yes! This whole hair obsession with Blue Ivy is infuriating. She is a baby. A black baby. With black hair. Period! It's like badgering someone about not covering their freckles or encouraging a visit to the tanning salon because their paleness is too off-putting. It's ridiculous. 

Today I embrace me and I EMBRACE MESSY HAIR.