My hair has gone through so many stages throughout my life. It's gone through a wavy stage, a straight stage, and almost everything in between. I never really knew what to do with my hair or the fact that it was curly/wavy until my junior year of high school. When I was younger if I brushed it, it would be frizzy and puffy and if I left it as is, it just looked messy.

So for a long time, I just put it up in a ponytail and called it a day. I just didn't understand my hair because all these girls around me would have either straight luscious hair or defined curls and I didn't fit either one. And just a sidetone here, I have a sister who has the most beautiful straight hair you will ever see so it was like night and day when it came to our hair. It was a little frustrating to not have straight, luscious, and tame hair. As the years went by I started to try to use products to work with my hair. I went through all types of mousses and gels but it would just leave my hair worse off.

My senior year I got a Deva haircut. And all my curly/wavy haired girls out there now that this is the craze. The Deva cut is just a haircut where they really take into consideration that you have curly hair, cut it accordingly and somehow make your hair look so amazing. Your curls/waves are left so defined that it's literally magical. I came to find that my hair isn't perfectly curly and it isn't straight either -- it's a hodgepodge of curls and waves. After that, I started seeing the potential I had never seen in my hair. With the help of the stylists there, I got products that worked with my hair and finally had the results I wanted.

Let's flash forward to this last week when I was going out with some friends. And whenever I go out I tend to just redefine my curls/waves with a curling iron just to make my hair look a little more alive. To my surprise, my curling iron had curled its last curl, it just wouldn't turn on. So, I used my sister's straightener instead. I probably hadn't straightened my hair in 2 to 3 years. And I didn't expect anything radically different to occur. But, I looked so different. And for a moment I actually preferred myself with straight hair.

It looked sleeker, I didn't look as "messy" as some people had told me before. I looked put together. So I went out, feeling confident but at the end of the day, I realized, yes, this straight hair is nice and all but my natural hair is beautiful. Yes, these waves are hard to maintain and there are days when my hair looks like a bird's nest (yes, seriously) but I can always nail the messy bun look because of it. My waves/curls make me unique and I love them.

Sometimes we can feel pressure to look a certain way by society or even by our own self but we don't need to have straight hair or maybe you just don't know how to get defined curls and you're frustrated but there are so many people online who are helping with this too (the curly hair movement, especially on YouTube, is real). So, I'm embracing my waves and curls, and to all my curly haired gals; you're curls/waves are beautiful! We have to embrace them curls because they're beautiful, sis. Whether they're defined curls, or waves, or anything in between -- it is beautiful and deserves to be shown to the world!