I have been rocking natural hair for a little over four years now and I will be the first one to admit that I am the world’s laziest natural. I have 4c hair, which means that my curls are tight and coily in its natural state. Most times, my hair is either in a protective style like braids or a weave, or in my go to style: a huge puff. I would love to branch out and try no things with my hair, but sometimes I just feel discouraged. I have tried everything from braid outs to twist outs to bantu knots and I haven’t seemed to find the style or the products that work well with my hair texture. I know practice makes perfect, but when a style doesn’t work out after I spent so much time on it, it makes me want to give up and stick with what I always do with my hair.

Although I am four years in to being natural and I still get frustrated with my hair, I am thankful that I have made it this far. There was a point in time where I was ashamed to wear my natural hair. When I was in high school, there were very few black girls who wore their natural hair. Everyone either had straight, relaxed hair or a weave. So when I would go to school with my little puff on the top of my head, I would sometimes feel self-conscious because my hair looked short (shrinkage is REAL) and was kinky and curly while all the other girls had straight, silky hair down their backs. Now, as a freshman in college at the illustrious Spelman College, I am constantly by beautiful black girls who wear their natural hair proudly. Being in an environment with so many girls who are natural has sparked something in me. It makes me realize that I should take pride in the hair that God gave me. For so long, I was dependent on altering my hair in order to look someone else, but I can now see the beauty in my beautiful, coily, 4c hair.All I need to do know is learn how to work with what I got. Sometimes I watch a lot of natural hair videos on YouTube and find myself wishing I had a different curl pattern because I think it would be easier to manage. While I'm tired of doing the same old thing with my hair, I know I won't get anywhere by just sitting and comlaining about it, I just need to learn to be persistent and patient with my hair and everything will eventually fall into place.