My mother had three brown skinned, very curly headed girls. In fact, when you'd ask her how many children she had, she'd say three. Then you would see her start signing the cross across her forehead and chest in a "heaven help us" motion. I'm not even sure she'd been to a Catholic church as we were Seventh Day Adventist.
I remember my two sisters and I as little ladies lining up at the corner of my mom's bathroom waiting for our turn to be pressed out and have our edges gelled down before leaving the house. In all of these early memories, my hair is relaxed and I had never seen my natural curl patter. In other words, the structure of my hair was chemically altered to be straight or what would be considered more manageable.
I learned how to wash and straighten my own hair in high school. While I managed to keep my edges, I ultimately destroyed my hair trying to maintain the straightened look and putting a flat iron on 120 degrees to my head every day.
Three years ago, I decided to start the slow transition from relaxed to natural and learned a lot along the way. Here are three things natural haired girls know to be true.
1. Wash day means the whole day.
For those with natural hair, wash day is so much more than a day and kind of like a ritual. All plans have been cancelled and communication will be held via phone or text message. There will be no Facetime, Snapchat or Vine as we spend the day gobbled and gooked in shampoo's, oils, and countless other products. As much as we'd like to wash and go, even that's a process.
2. A bad twist out is a bad day.
A twist out is always an easy go-to for full and uniform curls. Simply braid the hair, put on a bonnet and when you wake up in the morning, unravel and be beautiful. Unfortunately, that's not always how it works out. Sometimes you spend all night twisting and braiding and going to bed looking like Celie from 'The Color Purple,' only to wake up looking like boxing promoter Don King.
3. You are sometimes a walking petting zoo.
A good feeling is knowing your hair is sitting cloud and crown like on your head. A not good feeling is a stranger inserting all five fingers into said cloud without permission or so much as a "Can I touch it?" Unfortunately, many natural haired girls have been there and done that. The good thing is that come wash day, you can rinse away all the stranger danger residue like the GOAT you are.
Caring for natural hair has its up and downs but on the day after wash day, when your twist out comes at just right and no one touches it to disturb a curl, you realize it's all worth it.
