My curly story
Relax, pressed, and finished! Relaxing my curl until there was NOTHING! All I heard was “her hairs too unmanageable, she’ll never be able to wear her natural curl!” I hated my hair unless it was straight or styled, permed and fried! I can still smell the scent of the perm. The tingle on my scalp from the product working it’s witchcraft!
“When all I could really think was where do I belong in this world?I don’t look like my white mom and I’m not as dark as my black dad.”Yet I had curls that are “too unmanageable!”
My hair became my identity crisis…I remember thinking the only way I could fit into any race is by relaxing my hair. So perm on! Every 8 weeks! Like clockwork. By 18 I’ve had two handfuls of stylist telling me what they thought needed to be done to my “unmanageable curly hair” situation! My hair had be fried , broken off, grown again…and yet there was this part of me who never felt like my true self
Fast forward a couple years and I’m no long relaxing by curl. “How long does it take to blow out your hair?” My response in a low toned under my breath “COUGH-three hours-COUGH” .. .my internal monologue is yelling at me at this point“Is my curl just too unmanageable?!” I must’ve spent hundreds of hours blow drying and flat ironing. I was tired and I still didn’t know where I belonged with my “unmanageable curls” It wasn’t until these very inspiring women said to me “Wear your natural curl!!!!”Again my head is spinning. Isn’t my curl too unmanageable? My curls could never be beautiful. Too frizzy. Too dry. Too coily. TOO UNMANAGEABLE!”
My life change drastically after succumbing to my curly hair. Letting it be natural. I tried every product. I tried every method and through learning my curl I learned about myself! That my hair whether curly or straight, relaxed or natural didn’t define me. That I could love my “unmanageable curls!” I could be beautiful even if my straight hair wasn’t flowing down the middle of my back. I began loving my curls and finding out who I was because of my curls! By no means are curls ever going to perfect. They won’t ever lack frizz. Sometimes I’ll wake up and hate my hair. No one curl will ever be the exact same , But I learned to fall in love with what I was told was “ unmanageable curls!”