I am taking a step into a new oasis that is quite daunting for me and is a new experience for my own self-image as well as my tresses. I posted back in February the article Hairnorexic and discussed my personal issues with my own hair. Since I was about 19, I have worn weaves in my hair. It started with synthetic hair that I used with bonding glue. That was a major mistake, since bonding glue has a bad reputation of taking your hair out if you do not remove it properly. I always got stuck with stylists who never removed it correctly and the result was bald spots on the sides of my head. It was horrible! However, I grew up and wisdom was imparted to me by fellow girlfriends that I should seek a sow-in as opposed to bonded hair glue on my scalp and locks.
I followed their advice and could not be more grateful! The sow-in had the opposite effect and my hair grew substantially. I've been wearing sow-ins now for the last 6 years and my hair is grateful to me for it. A sow-in for those reading who do not know--is when your hair is braided and the stylist takes a needle and thread and sows the tracks of the weave into your braided hair. The result is the photo that you see on my Creator link as well as the photo above. I will be blunt and completely honest with all of you, I do not take care of my hair like I should. I barely wrap my hair at night with a silk scarf and I'm constantly styling it with a curling or flat iron. My hair is also inundated with product in it from gels, to creams, to mousse.
I also live in a city where it is a predominantly Caucasian town and there are only three black beauty supply stores in the whole city. Their quality of weaves are sub-par and as a result, I tend to get weaves that shed constantly and decreases in value of their texture over a relatively short period of time. The weave starts off one week as naturally free-flowing thick human hair to stringy-scraggly Barbie doll hair. Remy is allegedly the premium brand of hair for weaves, but now there are so many variations of weaves that use the Remy name, I don't know which one is the higher quality from that of the lower quality.
I had a girlfriend at work walk up to me at my desk and I stopped what I was doing in awe of her appearance. She had these beautiful long box braids that came past her shoulders and looked amazing! The ends unraveled a bit which I liked. After seeing her braids I decided to make it up in my mind to go for it and wear braids this summer!
I've never worn braids in my entire life. I've always been a relaxer, straight hair, European-tressed kind of girl. It probably speaks to a whole host of issues regarding my self-image which I would love to blog about later--but in the meantime, I must say that I never thought I would look attractive wearing braids. I thought to myself---well braids are not really my thing, I can only see girls with a stylish appearance wearing braids, and even dare I say---I once thought at a very immature age that braids looked "too ethnic" for me.
Yes, I thought all of those things at one point in my life, and now at the ripe old age of 32, I'm starting to come to terms with my self-identity and who I really am as an independent self-sufficient Black woman. I'll be honest, I'm scared and nervous and I'm hoping that the end result of my hair braiding 7 hour journey tomorrow will result in a beautiful hairstyle. I plan to vlog about it on VYou so all of you can see it. Wish me luck! I'm a nervous nelly over here, but I know that stepping out into the unknown is certainly a challenge worth taking. I refuse to feel regret.
My friend who is a guy, posted an article on Carol's Daughter media website about his own "mansistion" from wearing dreadlocks for 13 years to finally cutting his own hair. He's sort have gone in the opposite direction of myself, yet we are facing the same challenges of "letting go". Take a look at what he has to say about his own experience:
http://www.transitioningmovement.com/Default.aspx?CN=B4CB798FF7FD
