Article by: Karielle S. Saffron
My hair remained natural up to that point as I was about to enter high school. Natural? Yep, and in my case that was some long hair ,which was some form of kinky but yet curly at the same time. My mom told me, “..baby, we’ll soon need to do something with your hair…” It was around this time that we decided to put some chemicals in my hair to make it just a bit straighter. Woah!!! As I remember, mum saying that it was easier and a bit more manageable and now I would be able to do my own hair. Guess what – I’d just put it in a pony tail and roll. This was easy for sure and fun to do at first, until some of my classmates would comment on how my hair isn’t done properly. Gosh!!! This did make me feel insecure.
You see, my hair was thick and lenghty and, therefore any treatment would take a bit longer to go from root to tips. In there I would sometimes scratch my scalp, and this is a no-no as you treat your hair as this causes burns and irritation on your scalp while processing your hair. My hair dresser at the time would have to wash out the hair treatment chemicals before they got time to fully work.
In my later teen years, my love of my own hair started to fade away. Many times I was jealous of my best friend at the time because her hair was natural and her curls were amazing. Her hair looked like it was so well taken care of – can you hear the jealousy? and Oh my gosh – her hair was really soft.
So what’s wrong with mine? Why isn’t mine behaving the way that it should? Imagine my emotional battle with my hair at times.
The plot got a bit more tricky too, as I was now just only realising that in my own community persons liked or NOT, because of your hair? Wait – What? Imagine finding out in your teens, that some persons in your own circle favored soft loose curly hair and called it “good hair”.
But come on! I didn’t choose my hair…
This was very bizarre for me and started to push negative thoughts and feeling that those who had tighter curls and coils in their hair had bad hair. I started wishing then that I had looser curls in my hair.
I toughend up, I was not going to be measured by my hair. Here’s why! – there were some amazing persons who then started to tell me that they wish that they had my hair. Huh! Are you sure? *Chuckle*
You should have seen me – I was – Owning My Own Hair. As a young adult now I was stepping like there was no other. During the Covid shutdown, I decided to let my hair grow even more. This babe was not about to cut her hair short. Nope not a bit of that, I made my decision and let my hair grow and just trimmed very lightly around the ends. Gosh did my hair grow and was on and popping.
Even today I am still actuallly still learning my hair. Here’s what I found out:
#1 – Love Your Hair. Do not speak negatively to your hair, because a hair-style didn’t come out exactly the way that you wanted. Positive affirmations are quite powerful and should be used.
#2 – Always, always spray your hair with water or some kind of moisture replacement formula. This is great to help with detangling or if you notice that your hair is dry. Listen guys – using some hair cream has given my hair such a healthy glow. Just remember that no matter what type of curly hair you may have, your hair can get thirsty and you’ll need to feed it.
#3 – Gently section your hair if and when you need to comb it out. This helps reduce breakage and also aids in handling your hair as you may want to twist or such like.
When combing your hair – start from the ends and head towards the root gently. This makes it less painful and you are also able to get through a bit faster too.
#4 – Moisturising Oil. This is great for your scalp. I actually am working on this myself too. It helps to keep the roots of the hair strong and gives an added shine to your hair. However your scalp and hair needs this moisturised base, and therefore washing and shampooing too often (daily or ever other day) can cause the hair to become dry and brittle. I normally do this once or twice a week.
Article submitted by – Karielle S. Saffron. Karielle, is enjoying her youth on the Caribbean Island of Barbados and loves to read, sing and write her thoughts with her own creative expression.
