New Growth

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I love looking at postings of women who have chronicled their hair growth by taking photos of their hair from one month to the next.  "The Natural Hair Journey" seems to make for really good reading as long as you can see them locks hitting a new goal post!  TWA, Chin Length, Shoulder Length, Arm Pit Length, Bra Strap Length.....git it gurl!  Mark those milestones!  It can get a bit obsessive in some cases, but I'm no hater...if that is what keeps you motivated to care for the Crown, then do so.  My hair type doesn't grow down, it grows OUT!  So, the call to mark my progress isn't really that strong. Besides, my "Blonde Ambitions" keep me in my color bottle...my new growth is easy to see without a full stretch out.  Dark roots = yep, she's still growing...back to twisting!  But, there is a Spiritual Stretch Out that I do like to chronicle. No photos...but I definitely take a picture in my heart.

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Ah, yes.  YAAAASSSS!!  There comes that moment when you stretch it out.  You know what I mean?  Just breathe for a second and take a quick look around you to assess where you are.  It's kind of a second of living in the "Hyper-Present".  I call it that because it seems as if I am completely receptive to all that is happing around me in that moment.  I can actually feel my life flowing through me rather than happening to me! It doesn't happen often enough with me because I am usually doing battle with all of the mental beasts that keep me either analyzing the past or designing the future.  Nevertheless, the moments do come when I clear my headspace and allow for the Hyper-Present.  And in that moment I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude and resolution.  I am complete.  I am whole.  I am at rest with all that was and all that will be.  I am fully aware.  

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"Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." 

 Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV

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I love how this little passage makes it so obvious how pleasant it is to dwell in your Hyper-Present.  God Himself is saying to His people, "HEY! Don't waste time on that old stuff..and don't worry about what's ahead...I've got that.  Open up your mind and heart to see what I am doing around you right now!  Don't you feel it?!"   I dig that.  I completely dig a God who is big enough to suspend the before and after photos so that we can completely focus on the new growth of NOW.  Breathing it in with joy and thankfulness.  Spilling it over to infect those in our circle of influence.  Surely, the time spent alone with Him is designed to do just that: Hyper-Present us into His Hyper-Presence.  Yes....I can fee the growth.  No selfie necessary.

Color Me Natural!

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So, the new year rolled in and as usual I was feeling the urge to splurge.....ON HAIR COLOR!!!  Those who know me well also know that in my relaxer days, the one thing that remained constant in my life was my love affair with a color bottle.  From jet black to chestnut brown to romantic auburn to raging red to bubbly blonde....no shade was off limits!  Highlights, lowlights or full on color swap...I really never had an issue with giving something new a try.  Especially as the seasons would change, I would get the overwhelming drive to make a change with them.  It sort of became a signature for me...color.

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After my conversion to growin' the 'fro, I was much more focused on figuring out how to care for this new life force that had taken over my head!!  But once I had acheived some length (or in my case VOLUME), I decided that I wanted to try to bring some color back to my life.  My off-black tresses didn't really express who I was, in my opinion.  So, it was time for phase two of my experiment.

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After trying henna (and loving it) I decided that I wanted more color than what pure henna over black hair would give me.  The color bottle was CALLING!  I had made up my mind on it, but I found it facinating what other Naturalistas had to say about whether a Natural who picks up a bottle of Lightest Blonde is really staying true to the game!  Some believed that the entire point of being natural was to allow whatever was on your head simply "be"....color included.  The discussions got a bit heated here and there.  It is really interesting to me the ways we will find to draw lines amongst ourselves...even when we don't have to!

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~by Enrico Donati~

 

I Corinthians 12:12-13 " For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit."

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Just do you!  The sooner you get to it the better!  There is no carbon copy way to be yourself.  There is no formula.  One of the biggest criticisms of Christianity is that we are brainwashed robots who have sold our identities to claim a Savior....WHAT?!  That is SO off base!  On the contrary, it is the freedom that Christ gives that brings out the best and the brightest in our personalities.  It allows us to blossom into who we were always meant to be.  In the same way, going natural should release you.  It should give you a freedom and confidence in who you are...who you were always meant to be!  This can be interpreted in twists, locs, braids, 'fros, updos, blowouts, threading...and yes, COLOR!  As long as the statement is true to you, it can bring vibrancy and life everywhere you walk.

Rep yo' Frat!

Harlem by XSUDEZ

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When you go natural after spending years relaxing your hair, you join a somewhat sacred sorority!  I didn't realize that I had even been initiated until the first time I passed a fellow "Big Chop" whom I didn't know and she gave me a knowing smile and polite head nod.  I instinctively did the same...what is that?  A secret handshake?!  It isn't something you have to talk about with EVERY natural sister you meet...its this silent understanding that behind that new strut brimming with self-assured confidence there is a vanity full of shea butter, aloe juice, miscellaneous conditioners and random oils that are being mixed and matched to DEATH searching for the magic combo to grow the fro!!  Too much!! I just want to get everyone letter jackets and learn a step routine! LOL!!  All the members of Nu Phi Lambda (Natural for Life) throw your sign in the air! ROFLMBO!!

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Quintessence by Wendy Nikolle'

Psalm 133:1 "Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!"

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Sisters of all shades don't always get along like we should.  It's like Spike Lee's "School Daze".... but without all the cool musical numbers.  Personally, I don't want to hear anything about racism from any of us until we can treat each other with a little more respect.  Affirming our different shapes and hues creates an environment of security that allows us all to blossom in a healthy way.  We are all more beautiful when the beauty is reflected off of each other.  There is no skin too dark or too light, no hair too silky or woolly and no body too lean or thick that we cannot admire and encourage each other in our efforts to bring out our best "selves".  I think that's what the Master Artist had in mind when he pulled the colors from the sun and earth and painted his children.  After all...when the letter jacket goes on, aren't we suddenly all wearing the same colors?

Getting closer to me...

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There were several issues I had to settle before I did "The Big Chop"! 
Issue Number One: "How do I prep myself for the cultural kickback on letting go of my long locks of relaxed hair?" 

My relaxer was installed every 4-6 weeks by my Dominican sisters (whom I still fiercely believe are the baddest chicks on the PLANET for a blow out!).  Growing my hair has never been an issue and I think that is because I never obsessed over it.  My philosophy has always been that hair just grows.  So, let it do its thing and if you don't like how its looking, get a bossy hair cut! Unfortunately, I was painfully aware that one of the features that was always casually mentioned in my physical description by others was that my hair (paired with my skin tone) make me look like a Dominican! Hmmm.  Now, I know that was supposed to be a compliment.  But that is what made me think the most.  Why would that be a compliment? Why would it never be a compliment to say how someone's hair makes them look like a Black girl?  Was the concept of just having typical (if there is such a thing) Black hair social aesthetic suicide?  Would the same people who showered me with vain glory and compliments do so if my hair was just...me?

There was something disturbing the heart of me when it came to my hair that I just couldn't pinpoint.  This coming from a chick who has rocked Jheri Curls, Leisure Curls, Wave Nouveau, and relaxers!  This coming from a chick who grew her hair down past her shoulder blades and then cut it a la Toni Braxton!  Let's not even start on hair color!!! I think that even as a child I knew something was wrong with needing a "touch up" to be myself.  Now, just to be clear, I don't have a problem with other girls rocking their relaxers....do you! But that is my point...it was never me.  It was a me that was chosen for me at a young age and that I was being CONSTANTLY told by society (yes, I mean Black folks!) made me pretty!  And the worst part of it is that I did NOT naturally possess the silky, open curls that would (in the opinion of the same Black folks!) justify my letting go of processing my hair.  I felt like I was trapped in a very dysfunctional cycle and my own people were perpetuating it!  The final straw was when my 4 yr. old daughter let me know in no uncertain terms that she wanted long, beautiful hair like her FILIPINA classmate!  She then buried me with the observation that her hair was not pretty like my hair and she wanted to make her hair like mine! Checkmate.

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Romans 12:2  "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Now this verse is talking about the renewing of your mind by the acceptance of Jesus Christ's love and redemption!  However, it is profound that the principle applies to every aspect of your life if you are ever to be 100% Natural from the inside out.  It does not say be transformed that you will be more acceptable to man.  Or in the case of we the Sisterhood, men!  It says transforming the mind will help us to discern what is good and acceptable and perfect in God's sight.  Basically, transformation allows you to be able to blossom into the being that He, the Master Artist, had in mind when carving you in your mother's womb.  Some may say that God is not concerned with the outside appearance of us.  And to some degree that is true.  But I find it hard pressed to believe that a God who created such a vast variety of flowers, birds, butterflies and other colorful, graceful, awe striking things would not find simple pleasure in His ULTIMATE creation (yes, that would be YOU!) intelligently and intentionally expressing unashamed satisfaction with the vessel in which he planted our souls! 

Solution to Issue Number One: "Transform my mind!"