I always admired black women with healthy natural hair and longed for that so I stopped the perms and just had braids, however, this was damaging my hairline.
An opportunity came to have sister locks when I was in Ghana and although it was not within my comfort zone, the thought of wearing my natural hair was extremely attractive.
It was a huge difference to how I wore my hair, which was often full and bouncy with the help of extensions and now short and scalpy. A colleague at work described it as “like stubs” , with another asking why I would want to walk around with my hair like that, but it felt so good to be extensions free. The vision I had for a full head of healthy natural hair was motivating!
To cut a long story short, my hair has thrived over the 13 plus years since I went natural. There were challenges at the early stage, as I did not know how to care for new locks resulting in a lot of unravelling. There was an occasion when I had to sit for a 12 hour correction by my consultant back in the UK, broken up over 2 days.
I get so many compliments with some doubting that this hair is all mine. Many have been inspired and gone on to lock their hair having watched my journey.
We do have good hair but need to know how to nurture and care for it . I wear mine with pride, reflecting my roots! Liberating!