For my first blog, I'm going to basically explain why I started blogging and also start with my first rant! A little introduction is necessary. I'm a 20 year old law student at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus. I'm in my final year and I decided that I should make a big change in my life. I tried piercings and even though I still have them they are sort of additional and not a change to the core me. I can take them out and let them close up and eventually people will forget I had them. Then again I haven't tried a facial piercing :o (another time for that.) Anyways I decided that I was going to lock my hair and document the process.
I started transitioning (big word for going au naturel and going cold turkey off the cream crack) in my second semester in my first year. I started braiding my hair, using the afro kinky braids which I felt suited me (and many people agreed) most. When I went home that summer I cut all of the straightened ends off. Most had broken off already leaving my natural hair but the more resilient ones had to go down with a pair of scissors. I'm not going to demoniae perming your hair. The ease of handling it to leave the house was ah-mazing, and it works really well for people who take really good care of their hair. Well, my hair just didn't like the creamy crack. I had my ups and (mostly) downs but it was an experience.
I've decided to go back to my nappy days. The days when my hair was so thick, my mother (and grandmother and aunt and father) and I would fight to get it to stay in a way that wouldn't make me look like a chimney sweep.I missed those days, to an extent, not the brawls and showdowns to wash, comb, grease, brush, braid or plait my hair, but the days when my hair was so thick I could grab a handful and be like "Mine! Mine! Alll Mine! bahahahahha". Ahem. Anyways, my hair has been growing like how it grew when I was younger. They say your hair texture is supposed to change once you have permed your hair then transitioned but really and truly, it's still thick, still hard, still grows fast.
My first rant is how I take care (or lack thereof) my hair. Right now, I am swearing by the Jamaica Mango & Lime Hair Products . Its like a bottled oasis for my hair. Love the tingle shampoo and the tingle GREASE and the protein cholesterol conditioner and all that jazz. I have seen many a natural hair blog demonising grease and products with mineral oil; "Mineral oil is bad!", "Petroleum locks moisture out of your hair!" and so on. I'm not going to deny any scientific evidence (once I get some) to support the above claims. My main argument to the above is that those products were the ones that I was using on my hair before I started perming it. And my hair was, thick and luscious and moisturized. I put GREASE on my scalp, never on my hair, and whatever minerals and blah blah were in it worked its way through to my entire hair shaft and gave me soft, comb-able, manageable hair. I will swear by those products till I am hoarse and what I think all the blogs about hair care fail to recognize that what's good for one isn't necessarily good for all. Yes, there are people whose hair will react badly to the mineral oil or petroleum or whatever, but my hair drinks it up and stays moisturized. (my hair drinks everything by the way - its like a freaky super absorbent cloth. Shamwow anyone?)
Anywho, that's basically the end of my first rant. Everyone who is natural please stop demonising how other people take care of their hair. stop passing judgement. What's good for you will not necessarily be good for me and vice versa.
Oh, one more thing. My blog isn't going to be entirely about hair, so not to worry. I'll rant about anything that comes to mind as soon as I get inspiration to do so.
Peace, love and watermelon!
Nneka
