When you’ve discovered yourself, success awaits
Reinvention. Evolution. Growth. All life-changing processes when you are discovering what you were put on Earth to do. I want to re-introduce The Hair Politics brand. It’s been through a lot of trials, tribulations, successes and abrupt halts but this is what THP is all about:
Self-Discovery
This whole time I thought I was supposed to be helping women manage and maintain healthy natural hair. But that was just the surface. I had to be developed on a deeper level in order to truly help the women I so desired to. I had to begin my journey to self-discovery in order to get to the root of an issue for many women like myself. And that’s been the disconnect between myself and my audience and my purpose.
See, the issue was I’d get asked alllll the freaking time what I do with my hair, what suggestions I have for products or regimens, how do I style my hair, what did use in my hair today, etc… a secret sauce basically for how my hair is long and pretty healthy. I struggled to answer this for them and I couldn’t figure out why.
I’d research on the questions they’d ask me and I’d learn A LOT from other naturals who have the same problems. This is one of the reasons I began my hair podcast and I interview different naturals with various hair types and textures to get a different perspective on how others care for their natural hair.
But the truth is…I really don’t do much with my hair. I just love on it. And I truly believe this is the secret sauce. That’s why I struggled to answer these women and tried to rely on “research” and “studies”… a lot of it is how you see yourself. Do you see yourself beautifully and wonderfully made?
I’d look at some of these naturals’ hair and see gorgeousness, but that’s not what they saw. That’s a flaw our community has to fix. I don’t know the cause of everyone’s insecurity. Maybe society’s subliminal (and not so subliminal) messages, or the words of family members or spouses. Despite this, it’s important to understand you should have nothing to compare yourself to. You are the only you and that’s an advantage against every other person on the planet! Do you understand how special that is?? You must discover your power! You must discover the true reason you get out of bed each morning and after that look in the mirror and realize this day was made for YOU. You do this each day, and ask God for guidance, you are going to discover why you were put on this earth and why your hair looks the way it does. And that’s when you’re really going to fall in love.
Self-Love
I think it’s important to share my hair journey and how I’m so able to accept how my hair is naturally because it was not always this way. My father was my unexpectedly appointed hairstylist when his wife, my mother lost her battle with breast cancer. Needless to say a Black man, 6-year-old Black girl, and untamed hair spelled chaos. BUT I have to give it to the man…he learned and had those four twists on POINT haha! Eventually of course I grew up and rocked natural braids for a while but I got my first relaxer in middle school. And I loved it! I felt like I had so much freedom from always having to braid or twist my hair up.
Fast-forward to my senior year of high school and my hair was just about over it. By that point I also had permanent color on top of the consistent relaxers every couple months. But would you believe that I still had no clue how to take care of my hair!? The only thing I knew how to do was grab a flat iron. I relied on those stylists every 4-6 weeks and was poking my dad for the money to revive my hair each time (I’m sure he’s happy he doesn’t have to pay to get my hair done anymore). And I didn’t realize how much my lack of education would hinder me until I left my city (Charlotte, NC btw) to attend college because my stylist was almost 2 hours away. I was not making that trip. So one day, I got to thinking…my head looks and feels so bad something has to give. And I was noticing all the ladies who were beginning to go natural and do the big chop, it was so refreshing to see. I wanted that. It made me feel like a monumental change was happening. I decided I was going to stop the relaxers and permanent color cold turkey and learn my natural hair. And I never went back to see the stylist who did my relaxed hair for years.
Now, my hair grew like wildfire. And I realized one beauty of finding yourself is knowing that everyone’s journey is different. Many women turned to relaxers because it was easier to manage but it turned out to be the opposite for me. It really was a natural process and I was loving the transition. Of course I had to do research to see what could work for me and what type of textures I had but clearly my hair needed the change and embraced it fully. I stopped fighting it and just let her do her thing.
I tell you my story to hopefully encourage you to believe that letting the natural process take place is sooo much easier. You lose frustration that comes from the pushback of what’s unnatural and you gain confidence in what’s been inside you all along.
So that’s what The Hair Politics is all about! We are governing our alignment in our self-discovery, self-love and natural hair journey. You’ll see many hair articles as well as spiritual entries. Annnnd occasionally I’ll even encourage you to take a puff of my blunt on my weekly news podcast The Chronicles. If all that’s cool with you, let’s stay connected!
Get updates to your inbox on all new articles, podcasts and events!