When Your Hair Grows...

 For some girls, hair growth is tied to beauty. It's also looked at as if it were some accomplishment. Many of us were taught that as black women, our hair would never grow. It would never get past neck length.

 Now my hair is at a nice length where I can do many styles that I really could not do before. I'm very happy with the results but I know if I would have taken care of it better, it would probably be longer. However, I'm very glad that I retained everything that I grew.

 Here is the problem. Our hair grows. It's just that with the way our hair is, it's fragile and will break. We have to learn how to retain what we grow. Protective styling is the way to do it. I keep my hair in braids for four to six months at a time and cover with lace front wigs. Then I straighten my hair and see where I've gotten. I've gone eight months without straightening. I rebraid my hair every month and keep it tucked away.

 Because I'm mostly at home, I can get away with ignoring the hell out of my hair. That's a plus but many women don't have that luxury. You have to go to work and leave your house. I can go an entire week and not feel the sun on my face. Yeah, lupus is a bitch and keeps me bedbound most of the time. But it works to my hair's advantage because I don't have to do anything to it.

I mostly just wash my hair when my arthritis says that its okay, condition it in the shower, let it air dry, rebraid and moisturize and throw a wig on it when I go somewhere. When I'm at home, I tie my hair up in a scarf and that's that. It's like that for weeks. And weeks. And weeks. 

Then I'll see something on TV or watch Black girls doing their hair on YouTube and suddenly, I want to run my fingers through my locks without them getting tangled in seconds. So I straighten my hair and am now happy with the results. I sometimes wish that my life would be different if I had more hair. DOn't get me wrong. My hair was always beautiful and thick but it was always neck length. 

I wanted longer hair. I wanted to see if I could grow my hair. I was brainwashed all my life into thinking that I had to be another race or at least of mixed race to get desirable hair. I looked on with envy at other women with long hair. 

Some of you don't consider my hair as anything special. As you twirl your waist-length hair around your fingers, know this. My hair is beautiful to me. It doesn't have to be beautiful to you. That's the brainwashing that I went through years ago, and I won't ever let it affect me again. It'll be probably four years before my hair reaches that length. But I'm not in a rush. I'm finally happy with it. That's all that matters.