Scarlet Xianne: I AM NOT MY HAIR?

Monday 13 August 2012

I AM NOT MY HAIR?

Natural......the first time

Yeah, I’m going natural……….with my hair. I started to get tired of relaxed hair in 2010. Oh, my relaxed hair was fine. I trimmed it often, cut it even. In fact, the scissors was my friend. But, looking at it just didn’t bring me satisfaction. I would take a look at my hair while it’s being done in the salon and say ‘I want to cut my hair’. My hair stylist would look at me with surprise. ‘Don’t cut it o’, she would say. She would tell me my hair was long, full and the colour was okay. Why did I want to cut it? I was tired of it, that’s why. My inner self no longer agreed with the hair. You know, I’d see people with great relaxed hair and think to myself how good it looked on the person but not want it for myself. Then, I would see another person with natural, unrelaxed hair and almost swoon. I would try so hard not to stare. I would wish I had hair like that. So, I started the journey to acquiring hair like that. I put away relaxer. For almost a year I did not put relaxer in my hair. I gr

If I had to choose a trade mark hair do,it would be this!

ew out my natural hair while fixing and braiding, then I cut off the relaxed part. Oh my happiness, when I could finally wear my hair natural, the way it grew out of my scalp. It was not even hard to manage. Moisturiser was the key. I wore my hair in a banded afro and I was proud of it. But, my happiness was short-lived. Law School came calling. I was due for Law School that year and as I’d been told, the first Law dinner was held a few weeks after resumption. What would I do with my hair? My friends and mum started to ask me. How was I going to look at the famous dinner with my hair? Even as I considered my options, I knew I did not want to go back to straight hair. My stylist suggested I blew out my hair with Sporting Waves Relaxer. However, after plenty of thought I decided to settle for ‘Jerry Curls’. Yes, you heard me. The first relaxer application did not go well. Few minutes after the relaxer was applied, my head was on fire. I just couldn’t take it. The relaxer had to be washed off after barely five minutes but it managed to straighten my hair some. However, I could not get the Jerry curl that I wanted. Instead, I got the straight hair I did not want!

I would later get it right though. That was in Law School, before the dinner. I totally rocked the Jerry. I got stares wherever I went in School. People wanted to know if it was my hair. Girls were coming to me to find out what I did to my hair. Outside School, people asked me if I was mixed race. Well, Jerry curl was good, while it lasted. I went back to straightening relaxer when I could no longer find my Proline Cold Waves Relaxer. I would have stopped retouching right then, but the third Law Dinner ( Call to Bar Dinner) came calling. Another ‘no weaves or braids’ event.

Finally, I have stopped relaxer applications. This is my seventh month without retouching. This stage is called the Transition Stage and it’s tough but it’s either this or nothing else. I’ve got a long way to go before I become J’odie but, I’ll get there.Well, am I my hair? One thing I know is, it's one of the ways through which I express myself.