-Originally written July 31, 2010

I don’t know if “stand up for your rights” is a fitting title for this post. But whatever. I don’t have much time but I really have to say what’s on my mind right now. So..I just took out my braids this week and I honestly can’t deal with the waste of time and money that I go through (the money part is my parents but w/e) to get my a little below shoulder length hair to get my hair braided. And the drama! oh the drama! I live in the U.S.A. where braiding costs $150 do the math-that’s alot of mullah!. Thank God i usually only have to pay $80 cause I am African. But these people in the U.S. who do hair act like they are doing you a favor. They take forever, they are on the phone while they are doing it, you practically have to beg and do it according to their schedules. Which i can’t deal with this CRAP anymore. And I had a big fallout with relaxers I think 5 yrs ago.where I started from zero with my hair. I was actually in Kenya when I did the big chop and started on this braids journey that I have been on ever since.

So I have decided to go NATURAL-completely no braids nothing just maybe twists outs or twists or braiding my own natural hair. And I am sticking with it. I have found great inspiration from natural hair bloggers on you tube and even a Kenyan chic on blogspot. So i am going to do this! Some of you may ask. Why is this such a big deal? why does it like seem like a milestone to me?

Well let me explain it to you. I live in America! Where most black women and society as well consider natural hair NAPPY/disgusting. I don’t even know how my friends will take it. But I don’t care .This is not about them. This is about me. I am tired of braids. I want to embrace the REAL me! the real hair GOD gave me! And I don’t care what anyone says.

So let me explain this hair drama I have. I was sold on the idea of dreadlocks-they are easy to take care of after u get them set in. Maybe some like the one in the picture below. So I tell my parents about it. and they say yes. Later when i tell them about the appointment I made. My mom is like “dreadlocks I i didn’t know you wanted dreadlocks!”No i don’t want those kitangaris (trash) , looking like a chokora (street child) “so obviously my parents are biased about dreadlocks. My mom said she thought I was talking about twists. So after fuming with anger about my mom’s confusion, I think about twists and realize that’s a plausible idea. So I twist my hair and well it’s not that bad. So right now I just finished twisting my hair. I will untwist it tomorrow and get the twist out look above.

So on Monday I am supposed to call my Bro’s friend who does locks and explain to her my mom was confused and when she said “yes”, she really meant “hell no!”. And convince her to twist my hair. Hopefully she’ll say “yes”. If not then I might have to just go back to braids. Honestly, I will try everything so that I don’t have to go back to braids.  But school opens in 1 week so I don’t really have much time.

Image via Wikipedia

NB: Six years later and now I am still experiencing the same dilemma concerning work appropriate hair styles. Please comment if you identify with the struggle or have any tips. 🙂