For some reason, our society seems to associate a woman’s beauty with the length of her hair. Long, silky, and straight seem to be the ultimate goals of most women. So what happens when you cut your hair? Are you suddenly transformed into this new less beautiful version of yourself?
There are so many women out there who desperately want to go natural, but are afraid of what they will look like during the “ugly stage.” There are even more women who are already natural, but flat iron their hair everyday to hide their true texture. We are wasting too much time worrying about what someone else may think of our hair choices.
Let’s just all agree to throw this phrase in the garbage. Anyone (male or female) that decides to set out on a natural hair journey should not start off with this very negative mindset. There are awesome advantages to each stage of growing your hair. Appreciate each stage because before you know it, Mother Nature will kick you straight into your next level of growth. There are some styles that you will be able to achieve with a TWA that are a no-go with bra-strap length hair. A little bit of patience goes a long way whenaccepting your hair at every stage and phase.
I will be the first one to admit that I used to be addicted to flat-ironing my hair. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this method of styling your hair, there is an issue to address when you are doing it to hide. Obsessively flat-ironing is the best and fastest way to successfully break off your hair. So while you are beating and heating your curls into a flat submission, you are simultaneously damaging your strands.
• The Choice- Healthy and Long vs. Unhealthy and Long:
You see it all the time, women with thin unhealthy long hair. For some, perms and flat-irons cause minimal damage. But for many, you will immediately notice a difference in the thickness of your hair once you stop damaging it with chemicals and heat. I didn’t even realize my edges were thinning out until months after my last perm, which is when my hair resumed its natural thickness.
When I decided to stop using perms I figured I would just transition forever. As my natural texture began to make its appearance I would quickly grab my flat iron and straighten it. In my many attempts to flat iron my hair, I actually broke off a lot of strands at that fragile point where natural meets relaxed. So I was walking around swinging my mid-back length hair like it was the cutest thing ever, when in reality my relaxed ends were dried and tired. The strands that made it through the heat beating were eventually broken off when I used my fine tooth comb every morning.
I looked at my daughter’s thick curly hair and wondered why I was hanging on for dear life to those few raggedy strands of long hair. Who was I trying to impress? That’s when I decided to say good-bye to my length and hello to a natural healthy hair journey.
Why do we tend to tie beauty to hair length?
What inspired you to transition/big chop?
[by Cherrelle]
