Your favorite hair blogger is totally your friend in your head. Y'all share hair secrets. She comes to you when she's frustrated or overwhelmed. You encourage her when she has a setback. Y'all are brutally honest with each other and transparency is the only way that y'all roll.
Then she has the NERVE...
AUDACITY...
LOS COJONES...
To decided to stop relaxing her hair.
How rude?!?
You might feel betrayed. Y'all were supposed to be in this together. Things will get a little awkward for a minute. But before you comment on her "Big chop" or "I'm transitioning" post, remember these 3 tips:
W O O S A H
Just breathe. Remember that it's just hair. And if our goal is to have healthy hair then does it really matter if it's healthy chemically straightened hair or healthy curly hair? We're still in this together rooting for the same outcome.I T ' S N O T P E R S O N A L
Her decision is for her. She's not asking you to follow suit. She's not even asking you to agree. But she is asking for you to respect her decision. There are so many reasons why women stop chemically straightening their hair. Some are as simple as they want a change and others are deeply spiritual, political, or emotional. She loves her readers and of course she's thought about how it would change the content of her blog---yet she still made this choice for herself. After all, hate to say it but---it's kinda not about you. So continue to do you boo!E N C O U R A G E
This cute little community of healthy hair lovers was totally built on encouragement, support, and positivity. We have enough decisiveness in our world that the way that you choose to style your hair shouldn't be one of them. We can still affirm each other even when our journeys don't exactly mirror each other.If we're honest with ourselves, this natural vs relaxed debate is old, tiresome and just plan lame. We have more in common with each other than we have differences.
The same tips apply if your favorite natural hair blogger announces that she's gonna relax her hair too!
Let's give our hair bloggers some love! Link your faves below and list if they are natural, relaxed or somewhere in between!
This so true! When one of my fav vloggers relaxed her hair, I was dead on the floor! She was the first one I saw and followed for natural hair tips. At first I was pretty mad, because "what was I supposed to do now?!" But then I realized that not only is that her hair, but I had to grow from taking milk and following another to continue my own hair journey. I had to evolve and even share some tips of my own to help others. That what make the black hair community awesome! We need to continue to encourage each other during own communal and personal hair journeys
ReplyDeleteTRUTH Christina!!!!!
DeleteEveryone's journey is about evolution! You don't have to agree with someone's decision but you gotta be respectful!
Hmmmm informative post..... I can relate to this. Thanks for posting
ReplyDeletehairlevation.blogspot.com
Thanks for stopping by chica! Miss your face!
DeleteGreat article. I admit it though, if I followed someone specifically for their natural hair and they go relaxed, I'm no longer interested. It's not to say that I am in a tizzy over it. It's not my hair but it's really more about what you're interested in.
ReplyDeleteVery true chica!
DeleteI read this at work but then had to go teach my class so I didn't get a chance to comment. I must say I cracked all the way up. I remember being disappointed when people went one direction or the other (natural to relaxed or relaxed to natural) depending on why I followed them. However, as long as they kept posting good stuff I quickly got over it. Plus in some cases I was encouraged to see how their hair was handling whatever new state and that more than likely I would as well. Now if I can find a natural blogger who is super gray and just chopped her hair off as well I'll be super duper excited. In the meantime I will just keep enjoying everyone and all their adventures.
ReplyDeleteAMEN!!! It's a change for her and totally a change for us as followers too but it's definitely not life or death. And most certainly doesn't warrant getting all rude and nasty!
DeleteThis post is what I need right now. I'd always wanted to ask my fave bloggers who went natural or are transitioning why they did it. And event though it made me sad I've learnt to support them fully.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely makes sense! I think that it took me 6 months to actually write up why I chopped of my relaxed ends. I wanted to give my readers some brilliant rationale---but I didn't have one! LOL.
DeleteLOL-est!!!! You pretty much wrote up my feelings when I started my hair journey and I found my relaxed girls (#squadgoals) my life was complete. Then it all starts with a super long stretch, I would just snap my finger and think 'it time to touch up... come on now!' and then they just quitting on me! ...thought we had something good going on there.
ReplyDeleteThinking about it now it makes me laugh, it's just hair lol
It always starts with that stupid LLLOONNNGGG stretch doesn't it!!! LOL.
DeleteBut you're so right---it's totally just hair!
Great post!!! A lot of my friends have been asking me the same thing, where did all the relaxed hair bloggers go, lol! and you're right its not personal. I am 10 months post relaxer at the moment because of pregnancy and now breastfeeding - and I'm not sure what I am doing - transitioning to natural? or just a really long baby-induced-relaxer/texlax-stretch?
ReplyDeleteagain great post, and your hair looks fab btw!
Yay!!! Congrats again on your little guy!!!
DeleteIt's almost like---if you can through that long stretching then working with your natural texture will be a piece of cake!
Girl i respect everyone decision because they made it for themselves. I love encouraging people to do better and pursue what's best for them. You hit alot of nails on its head. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteRespect is totally the key here!!! Thanks for stopping by chica!
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