how it all started

Summer 2009...Adelaide square...bored of studying. As usual I start playing around on google typing in questions of whatever crosses my mind and I remember a hair product (vo5 hot oil) an acquaintance asked me to try a couple months back which made my hair feel 'silky'. And so in my search I come across 'Ateeya' on youtube and I'm hooked by the vibrancy of her personality but even more so, the movement in her 'weave-less' hair.  I decided there and then that whatever it is she's doing i'm doing. And so apogee I stocked up on. 

As I started looking up her videos and other related videos I couldn't help but come across all the natural hair videos. I watched a couple and was pretty impressed by 'rustic beauty' but decided to reach my goal length of BSL before trying the whole 'natural thing'. But that changed.

Now I'm sure most are thinking what Malcolm X had to do with it all but hear me out. 

Summer 2010, I get back from work and 'roots' is on T.V. I sit down to watch it and following the film is a documentary on MLK. Being the inquisitive person that I am, I start researching all the questions that are flying through my mind as i'm trying to make sense of what my heart cannot qualify. That is until I'm watching a speech by Malcolm X and all the flying questions come to a screeching halt when he asked the question that revolutionised my thinking on hair- 'who taught the black woman to hate her hair?'

It may seem like a simple question, but it was loaded for me. It made me think deeply and reflect as to why I had seen Ateeya's videos and think 'wow'.  I then started examining what formed my thought processes about what constituted good hair and why it was limited to the eurocentric beauty standard, so much so that I never thought twice about the self inflicted scabs from the creamy crack. It was normal. Getting rid of the kinks in our hair had become normal. And although I hail from Africa, this perception about what good hair is has engulfed our continent as many look up to all things western... thank you colonial mentality.

So yes, in summary, that was my awakening in as few letters as possible. If given the chance to elaborate, I could be writing a thesis, so i'll just leave it at this for now. All I can say is my discovery was akin to a child discovering its hands and feet for the first time, and so that's how my natural hair journey began.

I'd love to hear your stories as to what inspired your natural hair journeys. Till next time..

Peace & Love,

Miss Jay