In May of 2015, I made the decision to stop getting chemical relaxers and allow my hair to grow out of my scalp as it naturally should: curly. As a child, I always loved curly hair and spent an ample amount of time admiring those with it. I decided to cut out the chemical relaxers because the reasons most people said they were “necessary” in the first place.

People would say things like kinky curly hair is hard to tame or that it was too difficult to take care of. Well, it is no walk in the park I can tell you that but, to be honest, haircare never is. I heard those words “tame” and “difficult” and thought of how they use those exact same words to describe Black women.

So, if we are “tame” enough to take care of chemically-altered hair, then surely we can manage our natural hair just as well. And if it is “too difficult” to take care of kinky curly hair, then why are so many people doing it? The answer is simple: because we want to. We are tired of conforming to society’s standards and expectations of what our hair should look like. By shedding that form of oppression that kept so many others like me addicted to the creamy crack in the first place, I felt closer to my ancestors and my culture.

Embracing my naturally curly hair was easy, but the method of getting there was met with resistance. The summer of 2015 was spent learning about my natural tresses and how to properly take care of them. This was all while I was preparing to spend an academic year in Seoul, South Korea. Not only was I going to study in a foreign land but I was also going to be there while transitioning from chemical relaxers to my curls.

Talk about a culture shock! While Seoul had few options for black haircare, I still managed to take care of my curls all the same. Defying European beauty standards in a society that is known for being homogenous in looks was the ultimate form of anti-conformity for me. I felt like a rebel, and this act led to my journey of becoming an abolitionist.

In the Black community, hair is a political statement. It is a way of saying “I am comfortable in my own skin” and “I love myself enough to wear my hair the way it naturally grows out of my head”. For me, having curly hair is an act of defiance against a society that wants to control us. It is my way of saying that I will not be limited by anyone’s standards but my own. And that is what makes natural hair so beautiful.

So if you are wanting to transition to naturally curly hair, because you want to be able to defy societal standards then I encourage you to do it. It is the greatest act of self-love I have ever done. But it will not be the only one.  

So you wanna go natural? By all means, do it. No one should be stopping you.

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