Yeh,
Weird way to start a blog post, right? Well, I literally just woke up so speaking has yet to enter into my activities for today...sooo, ummm... deal with it. lol.
Okay, so yesterday I was out in DC and I attended this Meet Up group. For those who are not familiar, MeetUp.com is an awesome site where you can go to find groups who are formed with people with like-minded interests. You pick a groups, become a member, they organize events and you can go "meet up" with them. So yesterday was my Natural Hair group's meet up.
It was so awesome to be in the presence of so many beautiful women who had natural hair at different stages. The lady sitting next to me had just did her Big Chop (where you cut off all of yur permed or damaged hair to transition into having natural/non-chemically treated hair) about a month ago and was rocking this extremely short hair style with natural curls looking gorgeous! To these two ladies with hair that was so long and big that you could see them coming a mile away. There were I think two ladies with locs in their hair.
Side bar: As not to offend ANYONE, NEVER, and I mean NEVER start off by calling them DREAD locs. It is offensive to many who have studied the history and culture of the style which adorns their crown. Simply call them locs. It is your safest bet to not wind up in a 2hr educational conversation when all you intended to do was give them a compliment. Trust me, this will keep you rather PC.
The purpose of this MeetUp was to discuss our trails with different hair products. I thought that it would be cool to listen in as well. But I had a problem from the beginning. Some of the women who had been in the natural hair journey longer than others appeared to have been knowledgeable, but maybe it was just my end of the table, but they didnt give me a path to find what products work well with my hair. I heard comments like, "I've tried several hairstyles that are around this table." or "I have tried everything possible on my hair and now I am happy with where I am" . Those comments are all well and good.... but how did you GET THERE?
I dont need a step by step analysis of every nap you conquered or regimen you overcame, but I do need to know some of the basics like what made you realize what worked for your hair and what didnt, what type of research did you do before hand, how do you maintain now that you've found what works, etc. I say this because there was an older lady sitting at my end of the table with her notepad. I know that she brought it so she wouldnt forget any of the products that she had heard. Her point in doing so was that she didnt want to start from the bottom and trying every single hair product. She wanted to hear products that other people said were good and try those. Wow, was all that I could formulate as a response. I couldnt imagine how we as AFrican American women didnt know so much about us. Her form of thinking was flawed and she didnt know it. She didnt realize that by listening to everyone's product suggestions, that she was in fact "starting from scratch " because she didnt know a thing about her own hair. Let me explain.
I told her that what she needed to do first was:
1. Discover your own individual hair type. I am personally a combination of 4b/4c. My hair has a mixture of S & Z curl patterns. There are certian products that from the jump are not going to work on my hair. My hair is actually the most fragile hair type out of them all, even though it looks the oarsest and resembles the closest to the Angela Davis model of what most consider Natural Hair.
2. Understand that Natural Hair is not a hair type, nor does it mean that everyone who is natural has the same kind of hair. Therefore, you will be wasting your time, money, and energy by taking product advice from someone who doesnt have you hair type. I personally thought that the group should have sat by hair type. but it wasnt my group, so next time I will sit near people whose hair is more like mine.
3. Do some research on products that are specifically made for your hair type. She asked me where would she do that. I immediately reminded her of this wonderful item called Google, and how the invention has been saving college students trips to the library for years now. This way, she could get small tips on which items were designed for her hair and then research which products people with her same hair type are raving about. That will cut her experimenting time in half, even more.
4. Visit thisother awesome invention called YouTube and search for people with hair regimen video clips so you can seehow to maintain your own hair type as well.
I felt like I was the most educated in my head. I was new to this. I was seeking answers and ended up giving some. I was just shocked how knowing who you are first and what to listen out for wasnt suggested as part of the meet-up but rather just get together and tlak. I think this is where money is wasted and why sisters give up, b/c they see friends with long hair and try to copy them, when in fact their hair types are not the same. Just because your hair looks the same doesnt mean that it is. People can manipulate a curl pattern for a style, or blowdry out their Tyoe 3 hair to get it to resemble a 4b/c pattern. Know you, stick with it, and learn to love it. Once you know you, nothing anyone can tell you will drive you of the path of what works well for you.
I guess in teaching yesterday, I found my own personal philosophy with this whole entire hair journey thing. I am learning me. I try a few products and so far the ones I have tried have worked. I did my research first to cut down on all of this madness. It also just gave me a fabulous Idea....hmmm. God works in mysterious ways!!! SO there was a lesson in this for me after all.
Well I hope you enjoyed my spew... I just had to get that out of my head. Have an amazing Sunday. God bless!
~~Arch Nemesis
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