Let me take you through my story so far….

 

JULY 2010

 

No! Anu, I love my woman to have hair…Buh baby…No, I really cant stand hair-cuts on women no matter how nice it is…*sigh…

 

Ok..so that was a typical conversation between my boyfriend and I in the wee days of the month of June, 2010. It was pretty annoying cos we had only started dating in May and I’m thinking ‘Wait o…is it not my hair? *rolling eyes*’….Anyywaaayyy… I eventually had a “stylish” haircut in July (without his consent…by the way)… it felt sooo, damn good…I liked the cut even though I still dint have that ‘gratification’ I was searching for (frankly I dint know wot I was searching for) and I needed to find ‘IT’. Under duress(from my boyfriend..(dont roll ur eyes just yet cos I’m reaalllyyyy into him)), I only had the hair cut on for about a month and had to fix weaves and cornrows till my hair ‘grew back out’ and in..

 

FEBRUARY 2011

 

My boyfriend got me this really sleek Brazilian weave as opposed to all other wavy or curly ones and I just had to wear it for my birthday (Valentine’s day) soo I had to ‘lye’ my hair up… and as soon as I was done relaxing my hair… I just knew I could not do ‘this’ anymore and vowed to go No-Lye from that day. I decided I was going natural but resolved to ‘grow it out’ till it was long enough … BUTon

 

16^th OCTOBER 2011

 

I got to the salon at about 12:30 pm straight from church to take out the ‘corporate dreadlocks’ that I got done 10 weeks prior. It was soo hard to take out though and as soon as it was out, I combed my now under-growth stricken hair and decided in about one millisecond to do the BIG CHOP.  In one magical moment, I was sure I was sick and tired of attaching foreign bodies (South American, Indian.. to be precise ) and LYE to my hair and decided to return as some sort of ‘phoenix’ to my ‘nappy glory’… YAYYYY!!! Just as I was born!… The thought alone was like nirvana and besides my boyfriend isn’t around for another 11 months (he went for an Oxford MBA in September).. No better time than NOW!!!!… I knew I was tired of trying to un-ME myself. I mean for Christ’s sake, these Caucasians don’t buy my African, kinky hair at cut-throat prices to put on their heads nowwww… (P.S Under duress, again, maybe in some 2 years or something, I may have to fix these ‘things’ again) but right now I am sure im taking my hair out…My thoughts exactly…

 

So I get into this uber dramatic conversation with ‘Mama Paul’, my stylist down the road, telling her in a nutshell that I’m cutting my hair. As expected, she screamed, threw some tantrums and even ‘trimmed ’the hair to satisfy me. But like they say, ‘if you want something done well, you’ve gotta do it yourself’. So… I get hold of the pair of scissors elegantly smiling at me on the table and in a somewhat supernatural snap, I got all the relaxed ends out of a majority of my temple/front hair. Turning around to meet a horror stricken face, she knew just exactly what I was talking about. And without saying a word, in about 3 minutes, I had done the BIG CHOP…

 

Ok … soo while I smiled at myself in the mirror… I felt soooooo good as about 5-6 inches of locks of my hair lay all over the floor and I looked at all of them and stuck my tongue out at them…lol.. I had never felt sooo FREE, LIBERATED and WHOLE before. I felt sooo complete as I embraced my ‘Black Heritage’… Jumping excitedly, I take a picture and update my blackberry display  and  typically, in a matter of 3 seconds post the update, I had about 25 pings at the same time… ATTENTION TIME!!! I knew already that I was gonna get a multitude of reactions but I dint care. However, like an anti-climax, I remembered that I hadn’t mentioned a word of this spontaneous decision to my boo.. AAARRGGGHH!!… Im gonna be in trouble mehhnnnnn… I immediately pick up my phone and send him IMs telling him im sorry and that it would have grown back by the tym he returns.

 

Brushing the negative thought aside, I focused on the positive energy I now felt and attended to all my ‘fans’ of the moment, all dropping their irrelevant, good/neutral/bad feelings and opinions about my new look. I knew they’d get over it with time so I dint mind cause most importantly, I felt completely BEAUTIFUL!

 

As I waltzed out of the salon, I really didn’t wanna get home in a hurry so I went around looking for hair products and also got my eyebrows done. After all the wandering, reality set in and I took what seemed like the shortest stroll ever down my street (shortest because my dad has the exact same opinion Bayo has…oooh yeah.. that’s his name.. Bayo…the one who makes my world circular…*sigh* ). I walked into the living room expecting ALL the attack in the world and strangely he said in his oh-so-gentlemanly voice..”what did u do to your hair?” and I said “I cut it. The hair I just took out did a lot of damage” (so while it did SOME damage, I still lied) and he goes “Oh..ok..not bad..you just look a tad bit too young”. WOW!!! Life is indeed full of surprises.

 

Having passed that hurdle (much easier than I thought), I knew the next one would be my mum, and then work tomorrow…

 

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