Tha ish: Day 21... I made it!!!

Just in case you haven’t been reading tha ish religiously (*shame on you! LOL), I’ve gone on a 21 day challenge to live without my extensions, aka “fake hair”.


I’ve been natural for almost 10 years, but I’ve rarely worn my own hair. I did a couple of times (when money was tight), but for the most part, I’ve worn extensions and ponytails. (I haven’t done a full on weave, but I am actually quite curious about it...)


Over the past 3 weeks, I’ve gone through a million emotions. At the beginning of the journey, I felt daring and confident when I showed off my big ass afro. Then, my confidence took a beating and I felt a lot of frustration, anger, and feeling very unpretty.




My frustration came from not looking like my old self and not feeling attractive. To combat this feeling, I basically banished myself from the world over for my 3 week experiment (I only went to work, the grocery store, and I did a little bit of shopping). Yep, I’m serious. I tried to come off as confident and owning my look, but I’m not that good of an actress.


Believe it or not, I looooove natural hair. It is gorgeous and sexy when you have the skillz to style it. Unfortunately, my skillz aren’t on point, so I was pretty much irritated and frustrated for most of my challenge. My hair never looked good (or so I thought), so I never felt good.


I know a lot of people didn’t like my choice of hairstyles—I was actually told that to my face, (people can be soooo rude!), but I am glad that I challenged myself.


Well, I am getting ready to wash my hair. I have a hair appointment tomorrow morning and I’m getting my hair twisted. Yeah, I’m getting my extensions back. I honestly feel like those hair obsessed women in Chris Rock’s film, Good Hair : )


As much as I love my extensions I am glad that I was able to go outside my comfort zone and expose the real me to the world and myself. Naps and all!


Thanks for reading!


xxxoo

Tha ish: Days 5 – 7 of embracing my natural hair

Day 5 - August 13, 2010


I was actually pretty impressed with myself. I spent an hour cornrowing my hair last night and it came out very well. My mother even told me that it was WAY better than she expected. Big up to me!!


I wore my hair in an afro, but it wasn’t as cute as it was in the beginning of the week. It looked a little dry, but it was good enough to wear to the mall.


I bumped into an ex co-worker at the mall and she said that I looked like a kid with my new hairstyle. She said it looked nice (I don’t believe her!), but said that I should try to make it look softer and show my ringlet curls. I had to let her know that I was rocking my real hair and that my real hair doesn’t look like ringlet curls. I was a little annoyed by her statement, but realized she’s kinda ignorant about my hair texture, so I didn't dwell on it.


BTW I finally updated my facebook pic and showed off my afro. I was relieved and overwhelmed to get such a positive response. Thanks!


Day 6 - August 14, 2010


No major hair issues happened.


Day 7  August 15, 2010


I decided a couple of days ago that the next style that I was going to rock was twists (twisting my own hair, without extensions). I decided on twists because of its low maintenance. The afro was cool, but it took a lot of work for it to look cool.


I asked my mother a few days ago to twist my hair and she agreed to do it today. I was kinda shocked because my mom twisted my hair 2 whole years ago, and ungratefully I told her that I didn’t like the style on me as soon as she was done (possibly because I missed my extensions!). I subsequently took out the twists and ran straight to the hair salon one day later. My mother swore she’d never twist my hair again. Thankfully, my mother disregarded that, and patiently and lovingly twisted my hair today. Thanks, mommy!


It’s a shorter ‘do than I’m used to, but it looks nice. I have to get used to it. Don’t worry, I have no plans on untwisting it any time soon!

Tha ish: My big ass afro

My big ass afro made its debut today. I normally wear my natural hair in twists with the aid of extensions, but after thinking about doing something different with my hair for the longest time, I decided I should let my natural hair take center stage.



I have truly loved being chemical free for almost 10 years (my 10 year nappiversary will be Dec 2010), but the thought of not having my “fake hair” scared me. Seriously. I’ve been protected by extensions for so long that being without them made me feel a little vulnerable. During the 10 years of being natural, I never took the time out to appreciate my nappy hair! : )


So for the next 21 days, I plan to be extension-free! I hope I can do it.


Don’t worry; I will document my day to day hair issues.


p.s. I liked the way my hair looked today. I got up extra early to tame my crazy hair, but all in all it looked cool. Here’s a pic of my ‘do.

Tha ish: Good Hair review

This review might be a little late, but I was compelled to speak about Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair.   I finally saw it over the Christmas holidays and I had to provide my 2 cents. 

First off, I liked it. I enjoyed it sooooo much that I actually watched it two times within a span of 24 hours.  I identified with most of the content that I felt l like I could have been a participant in the film.  Being a black female, I am a bit preoccupied with my hair. I.can’t.help. it. I am a black female!!!  There is so much we as black women need to do to make our hair manageable (by manageable, I do not mean straight—I’m a happy nappy girl). 

Though I found the movie immensely entertaining (listening to the black actresses talk about getting their hair wet was priceless—I was the same way when I had permed hair!), I did find some of the information a little insulting and misleading.  After watching the movie, I found that it made us look as though we hate our (natural) hair and crave long straight hair.  It also made it seem as though all black women are willing to torture ourselves with perm to achieve a specific image of beauty. That soooo ain’t the case with me.

Throughout the film, Chris Rock mentioned that we (black women) permed our hair, wore weaves and wigs to look “white”.  I am personally offended by that statement.  I don’t think that I’m trying to look white by the hairstyle I choose.  I wear what I find appealing. (FYI, I wear my hair in twists with the aid of extensions. And I’m not shy about rocking a shoulder length ponytail either!).  I like both long and short hairstyles and I don’t judge someone if their hair is natural, permed or whatever.

I had a talk with a friend who is in the black hair industry and he did not like the film at all. He felt that it was a little deceptive. The scene that really bothered him was when Chris and the scientist watched a pop can disintegrate in a vat of sodium hydroxide—one of the chemicals used in relaxers/perm.   My friend said that perm is a mixture of carefully measured chemicals and that the scientist ONLY put the can in a tub of an isolated chemical to show the bad effects of that chemical which he kept calling "perm". He found that misleading, because perm does not consist of that one chemical. Although I won’t ever rock a perm, I thought my friend raised a valid point.

Overall, I liked the film.  I just didn’t appreciate how the film made black women look insecure, frivolous, and willing to sell their soul for some “good hair.”

p.s. wasn’t it funny to hear Ice-T speak about perm?  He reminded me of ME when I used to perm my hair.

Tha ish: “Good Hair”

As much as I want to see Chris Rock’s movie “Good Hair,” I am hoping that he isn’t telling all our secrets. LOL!

I am a natural girl who wears extensions (some might frown upon being natural and wearing extensions but I don’t care!). Not solely for vanity, but more so for the extremely low maintenance (okay, and maybe a tiny bit of vanity). All I have to do is grease my scalp and I’m good to go!

But for some reason, having Chris Rock tell the world what we do (black women) is a little disconcerting to me. I know that it’s good to show the world what we go through in the salon (the waiting, the hours on end we sit in the chair...etc), but I kinda like keeping our little secret...our little secret. Perhaps I’m being silly....I dunno.

But one thing that I do like about the film (BTW, I haven’t seen the movie but I’ve seen tons of clips and I’ve seen Chris Rock on several talk shows pubbing the movie) is that it exposes how horrible and destructive perm really is. I stopped perming my hair 9 years ago after my hair fell out. I went through a series of “bad perms” and then I realized that I had had enough. It was devastating to see my hair fall out all the time! The day I decided to not perm my hair, was the happiest day and I haven’t looked back since! What freaks me out the most is that some people will put that stuff in their children’s hair. I can’t tell you how much the angers me. Perm is a harsh chemical that is very destructive. Should we really be putting it in a 4 years head??? Oh, and we really need to stop putting weave and extensions in little girls hair too. I’m a grownass adult and getting extensions hurt me! Why would you put your child through that? Kids need to look like kids. Not mini women. Okay, that was my official last rant of this post!

Even though I have some issues with how we are portrayed in the film (in some reviews it sounds like black women don’t like themselves or our hair) I am still interested in seeing the movie. Can’t wait to check it out.