My Banana Split Hair Disaster
I clicked on the YouTube video to learn how to deep condition my natural hair. I’d been faithfully subscribed to the self-proclaimed natural hair guru for over a year and she promised shiny oh-so-fruity hair, just like hers, in a homemade concoction, she’d whipped together with household “products” i.e.; produce and other knickknacks.
After diligently studying the 3-minute video, a surge of DIY inspiration reverberated my soul, the video intended for that very purpose. I was more than convinced that I could replicate her results. Although her hair was 3c and I’m 4c, I figured it would still work. My results would be the 4c version, I thought. I headed to the kitchen for “natural” ingredients. Raiding the refrigerator, as directed, I came across the bananas and eggs, and without hesitation I gathered all of the items and raced to the bathroom where I planned to resuscitate my hair to the bouncing curls I saw in the video. Lather, rinse, repeat. Tah daah! Wait, it didn’t work!
Chunks of banana failed the rinse cycle and I couldn’t untangle the coils. Panic griped my chest as I searched desperately for a remedy to remediate what I’d done. Opening a drawer, I discovered the pair of scissors that began this whole “natural hair journey” (aka The Big Chop). I quickly slammed it shut before my heart deflated at the very thought of having to start all over.
No matter how ridiculous it seems, we all know the great lengths we go to achieve healthy hair. Often times we study YouTube videos and ingest the plethora of black hair web content and ideally we’d like a fairy Godmother to magically appear to save us from a natural hair disaster but sometimes, it just comes down to experimentation.
That’s the glory of a hair journey! Explore your strands. Sometimes you just have to learn along the way. And when your edges begin to thin and the strands become limp and your ponytail shrinks to the size of a toothpick, you’ll know it was all a learning lesson.
