You Thought You Left These Behind When You Went Natural….

The grass is always greener on the other side right? You went natural thinking that finally everything would click into place and you would live nappily ever after.

If you are one of those ladies who gave up relaxers for reasons unrelated to loving natural hair, you were probably surprised that some of the things you thought you had given up with your relaxed hair, are still firmly there.

You are still running away from the rain

Unless your hair is in a braided style or permanent bun, rain is still your number one enemy because of shrinkage. Someone recently said something about a beautifully defined twist out turning into a ‘crinkly puffball’ just being in high humidity.

Imagine how much worse things would be if you got drenched in a winter shower. Nope, running away from rain is not a relaxed thing, it’s a female thing. White, black, Asian, we all do it because we don’t want to mess up our new hairdo’s and going natural isn’t going to change that!

You thought you would spend much less time on your hair

Yeah right! After your last braid out, you spent 3 hours detangling your hair because that woman from that blog said you should detangle a one inch section at a time.

Now that you not longer have to spend an hour roller setting your relaxxed hair, you will spend 2 hours detangling and styling your natural hair. Natural hair just takes more time, sure you get used to it after some time but don’t imagine for one minute that being natural means that you will be released from the bondage of hair care.

You thought you would finally stop being a product junkie

Erm, all that happened is that you now have two stashes. You don’t have the heart to get rid of those lotions and potions that worked so great on your relaxed hair and you have now amassed even more products in search of the perfect curl defining product. Admit it, you probably buy more hair products than you did when you were relaxed!

You thought your hair would grow long

Your hair is barely longer now than it was when you were relaxed. In fact many are transitioning right now for the promise of longer hair but unfortunately ‘natural’ and ‘long’ are not terms that are mutually exclusive.

Allowing your hair to grow natural will certainly make it healthier but long black hair requires work and a solid regimen that you are willing to follow through and tweak until you get to your goal. There are still plenty of naturals out there bleating the ‘long hair must be genetic’ line!

You thought you could roll out of bed in the morning and be ready to go

No you still have to spend time styling your hair in the morning. Genuine wash and go hair is the exception in the black community rather than the rule. Usually it goes, wash>>leave in>>apply curl defining product>>rake and smooth>>diffuse>>go.

It’s a process that takes the average naturalista well over an hour, if you are lucky and that’s before you take into account your usual morning shower and dash for the door routine.

You thought your life would change dramatically

It didn’t, only your hair did.

Is there anything you thought would change when you went natural but hasn’t?