What Does Natural Hair Mean To You?

If you Google the question “what is natural hair?” one of the first websites to pop up will be Wikipedia, defining natural hair as

1. Afro Textured hair

2. Hair that is unadorned and uncolored, virgin non-chemically relaxed or otherwise in its natural state.

For me natural hair is not just afro textured hair; natural hair is any hair on any head that is virginal in composition.

If you prefer to use a general, almost raw perspective then picture a shaved head completely bald that is just starting to show a few little hairs peaking through the scalp, that hair is what is considered your natural hair.

It is built from your own personal DNA, the hair that you haven’t chemically or mechanically altered in any way. If you choose to relax your hair, you have decided to permanently change the way your hair looks as it grows out of your scalp making curly hair straight.

For me, the definition of natural hair is just that, it is hair that has not been altered to the point that it does not behave as your DNA dictates it to.

In our community and maybe in others as well there is a  lot of confusion and chatter surrounding what is natural? Who is natural? Are you still natural if you use color? Are you still natural if you use heat?

Some of the questions sometimes come with a flare of arrogance mixed with a little drama and some of them are truly honest questions that many of us need answers to.

Defining natural hair from a practical or scientific perspective is not really what this post is about, but it is important to know what it means in its most basic form first before exploring all the surrounding additives that come with the concept of natural hair.

With that said, relaxing your hair does not change your new growth; all it changes is the structure of the exposed strand itself. If you use heat properly, there is no permanent damage to the hair strand and your hair remains natural regardless of you using a flat iron* or blow dryer*.

Heat damage or any other damage is in a separate category from what natural means, damage is just damage, whether it is due to excessive heat or split dry ends. If you have four split strands in your hair those strands do not automatically become unnatural, they are just split.

The same thing goes for heat damage, if you have patches of heat damaged hair in your head, those portions are not suddenly less natural than the others, they are just damaged.

It is very difficult to separate the natural hair movement from what natural hair actually is, they seem almost one in the same but they are not. The movement is the fanfare surrounding the ‘what is natural hair’ question. It is the thing that can empower you and strip you all at the same time.

On the blogs last week we have heard many women cry foul to the natural hair movement using words to describe it like ‘Nazi’, ‘extreme’, ‘uncomfortable’ , wanting it to ‘die’ and deciding to break up with the hoopla once and for with the goal of defining their hair for themselves.

We say yes, good for you! Why not define your natural for yourself separating it from all the negativity and shenanigans. After all defining it for you does not change what grows from your scalp it just means taking charge of your own hair and beauty game without any interference from the penny section.

Sure you can identify with some aspects of the movement, and you appreciate all it has done for you whether it is in terms of your confidence, changes in lifestyle and for some dramatic changes in finances and career choices. However, gratitude is all that you owe anyone or anything that helped you on your journey, at the end of the day your hair will be defined by your own personal choices and what you are comfortable with.

Life is very cyclical; twice a child is what they say right? In this case we want to change the cycles a bit, most of us have come from a state of alienation, and hard core hate for our natural hair based on built up ridicule and shame.

We have now moved from that negativity to the point of defining it for ourselves and feeling beautiful in our own skin. Let’s take the time to enjoy that part without circling back to methods of alienation, nonacceptance and just downright ridicule that extremists tend to encourage.

It is very difficult to define natural hair for everyone else you can only define it for you so it is important to just do that, share it if you must but let the buck stop there.

So what does natural mean to you?

1. Does it mean longer healthier hair?

For some women, it does, and having longer healthier hair was their sole motivation for taking the plunge and getting rid of their chemical relaxer. The is not a bad thing, it is a healthy thing and more often than not, making that change has lead to other healthy changes in overall lifestyle as well

2. Does it mean a new journey of self discovery?

For some of us this has been a beautiful journey of discovery, because for so long we have been in the dark on how our hair looks and behaves when it has not been changed permanently. Going natural is a whole different kettle of fish from relaxing and many of us who are inspired by other natural women want to discover what our hair can do as well.

3. Does it mean rebelling against social standards of beauty?

Believe it or not the social standards of beauty are changing albeit slow, but changing none the less. We now see more women of color on the runways, rocking fades, big curly hair, and TWA’s and we see them in commercials, movies and in music as well.

The typical hair standard has been for a long time, European straight hair with not a kink in sight because that is what the Western world decided was beautiful despite what the rest of the world had to offer.

If we drill it down to the man in the mirror, some of us have decided to embrace our own beauty and this has lead to a ripple effect across the beauty industry as they scramble to give the people what they want, which thank goodness is now something much different to look at!

4. Maybe it just makes you feel better

As women we tend to do many things to enhance our beauty, we wear extensions*, we put on red lipstick for the holidays and sundresses in the summer, this is the essence of what makes us girls interesting, these are the choices we make based on what we feel makes us feel good at the time.

Natural hair can be just that simple; it can just makes us feel good. If you choose to loosen your texture, relax, color, use heat that really is ok, the only thing that matters is that you are comfortable when you look in the mirror.

What does natural mean to you?