8.26.2007

Afro Pix 8.27.07

The Trotter is bright (:Þ)

8.15.2007

Why NappyNest?

This blog details my experiences, maintenance, and general thoughts on natural African American hair.

I haven't used any chemicals on my hair since April 2006. I relaxed, straightened through the use of chemicals, my hair from 2000-2006. I made this decision because I didn't see any sense in damaging my hair to hold up ideas that I didn't really agree with.


After my last relaxer, I endured serious chemical burns throughout my scalp and the back of my neck. This happened with my usual stylist and usual brand of relaxer. My doctor suggested that I had developed an allergy to the ingredients used in the treatments. As my scalp healed, I began questioning my reasoning for relaxing my hair in the first place.

I started relaxing my hair as a young teenager. My hair grows very thick and dense, and it was difficult to manage, because I didn't really know how to care for it. My grandmother, who raised me, believed in rough combing and tons of hair grease. This left my hair with split ends and various lengths. She really didn't have the patience to nurture my hair, and she was used to doing it the way her hair was done when she was a child. Once I got old enough to make my own decisions about my appearance, the first thing I did was turn to the "creamy crack" better known as relaxers.

The main ingredient in relaxers is sodium hydroxide, or some other variant of this compund. Sodium hydroxide is also a main ingredient in drain cleaner. To explain this briefly, the ingredients in relaxers break the bonds in African American hair that give it its curly texture. Once the bonds are broken, denatured, they cannot return to their normal state. During the process of breaking these bonds, the hair shaft is weakened, damaged.

But like Kanye said, "You couldn't tell me nuthin',". I was determined to have straight hair. Isn't that what Black girls were supposed to have to be pretty and grown-up? My, how my thinking has changed! If I didn't straighten my hair (or like my friends would say, "do somethin' with that sh!t"), I really believed that I would be inferior to my peers. I wanted to be the stereotypical light-skinned chick with flowing hair, because that what really made a girl beautiful, right? I couldn't have been more wrong...

After that first relaxer, my hair was long, straight, and pretty. I spent a lot of time in the mirror, admiring my tresses. I never missed my natural texture, and, yes, it was much easier to do. Over the next few years, I learned how to put in a relaxer myself every six weeks to hide that dreaded new growth (eek!). I would get an occasional sore on my scalp, and I scolded myself for scratching or brushing my hair before putting in the relaxer. I would never blame the chemicals. Actually, I never thought about the damage I was doing to my hair. But it soon became so evident that I could no longer ignore it.

In the last year before I stopped relaxing, my hair was in bad shape. I could never get my hair to grow beyond my shoulders. After brushing or combing my hair everyday, my bathroom sink and floor would be COVERED with hair. Not strands that came from the root, but short segments that left behind split ends. I rarely washed my hair, to keep it from getting all frizzy and "unmanageable". I found myself using a curling or flat iron every day. I was literally frying my hair into submission.

I was concerned with the state of my hair, so I went back to the way my granny would do my hair. I would grease my hair and scalp with petroleum or mineral oil based products, thinking that the artifical shine it gave promoted health. Instead it made my scalp very dirty and dried my hair. I failed to realize that those particular oils are just as good at keeping moisture out as they were at keeping it in.

Fast forward to my last relaxer. Enough was enough. I didn't know where to begin, but I knew it started with saying goodbye to chemicals for good.

Here I'll record others' reactions to my decision, the process of learning to to care for my hair all over again, thoughts, and memories.

Thank you for reading my blog.
The Trotter is bright (:Þ)