Personal Narrative: My Hair Journey

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When I started my natural hair journey back in 2014, I wasn't aware of the things I would gain. As a young African American woman, it can be hard in today's culture to embrace what we have naturally. But with the self confidence that I've gained in my journey, I have realized that embracing who you are and what you have is essential to loving yourself.

Prior to my transition from relaxed hair to my natural hair, I didn't know that I was hiding my big, beautiful curly hair. As a child I was okay with the idea of fitting in, thinking that I wouldn't stand out too much from my lighter skinned peers. I would see other young girls with their natural hair and not know that my own would be some variation of what they had, but back then I wouldn't have the confidence to wear anything beyond my relaxed hair. It wasn't until late 2013 that I had stumbled upon the idea of transitioning, which meant growing out my hair without relaxing or chopping all of my hair off. My best friend had been going natural herself, proudly …show more content…
During that year I spent a lot of time on Youtube, watching videos of black women talking about their hair. I listened to almost every one of them talk about how important it was to embrace your own curls. At the time, this had only sounded like a broken record to me. It wasn't until I was fully natural in March of 2014 that this had started to make sense. The day I clipped my two inches of remaining relaxed hair off was the day I was completely natural. There is this thing in the natural hair community called "shrinkage" where your curly hair would shrink into an afro. For example, if someone's hair was straightened, their hair could be 14 inches long. But with shrinkage while in their natural curly state, their hair could shrink up be 5 inches long. My own afro had been small at the time, and I was devastated. I was under the impression that my natural hair would at least be shoulder length, and I was

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