If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that #embraceyourkinks and #embracethefrizz are among my favorite hashtags when posting fabulous fros. Some of us tend to get so wrapped up in having the “perfect curl” or achieving a “perfectly defined” twist-out, braid-out or bantu knot-out that we can lose sight of what this natural hair “thing” is all about in the first place- loving your hair just the way it is.
Before you come for me LOL…
I’m not saying you don’t love your hair if you wear a twist-out nor am I saying anything is wrong with rocking these styles at all! Braid-outs are my thing, definitely one of my go-to styles. And when it’s all fresh and the waves are poppin, you can’t tell me NOTHING! But after a day or two, (shoot, sometimes even on that first day!) having that perfect definition just isn’t that important to me and I just let my hair do whatever its gonna do. If it plumps and frizzes, so be it. I almost always end up with a chunky fro by the end of the week- partly because I just don’t care, partly because I don’t have the energy to re-braid every night- and I’m totally fine with it. Actually, I love it! I’m still fly! And that, my friends, is what I’m trying say…
it’s okay to wear your kinks and curls in their completely natural, unaltered state. You’re beautiful!
I know… to each his own. No shade whatsoever to the gals who re-twist or re-braid nightly to maintain that definition. If you can do it, KUDOS! But I wonder if some of us are doing this because we don’t think our hair looks good without some type of manipulation or for some other reason. True, tangling and single-strand knots are likely to occur when curly/kinky-textured hair is left to its own devices and such stretched styles can minimize these issues so… maybe that’s it. Maybe some are just trying to avoid a detangling nightmare. However, some social media comments on the pics of certain notables in the natural hair world lead me to believe that there may be some who don’t think their hair (or natural hair in general) is anything worth looking at unless it’s altered. While rod sets, twist sets and the like are all great styling options, they shouldn’t be the “end-all and be-all”… is all I’M sayin’. This is why I LOVE this video!
I feel this was needed and adore her for doing it. PLEASE watch, share and be sure to read the backstory.
Enjoy!
After watching and reading Chary’s commentary, do you feel where she’s coming from? Are you encouraged to #embraceyourkinks? Do you think we as a community are placing too much emphasis on achieving “perfect” hair styles? Share below!
xoxo
Toia B.
When I first went back to natural, this was something that truly tripped me up. The YouTube and other social media over-consumption that I got into showed, for the most part, perfect styles. It was definitely frustrating trying to emulate what I saw. What a difference a year almost-a-half makes, though. Like you mentioned, natural is now more about embracing whatever comes out of my scalp. Well-written post.
Author
Thank you for the compliment and for sharing your thoughts girlie! I’m with you, my thing wasn’t so much about the styles themselves but length. It took but a few months for me to get over that and thank goodness! One can drive themself crazy and give up if they don’t let go of that and just embrace their own hair. Rock what you got! 😉