My First Napptural Gathering

I am soooo excited. I haven't been in the presence of more than 3 nappies since my journey began...that I can recall anyway. I hope to get some helpful information. I'm taking my Suave 2-minute conditioner to give away or swap. I should take this Suave Coconut too, but I like using it in my spritz, so I'll just keep it. At this moment, I'm deep conditioning. The jar said no heat required, but they say that heat helps the conditioner to penetrate the cuticle or something like that. Hopefully, the heat from my body will do something.

I really enjoy nurturing my hair. I was taking a look at the different textures and it's just amazing what God can create. I really wish my mommie was here to see this. I have no idea what she'd think. We were both natural for quite a while; she probably wouldn't really care as long as it looked neat. I remember her hair being a lot straighter than mine in its natural state. Maybe her hair was more the texture of the back of my hair. We could be taking this journey together; that would be so cool.

Anyway, keeping with the positive spirit of this post...I always feel regret or something like that when I respond to people's question, "Why?" I don't feel like I'm telling them the whole truth, but I also don't feel the need to get into it. I remember reading an article where someone asked Erykah Badu why she cut her locs and I think her response was, "It's personal." It really is. I totally feel her. The response is personal and because it's so personal, I don't think many people could relate anyway, so I just give a vague response about a lot of self reflection and realizing that relaxers are damaging. Sometimes, I don't even say that. Part of me doesn't want to step on anyone's toes, because my answer could imply that the choice that they've made is not a good one.

So...some reasons...

• Relaxers are caustic chemicals that alter your hair and can cause great damage. There are countless women walking around with limp hair that breaks off every second because of the chemicals and their reckless use of heat.
• I decided to stop believing the lye that the slave masters instilled in us that our hair is not beautiful in its natural state. This lie has been perpetuated through the generations. Talk of good hair makes my skin boil. All hair is good hair if it's healthy. So what, if it doesn't curl...it's not supposed to. It's supposed to do what it does.
• I decided to stop fighting with my hair to make it something it isn't and was never meant to be.
• I have decided to embrace what God gave me. It's about self-acceptance and self love.
• It's political. I reject the European standard of beauty that African-American women have adopted.
• Once I asked myself the question, "Why am I putting these dangerous chemicals on my hair and scalp?" "Why do I want my hair to be straight?" I realized that could no longer be my truth. It didn't take long for me to see the light. It was a paradigm shift.
• After spending time on NP and hearing others declare their love for their hair, the path to self-acceptance and self-love seemed easy. In every day life, there aren't a lot of people you can talk to about these issues. Oftentimes, other people who are natural aren't also napptural. It's encouraging and empowering to spend time with likeminded people, even if it's in a virtual world. It's a state of mind that is often uncommon.