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genesis-hair · 5 years

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Middle child

HELLO those who have chanced upon my natural hair journey thus far!

Soooo, update....

I am three years loc’ed! Wowza! It’s really fun to look back through all these years worth of not so frequently posted posts and reflect on my hair. I spend much of my time thinking about life, the future, my parents, arts, music, moving, mental health, etc. and not much time at all thinking about my hair.

In short, it worked!

Part of the reason I started on this loc journey was because I spent far too much time thinking about my hair. It took over large chunks of my emotional and physical time and had a devastating effect on my self-esteem when it didn’t go the way I wanted, or if I couldn’t make time for it. I really thrived off of the compliments I received for my hair whether or not I liked it myself. My hair in its afro state was more a part of my outward image than I would have liked and it created this imbalance in how I felt I was beautiful or not. Now, this hasn’t gone away completely. Being in all white settings or white supremacy culture which isn’t always all white, whether I like it or not, it seeps into my psyche which results in me questioning my locs. Now afros are more widely accepted which is phenomenal, however, we still have a ways to go with locs. I’ve had people look at me and state their preference for afros over locs (while I am rocking locs, RUDE!). I’ve had fewer compliments on my hair and people trying to touch it more than before, partially because I now go to a PWI instead of an HBCU. I’ve had people tell me I must smoke weed because I have locs. I’ve had both white and black people ask me how I wash my hair or question if I washed it at all. Ultimately, I feel that locs are the middle child of natural hairstyles and are still associated with negative connotations.

With all that being said, I don’t think about it often! I can go out and not really do anything to my hair, or do a lot to it and it’s more about how I feel than how I want others to make me feel. I do miss the afro with some of my outfits but the locs have created a lifestyle of ease. I can go swimming. I have that weight on my back and neck I always thought would make me feel more feminine (it does but it’s also HOT). Honestly, I am just proud of myself. I look in the mirror and can see the time pass in the length of my hair which is now down to my nipples. It’s amazing! I feel that I have also gained the confidence to be more unapologetically black. Hello, here is my texture, here is what it can do. Watch me weave it and braid it and twist it and curl it. Loc’s are versatile and beautiful. I am excited to see what comes next in my hair journey. Now that I’ve done locs, who knows?

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genesis-hair · 6 years

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