I am not my hair: but I do want my hair

[MissKorang]

My afro. My black, collection of many curling and coiling hairs. It is thick and stubborn af. It defies gravity and reaches for the sun. I love it and I believe it loves me. I love wearing it natural because it makes me feel unencumbered.

 

But I didn't always love my hair. In fact I couldn't wait to finish high school so I could load it with chemicals and straighten it. I despised my hair because it was called any and everything but beautiful.... wait what? Are you thinking my hair was demeaned by white folks? Nah. It was black folks. My mother was the loudest. My hair was compared to goat shit!

 

I did grow to love myself and my hair. But the maturity that brought me clarity also brought me a husband and babies. And just when I began to adore my hair, I began to lose it to postpartum hair loss... Doesn't it feel as though God plays tricks on us sometimes?

 

Read more to see how I reclaimed my hair from the grips of postpartum hair loss.  

[Pioneer1]

When it comes to superficial aggressions and insults, AfroAmericans are often the hardest on eachother.

I went to mostly AfroAmerican schools and attended a mostly Caucasian school, the children who called me "ugly" and "monkey" the most were other Black students both in volume and frequency...lol.

Infact, I was NEVER called a monkey by White children nor did I hear them call any of the other handful of Black children who were in the school  a monkey....although a few did refer to us as "nigger" from time to time.

Black children called eachother nearly every name in the book and not only would talk about you but your mother, father, and everybody else they think you loved...lol.

I've seen family members call their own siblings and even their own children ugly or make fun of how dark they were or how kinky their hair was.
Much of it was in jest, but as I got older I realized how much it must have stung the children for their own family to talk about them like that.

But to your particular issue......

They say things like hair loss and alopecia is caused by stress and that may be true, however I also believe chemicals are also being introduced into the environment that have a negative impact on the health of AfroAmericans.  You're thinking it's stress and it may be a chemical in the soap your using, toothpaste you're using, food you're eating, or even the washing detergent you're washing your clothes and bed sheets in and laying down on.

Do you realize that most Black people are allergic to vaseline and vaseline based products?

There are all types of things in the environment attacking the health of AfroAmericans.