I love being natural. I love seeing other natural women when I am out and about. Most of all, I love that my mom is now natural again after 3 decades of perms!!!! She went natural about two and a half years ago and now I have the pleasure of styling her fabulous fro almost weekly. My mom's best friend is also natural and has been growing her hair for about 10 years. Her lovely locs hang to almost waist length!!!! Also, another one of her friends just did a bc and is sporting the cutest twa! It's got me so excited, I feel like a giddy two year old as one-by-one I see people embracing their natural curls.
So...it got me thinking. I am really interested in WHY these women have decided to leave the relaxers behind and move into their middle years with natural hair. I wonder what went into the decision making process, what the were motives, and how they feel about the change. I have decided to stop people anywhere I am if I notice any naturals over 40 to get the scoop. I must admit I am a bit nervous about talking to total strangers but everytime I have stopped someone about their hair before they seemed very eager and gracious to talk about it.
If YOU or someone you know is over 40 and wearing a beautiful head of natural hair, I would love to feature you on Naturally Leslie. All you have to do is send me an email and I will send you one back with a few questions for you to answer.
I think this will be a unique perspective and I look forward to seeing what kind of response I'll get. I will start with the people I already know (my mom, aunt, her friend), then move into any other lovely natural ladies I can find. As soon as I get them ready, I'll post. I'm so excited!!!!
I get excited when I see other naturals too, I just don't have the ba*** to step up and ask questions.
ReplyDeleteI feel that way too sometimes. But I realized that nobody is 100% confident all the time and your compliment might be the self-esteem boost they need to stay on the natural path. If nothing else, it always makes people feel good to hear a nice word about their look. Go for it!
ReplyDeleteMy mother had a relaxer for more than 20 years, then transitioned to a press and curl with braided extensions. She did this for a few years before getting a texturizer. She stopped the press and curl when her stylist retired. The texturizer was very damaging, so she cut off her hair and rocked a TWA. She started growing her natural hair again, but wasn't pleased with the results or required upkeep. She is used to having others do her hair for her. Unfortunately she reverted to a relaxer two weeks ago. I didn't have the time to do her hair, combined with the fact that she isn't skilled with hair and it's very coarse she got fed up. If there was 4c category that would be my mother. I think she kept comparing my hair and her hair and was disappointed. While she was natural she basically looked unkempt. God bless her, that's my mom but her hair was a mess. It was never properly moisturized and I think going through menopause also affected her hair. So I had mixed feelings about her perming her hair. Yes it looks better than how she had it, but it's still a caustic chemical. Right now I have given her a list of products to use and tools and techniques to keep her hair healthy. One particular spot was possibly damaged by the texturizer, we don't know. But there was an adverse reaction and she has a damaged portion in the center of her hair, which is thinner than the rest. So my focus is helping her get her hair healthy again, like it was those first 22 years of my life.
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