For the past two days, my hair was styled into a goddess braid style. It wasn’t until I unraveled the style is when I saw how long and big my crown has grown. I decided to wear my stretched hair freely for a couple of days. Boy, oh boy! I didn’t have a clue what to do with it!

Unlike my curly styles, I needed to detangle every morning and night. I needed to moisturize every morning and night. It took work. The 4th day of wearing my stretched hair, I looked in the mirror and told it “I would’ve permed you too”.

Back in my day (wasn’t that long ago), the African American community had so many myths for natural hair care. Let me give examples and tell me if I’m wrong:

1. Putting water on your hair will make it break off.
2.  Using products like “Garnier”, “Tresemme” or “VO5” are not for us. Go get some Pantene girl.
3. You’re hair will be dry if you don’t use grease.
4. Leaving your hair in braids and not adding anything will make it grow.
5. Combing from top to bottom. (Why lord?)
6. You need shampoo to cleanse your hair. (No sulfates here no more.)
7. Trimming makes your hair grow.
8. Perms make your hair grow. Let that scalp burn chile, you look good.

Natural hair was a real struggle. We didn’t have the Shea Moisture, Carol’s Daughter, or Camille Rose Naturals hair care line to properly care for our crowns. Thank goodness for YouTube and hair blogs. We’ve learned together how to style and treat our hair. Even though, I had feelings about transitioning from permed to natural hair, I understand why my mom did it. You are forgiven. Back to the natural hair lifestyle tho…..