Let's Talk Hair

I recently decided to go natural meaning I plan to stop perming/relaxing my hair. I don't have any deep or meaningful reasons, I just felt like it really. My best friend has natural hair and I therefore decided to ask her what I could do with my hair now that I couldn't wear it in my usual straight and sleek shoulder length way. She advised me to go on Youtube and look for ideas and nothing could have prepared me for what I discovered.

First of all, I thought I would find 20, maybe 50, videos on hair care and was surprised to discover that there are an endless amount of videos dedicated to hair! Secondly, each video had thousands of views! And lastly they had their own language! For those of you who knew this hair community existed you are probably thinking I'm over reacting but I can assure you I had no idea that so many people thought hair was so important that they needed to spend their time making videos about it.

Now, whereas I found some video tutorials quite helpful, I feel this whole hair thing is absolutely ridiculous! We are talking about dead protein here! I had women telling me they spent 9 hours on washing their hair the 'right way' and did so three times a week! Do these women have anything going on in their lives because I can't see anyone with a 9-5 Monday to Friday spending 27 hours a week on hair, it's a joke!

Also I could barely follow what they were saying due to the terms being used! Is hair so important that it requires its own language!? Some examples include:

* Big chop - when you choose to stop perming/relaxing and cut all your chemically treated ends off

* TWA - Teeny Weeny Afro

* Co-wash - when you replace you shampoo with conditioner therefore 'conditioner washing' your hair

* Braid outs - when you plait your hair the night before and take it out in the morning leaving your hair curly

* Transitioning hair - going from permed/relaxed hair to natural (chemically untreated) hair without the big chop

The other problem I found with these videos is that none of the 'teachers' had afro hair. I know that the term 'black hair' is widely used but there is a distinct difference between the hair of a black person with mixed heritage and afro hair therefore, for all the thousands of videos available online, an afro haired person would receive no help whatsoever!

Don't get me wrong, I do feel hair is an important part of a woman's appearance and I agree that it can make or break your look but to spend so much time on it that you're making weekly video updates is ridiculous. There are children starving all over the world, if you've got that much time on your hands go and volunteer in countries than need your help!

Hair is beauty but its nice when it comes with some brains!