Hey blogger family....just a quick post for you all today. Had something great happen to me at church yesterday, and I wanted to share with the group and hopefully inspire you as well :)
Yesterday, after church, a fellow parishioner stopped me to compliment me on my hair. Apparently, she has been noticing my uniqueness and versatility with hair styles (that I wear on Sunday) and felt compelled to speak with me. She mentioned that she had been talking about my hair for a couple of weeks now and finally her husband suggested that she talks stops talking behind my back (that was funny) and just ask me about my hair, regimen, etc ( isn't that interesting family).
She wanted to know what I do to my hair to have it look the way it does. See, she "tried" to go natural a few months ago and it didn't work. She only allowed herself to transition for like 3 months and then she gave up...again... She was intrigued by my style and wanted to know specifically what I am doing to maneuver it AND what products I used. It sounded like she was on the fence with deciding to try to transition to naturality again, so it was only fair to pitch the case for going natural :)
So of course I did a consultation..right there in the church pew. Lol. I spoke briefly about my journey and how you have to be serious to commit to changing your hair regimen (mentioning that shea butter is my staple product) and patient with letting your natural hair grow and develop. This is a life decision (well at least in my opinion) and you have to make sure you will commit to the changes your hair (and you pschologically) will experience. I gave examples of how I wanted to give up and how I had to have a "straight talk" with myself, my ego and my self esteem. Once I was able to accept myself (and all my fabulousness) it became easier to learn how to do my hair, look in the mirror and walk with confidence. I spoke about how those around you may not support your decision, but you have to remind yourself that you are doing this for yourself, not others.
I mentioned that you can't "run to the perm" when your hair doesn't look the way you want it to (like she did before). Doing this starts the transition all over again and really defeats the purpose of the transition. You need to accept how God made you and your hair, love it unconditionally and nurture it ALWAYS....remembering we were all created in his image. I also mentioned that you have to give your hair time to heal and in the end you will not regret your decision of going natural.
I ended the discussion on some economically, but effective store brand options to get her started. Also, I suggested some possible transitional/protective styles that she can do at home. Briefly (because I had to go) I mentioned the fact that transitioning is trial and error...you may do a style that doesn't turn out the way you want at first...but don't fret....the neat thing is that you can try try again :). We agreed to do a "check in" the next time I'm at service/get back into town. As her unofficial mentor, I plan to check in with her once I return from my week of travel. Lets keep our possible transitional sista lifted.
The reason for posting this.....you never know who is watching you and also how your naturality could possibly inspire others. I know the majority of us get regular compliments on our hair, the styles and probably our confidence as well. While this may seem a little annoying (super star status..lol), you never know why you are receiving the compliments. This is the third person who has inquired about my naturality AND has been inspired to transition to wearing their natural hair just by watching me and how I carry myself. To be honest family, that makes me feel really good inside.
So I ask all of my family on here....are you inspiring others to be all they can be (in general)? Are you carrying yourself in away that others will want to model the same POSITIVE behavior that you portray? These are the questions I ask and reflect on daily as part of my overall encouragement but also improvement family. Its nice to see that my intentional attitude/character development (behavior) is working not only for my betterment, but has inspired someone else to do better as well.
The orAKAle has spoken.........
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