Naturally Me

The ever growing extension of me

coiling wild, healthy, and free

The way it was intended to be.

Naturally me.

What you’re getting is what you see.

Beautifully, genuinely, intensely, naturally me.

I love me

enough not to wear parts from another’s anatomy

Satisfied with the color, texture, and length that God gave me.

Forgive me if I am not as pretty as I could be

because I don’t wear my hair like the majority of society and my community.

But I refuse to sit back and die slowly

altering my beauty because of what you may think of me.

-Aphropuphs

4 comments May 17, 2010

Another Natural Hair Poem

I came across this poem in a book I was reading last  year, The Color Complex. I came across it again and wanted to share it with my fellow natural hair lovers. Enjoy!

“To those of my sisters who kept their naturals. Never to look a hot comb in the teeth. Sisters! I love you because you love you.” – Gwendolyn Brooks

You have not bought Blondine

You have not hailed the hot-comb recently.

You never worshipped MarilynMonroe.

You say: Farrah’s hair is hers.

You have not wanted to be white.

Nor have you testified to the adoration of that state

with the advertisement of imitation

(never successful because the hot comb is laughing too.)

But oh the rough rough Other music.

The Real.

The Right.

The natural Respect for self and seal.

Sisters!
Your hair is celebration in the world.

A poem by: Gwendolyn Brooks

Add a comment May 16, 2010

Untitled: A Natural Hair Poem

The “me” I once hated

is now the “me” that I embrace

from my expressive cheekbones

to the beautiful nose spread across my face.

A head full of tiny curls

once called unmanageable and wild

were always a mystery to me

ever since I was a child.

One day curiosity got the best of me

and as I sat in the barber’s seat

I told him to shave off everything.

I walked out with my head up high.

People asked, “You cut your hair off! Why?”

I responded with a smile,

“It’s hair, not a limb, so no need to cry.”

From the fade, to the TWA, to the BAA

I enjoyed my natural mane at every stage

I am now beautiful because I said so

wearing my hair the way God made it grow.

I’ve fallen in love with the natural hair

I was finally getting to know.

I love everything about my natural hair

from the spring of my curls to the smell of it.

I get my natural hair wet

just for the hell of it.

I can’t keep my hands out of it.

My fingers are always flirting with my hair.

I try to keep my hands occupied with other things,

but they always find their way back up there.

Free from the poison that once imprisoned me

mentally, physically, politically, and spiritually.

Confidence is at its peak

because everything you see is 100% me.

3 comments May 12, 2010

The Seed That Grew My Hair Garden

Welcome to Hair Garden! I am so pleased that you stopped by my site. I’ll use my first post to introduce myself and explain to you why I am so passionate about what I do. 

I started Hair Garden, LLC in 2009. I am a natural hair care consultant and natural hair stylist. I love HAIR  in general but have a special relationship with natural hair. It all started in middle school. My friend and I would read though Teen, Seventeen, and YM mags all day during summer break. Many of the AA models had something on their heads that we were so intrigued and curious about- their natural hair! We wondered if our hair would look like that if we stopped relaxing it. We saw pictures of ourselves when we were younger before our 1st relaxers but had no real acquaintance with our GOD given hair. Ever since those days, I have been infatuated with everything about natural hair.

I got most of my earlier experiences with natural hair from male clients before I went natural myself in 2002. This is when the cornrow fad first exploded. All the guys wanted braids and I knew how to braid! Their hair was full, beautiful and grew to amazing lengths. A lot of my friends (myself included) didn’t understand why their hair wouldn’t grow as long as the guy’s hair- The Creamy Crack! Women have been putting this product on their hair for years with the same negative results, but somehow expecting a miracle to happen. Women now know the harmful effects of this product and refuse to stop using it, because they don’t want “nappy” hair.

I did my 1st big chop in Sept 2002. In 2003, I walked into a salon wanting to get my hair cornrowed with extensions. I was greeted by bewildered looks and sympathetic smiles. I was turned away by 3 salons that day. Some asked why I wouldn’t just relax my hair, because it would ”look better.” They called other stylists in the lobby to touch and look at my hair as if I were some type of spectacle. None of them had ever dealt with natural hair and weren’t about to start that day. I was confused. I am black. I went to a black salon to get my hair braided, but they can’t do “my” hair? They were calling other salons to see if they could help this poor girl. I ended up find a stylist a week later after calling every salon in the phone book, but she had to press my hair before she could braid it. (sigh) I found 1 natural hair care salon but $100 was way out of my struggling-college-student budget.

From that point on, I dedicated my life to caring for natural hair. I was living in a college town and many of the natural students encountered this same problem. I was baffled that these experienced stylists had no idea how to deal with black hair as it grows out of our scalps. I could now understand how children were having relaxers applied to their hair before they could even walk. This is when being natural became more than just a hair style for me. This is when it became my message, my beauty, my pride, my livelihood.

I have many interests from natural hair care, natural hair politics, and holistic health to human rights, self-improvement, and dating. I am new to the blogging thing so please forgive me if I do not do things the traditional blogger way! I hope you enjoy all I have to offer! Thanks for stopping by!

3 comments May 9, 2010