Protective Styles for my Edges....
Peace!
I tend to blog about healthy concerns. Making this blog at times entirely too serious. But I’m a girl. A girly girl at that and not the least bit ashamed. So today… We are talking about my hair!
I have had locs since 2008. I said I would either loc my hair for my 40th bornday or sooner if something traumatic happened that I felt I needed to mark the day. My father died in 2008. I had my loose hair braided so that I didn’t have to think about hair while traveling and mourning. But when the hair came down I 2-strand twisted it and never looked back. I would have allowed the braids to become locs if I had had the foresight to get box braids instead of cornrows.
When locs are short you can’t wait for them to get long. But now that mine are long I find them hard to control. Especially since I cover my hair almost all the time when I leave the house. When I run, I might run bareheaded but usually I wear a visor. That counts. Currently, my hair is passed my back bra strap. My goal is to sit on it at butt length.
Since my hair has gotten longer/heavier, and combined with the fact that I wrap it, it is starting to become damaged around the front edges. Non-wrapping folks tell me, “Oh it’s the wrap. Stop wrapping and your hair will grow back.” Um …. NO! I don’t get how folks can even fix up their faces to say something like that to me. Clearly, wrapping my head is not an option to me. It’s what I do. So I learn not to discuss certain aspects of my life in front of folks who don’t have the worldliness or concern to know that everyone doesn’t live as they do.
As my hair has gotten longer and heavier, I have noticed that I put my hair up on the top of my head rather than in a back bun. Back buns pull the hair in the front too tightly. And I noticed that my edges are getting ragged. The edge hair was always very sensitive. I noticed that when I went truly natural (no weaves or braids) my edge hair came in thicker. But that hair is so temperamental. It will come in and go out at will. I truly believe (because I’m not sure) that if (a) I could find a protective style that allows my hair to come forward and be less manipulated at the edges and (b) find a way to still cover my head my edges might be nice to me and grow in.
When I cover my head, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a full hijab like covering. I require only something on my head. It can be a beret, a church doily, etc. Now that it’s summer time, I really think I will take another look at the doily thing. But I don’t want to give the wrong impression. I could also do the NOI type of loose wrap. But it’s summer and the look of the loose hijab type of wrap coupled with short sleeves and sandals looks confused and unobservant. I don’t’ really care what people think if they are just passing by. But when you have to interact with people you must portray yourself in a way that they can relate to or else you come off as shady. People need to look at other folks and know who they are without asking. If they look at you and can’t figure you out, then they become hostile.
This is NOI loose wrap. I could probably do this in the fall and winter.
Here is the doily. I just don't want to look Pentecostal/Holiness.
This is usually what I do. I have a sewing blog where there are actual pics of me. And always, my head is adorned.
Well Serenity, if you cover your edges with a wrap, why do you care if they are raggedy? And I do get this question from folks and I never understand it. I want all of me to be healthy and pretty. That includes parts of me that no one will ever see. I clean the core of my body that no one sees. I paint my toes in the winter when I wear nothing but closed toe shoes. I have a few piercings that no one sees. I don’t do things so that others can behold, I do things so that I can behold and be joyful. When people make that comment, I actually start so look at them with suspicion. Because to follow that logic means you only clean your house when people come over. That you are a nasty and despicable human being and only do things for the cameras.
So this is my quest to find protective styles and head covering that will be kind to my hair. My first protective style will be pipe cleaner curls. Now this is really interesting because I refuse to post pics of my loose hair. So will have to take me at face value. LOL!!!
Peace.
I tend to blog about healthy concerns. Making this blog at times entirely too serious. But I’m a girl. A girly girl at that and not the least bit ashamed. So today… We are talking about my hair!
I have had locs since 2008. I said I would either loc my hair for my 40th bornday or sooner if something traumatic happened that I felt I needed to mark the day. My father died in 2008. I had my loose hair braided so that I didn’t have to think about hair while traveling and mourning. But when the hair came down I 2-strand twisted it and never looked back. I would have allowed the braids to become locs if I had had the foresight to get box braids instead of cornrows.
When locs are short you can’t wait for them to get long. But now that mine are long I find them hard to control. Especially since I cover my hair almost all the time when I leave the house. When I run, I might run bareheaded but usually I wear a visor. That counts. Currently, my hair is passed my back bra strap. My goal is to sit on it at butt length.
Since my hair has gotten longer/heavier, and combined with the fact that I wrap it, it is starting to become damaged around the front edges. Non-wrapping folks tell me, “Oh it’s the wrap. Stop wrapping and your hair will grow back.” Um …. NO! I don’t get how folks can even fix up their faces to say something like that to me. Clearly, wrapping my head is not an option to me. It’s what I do. So I learn not to discuss certain aspects of my life in front of folks who don’t have the worldliness or concern to know that everyone doesn’t live as they do.
As my hair has gotten longer and heavier, I have noticed that I put my hair up on the top of my head rather than in a back bun. Back buns pull the hair in the front too tightly. And I noticed that my edges are getting ragged. The edge hair was always very sensitive. I noticed that when I went truly natural (no weaves or braids) my edge hair came in thicker. But that hair is so temperamental. It will come in and go out at will. I truly believe (because I’m not sure) that if (a) I could find a protective style that allows my hair to come forward and be less manipulated at the edges and (b) find a way to still cover my head my edges might be nice to me and grow in.
When I cover my head, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a full hijab like covering. I require only something on my head. It can be a beret, a church doily, etc. Now that it’s summer time, I really think I will take another look at the doily thing. But I don’t want to give the wrong impression. I could also do the NOI type of loose wrap. But it’s summer and the look of the loose hijab type of wrap coupled with short sleeves and sandals looks confused and unobservant. I don’t’ really care what people think if they are just passing by. But when you have to interact with people you must portray yourself in a way that they can relate to or else you come off as shady. People need to look at other folks and know who they are without asking. If they look at you and can’t figure you out, then they become hostile.
Well Serenity, if you cover your edges with a wrap, why do you care if they are raggedy? And I do get this question from folks and I never understand it. I want all of me to be healthy and pretty. That includes parts of me that no one will ever see. I clean the core of my body that no one sees. I paint my toes in the winter when I wear nothing but closed toe shoes. I have a few piercings that no one sees. I don’t do things so that others can behold, I do things so that I can behold and be joyful. When people make that comment, I actually start so look at them with suspicion. Because to follow that logic means you only clean your house when people come over. That you are a nasty and despicable human being and only do things for the cameras.
So this is my quest to find protective styles and head covering that will be kind to my hair. My first protective style will be pipe cleaner curls. Now this is really interesting because I refuse to post pics of my loose hair. So will have to take me at face value. LOL!!!
Peace.
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