To Press or Relax (a reflection)

The black woman's burden is centered around our crowning glory--our hair. My grandmother (God bless her soul) was so petrified by my hair that she secretly had her hairstylist apply chemical relaxer to my hair at age three (of course, my mother was livid). My hair has been a serious obsession ever since. After spending the earliest portion of my hair years growing out a relaxer and transitioning to a press, I began to visit Ms. Henrietta. Ms. Henrietta was a old school hairdresser who at some point migrated to Chicago from the dirty long before I was ever thought of. In my memories, my cousin and I would wake up at 6:00am on Saturday morning to head the westside of Chicago for our 7:15 appointment w/Ms. Henrietta. I recall waiting in the hairshop for an eternity as Ms. H pressed my hair with one hand and ate a pigfoot drenched in hotsauce with the other. Pigs feet and greens were one of the delicacies of Ms. Henrietta's hair shop. In fact, I ate my first pigs foot at the salon...lol, I was such a greedy child. As I got older, I thought I was too good for the Pig Feet shop. I wanted a relaxer and considered the pressed look old fashioned. I got my approved relaxer at the age of 10 and my hair has been a pain in my ass ever since. As a grown woman in LA, where the press and curl is ever present, I find myself trying to become unshackled by chemical treatments. I haven't seen my hair in its natural state in God knows how long. I am excited to meet myself again...the way God made me. I think my reasons for shying away from non-chemically treated hair is because I didn't feel strong enough to be myself. In fact, I was afraid to see what "myself" looked like. Maybe this step will allow me to transition to a larger step which would be freeing myself from straighteners all together. We all grow in different phases.

P.S. I think I am upset with the limitations accentric culture as placed on a woman's beauty. When I see my sisters who have released themselves from chemical treatments, my heart is proud...I am motivated because that is the level of freedom I desire to experience.

Moment of Truth,
DOC