Natural...but not like India.arie natural

So, I consider myself to be a natural woman. I hardly ever wear make-up, I keep my nails mostly unadorned and untipped, and I haven't permed my hair in almost a year. Just to clear that last one up: The word "perm" has two meanings, really. Perms for straight hair make it curly (sometimes with frizzy and unruly results). I believe those are called cold perms. Perms for kinky hair make it straight. Actually, those are called relaxers. Anyway, I used to straighten my hair.

The pursuit of straight hair has given me agony and grief my entire life. It was the spurting fountain of my low self-esteem issues all through out school. "Oh, look at M's hair! It's so nappy! Buckshots. Beady-beads. Nappy head." That's what I would usually hear. Natural hair is not looked upon kindly in some places...like the ghetto. Rule of thumb: you should keep your hair permed, weaved or otherwise tight.

So, I used to go to the beauty salon and sit in a chair at 10 am on a Saturday with loud women hooting and hollering around me at the TV. I would have my hair parted in four and slathered with smelly ( like boiled egg mixed with chemical smelly) relaxer creme put on my head. And of course I would have to wait, even when it burned badly on my scalp, until the hairdresser felt that my head was "done". And then she would wash it out. I could feel small burns all over my head. God, it was terrible. And then I'd sit under the dryer for an hour or so. After that she'd sit me in her chair and work over my head with a comb and a sizzling-hot barrel curler. Occasionally, I would jump and hiss because she had burned my eyebrow, or had gotten my ear with that thing. 5 or 6 hours later, I would get up from the seat, my hair all straight and moving like a white woman's hair, and I felt beautiful. My wallet felt 60 bucks lighter too. *sigh* I certainly won't miss that!

I'll be going in for the "big chop"soon. So I'm looking for a place (a good salon that can offer proper guidance!) that will remove the final remnants of my old stressed tress. I have reason to believe that I've got about at least an inch of *coiled* hair on my head. Exciting stuff!!

Pros of going natural: I'll be saving a ton of money. I mean every time I visited Dana in Downtown Brooklyn, NY I dropped at least 50 bucks (including tip). She was a wonder on most things, like perms and weaves. And I could appreciate the fact that she used only the finest products on her clientele... but when I started to talk to her about going natural, she was against it adamantly. All of her reasons were bogus, I realize now. She was afraid of losing a steady customer who dropped over a hundred bucks in her shop on a monthly basis. If I go natural I'll be self-sufficient and almost no hair stylist wants that.

Cons of going natural: I'm afraid I won't know how to care for the new tress. Of course, on the other hand I never knew how to care for my permed hair. Not really. It would always break off and cause me incredible amounts of grief. And those scalp scabs from the chemical burns were a real bitch. I'm sooo not going to miss those!