After not wearing straight hair for almost 8 years, the day I tried, I was asked nicely to take it off, by my daughter.
Growing up I had straight hair; it was never really a big deal because the natural hair movement was not as strong as it is now.
I then decided to do the big chop in 2008 after giving birth to my daughter. I grew an afro and fell in love with natural hair, I was so in love with natural hair that I made a vouch to never straighten my daughter’s hair and that’s exactly what I’ve done.
I haven’t had straight hair since I did the big chop which means my kid has never seen me with straight hair until last weekend. I’ve been craving straight hair for a couple of months now and two weeks ago I decided to get a straight wig, which I love by the way.
The SAMAs were held in Durban, my hometown and this excited me because I was going to see my daughter and wear my wig for the first time in public, until I got home.
Here’s how the conversation went
Daughter: Why are you wearing the wig?
Me: My natural hair is dirty baby and I’m going to an event.
Daughter: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your natural hair, its not that dirty.
Me: Where is this conversation going? Do you have a problem with my wig?
Daughter: Yea, I don’t like it. You don’t look like yourself when you wear it, you look like a completely different person and I just like you better with your natural hair.
It didn’t take anything from me, I immediately took off my wig and went to the event looking like this.
What I did get from our conversation is that I didn’t realize how conscious my daughter is. I was so impressed and proud of her for knowing and understanding the importance of natural hair, though I’ve never had a conversation with her about loving her hair, clearly she’s been watching.
Side bar: I will be wearing my wig soon though. LOL