haircut 9/7/11

I'm so excited about my hair! I'm in a process of transition that has me a little bit giddy. After about 15 years of wearing locs I cut them on September 7,2011. I'd thought about cutting them for years but never quite had the courage to do so. I allowed my fears of looking funny with no hair hinder me. I worried that I needed to get my "skin just right" before I could make such a drastic move. I felt that I wouldn't like my reflection or that my husband or sons would worry that their friends thought I looked like a boy. I let all my fears stop me. But something curious happened as I awaited the birth of my son. I became fearless. And just like that I asked my husband to cut off all of my locs...and he did.

So for the past 6 months I've been sporting about an inch of hear on my head. It's been wonderful! I get up and brush it. I make a trip to the barber every two weeks and for about $10 dollars I get my hair right. My plan was to keep it super short throughout the summer and maybe in the fall start growing it out again; but being the complete Gemini that I am I decided last week that to heck with the summer...I want to start growing it out now!

I haven't had my hair natural and bushy in about 20 years. When I was 18 years old I decided to grow out my perm and embrace my natural kinky hair. At that time it was not popular to have "nappy" hair but for my entire college years I kept it funky which was quite against the grain. I didn't really know what to do with my hair so I'd keep it pulled back and sometimes braided until at 23 I decided to loc it. My locs grew beautifully over the years and for the majority of that journey I enjoyed my hair. Like most black women I didn't think my hair could grow, but my locs defied that myth and they grew well past my shoulders. I'd curl them and style them and they were..me.

But over time I found myself having a deep desire to cut them off. My ex husband had started them while we were dating and I couldn't help but feel that I was carrying around his energy in my hair still. I believed, as I still do, that our hair carries energy. With locs, there is so much energy contained in each loc, and I felt myself needed to let go. The catharsis I experienced when my hair was cut was liberating. I felt a rebirth with them gone.

Now here I am, at 38, ready to start over and I'm so excited about this journey I'm about to take. I'm sure I'll have days I won't love how my hair looks but I can feel the peace deep within that no matter what it will be beautiful. This is the second half of my natural hair journey and I just know the best is yet to come......