My story is simple. I went natural in January 2001 while I was living in Lethbridge, Canada. And after a very brief encounter with a texturizer, I have been natural ever since. My hair has grown the longest since I became natural. However, I am scissors happy. My whole family seems to be that way. My two sisters and I are all natural but we seem to cut our hair randomly. Maybe it’s DNA (my mom has a teeny weeny afro). But since I started visiting this blog, I have made up my mind to leave the scissors alone and grow my hair as long as possible while incorporating good hair practices into my regime. (Those scissors seem sooo appealing some times so God is gonna have to help me on this one ☺)
I learnt to take care of my hair while living in Canada. There were few black salons there and my sister did hair so I picked up skills here and there from her and from nappturality.com. Having natural hair in Lagos is neither here nor there. I don’t really notice that my hair is different anymore because I have been natural for about 8 or 9 years so it’s just part of my life.
I admit I do get some funny comments like my aunt asked me once why I don’t ‘do’ my hair. I told her it was because I was ‘too cool’. The last ‘encounter’ I had turned out to be really hilarious. I was at a community development group and I had my weeks old twists pined with a clip on the left side. Then a lady said to me: “your hair is very rough” and I replied: “It’s meant to look this way”. This resulted in two relaxed haired ladies who overheard the exchange educating the other one on how my hair was supposed to look like that because it was natural and blah, blah, blah. I thought it was too funny cause I was quiet all the while and they helped me to educate my friend. Priceless.
I work in a creative environment (filmmaking and writing) so nobody really bothers me much. In fact my boss once asked me why I took out my twists since they were nice. So in a way I guess I fit the ‘stereotype’ of the artsy girl with the natural hair. What else can I say? Nothing much really. It’s my hair and I like it and I don’t have to apologize for it.
Oghomwen is a Nigerian filmmaker, poet, writer and entrepreneur. She completed a B.A. at Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS and a diploma in Film Production at the Toronto Film School. In June 2009, she hosted one of the first natural hair gatherings ever in Lagos, Nigeria. Oghomwen blogs at www.generationmakeithappen. blogspot.com, http://writingexamples.blogspot.com/ and www.secretsthemovie.blogspot.com.
13 comments:
Nice story and the puff is too cute for words!
Oooh, I can't wait to have my hair as long as her second picture. More so, I have a really kinky hair texture, and I'm excited to see a woman with long hair that has the same hair texture as me! It can be done! LOL
Damn, the first pic brings back memories of being five and rejecting bribes of Cabin biscuit because I didn't want to braid my hair that week (usually in that style, lol).
I'm only 8 months post-relaxer but you all inspire me to 'go the distance', I can also relate to the scissor happy behaviour; I recently BC'ed but cut off about three months growth because the ends 'looked wavy' so now I've been banned from the scissors!
I'm always interested in the reactions natural hair gets in Nigeria (especially as I'm going in December and hoping to avoid drama), it seems to be a truly mixed bag.
Did you find that because many members of your family are natural (as well) made the journey a lot simpler?
I love this story. Being Nigerian myself, I am always subject to the "why dont you do your hair?" I wont even mention the things I heard back when I had my loc's. Man, I stood true then and have since 98. This is great!
so many fellow nigerians! i guess it makes sense seeing as we are the most populated black nation, but all the sadder that we're facing issues of acceptance for looking like ourselves. lovely hair :-)
Great hair! Love the puff!
@ Jc, thanks
@Nwanefuru, yeah I totally remember being bribed with biscuits when I was little just so they could make my hair without me crying.
I would say that having all the other women natural in my family totally helps because I don't think the men in my family really understand what we are doing. LOL.
@ J. Gracey, thanks as well.
hey. cool photos, great post!
aaaaaaw i love seeing a fellow natural naijan :) absolutely beautiful hair - those cornrows are stunning!!!
i love her hair!!
Oh the braids are gorgeous. I'm just able to pull my hair back into two little afro puffs, so it's definitely encouraging to see how much is possible with time.
I agree with Dali about having a similar texture and being excited about reaching that length lol! And go Nigerians! I'm loving the representation on this blog!
I'm late to this post. Beautiful hair. Oghomwen always wears the coolest styles.
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