Friday Rap Up - Going Natural

Earlier this week I told you all that I am now starting my natural hair journey. I will be no longer relaxing my hair. I've received mixed reviews; some people say DON'T DO IT, while others are excited about the change. Me, I'm excited. I found an old picture of me at one of my birthday parties (pre-relaxer) and my hair was absolutely gorgeous. It had more of a wave pattern than a curl and it just flowed all the way down my back. The picture is pretty dark so I'll have to try to lighten it up in Photoshop or something and I'll post it on here for y'all to see.

Anyway, hopefully those of you who see me on a regular basis will excuse my upcoming trip to NappyLand and embrace the new hairstyles I will be trying. Laughing and pointing is not acceptable (applauding, however, is).

Get Nappy y'all!

Natural or Bust!

I've decided to do it. I'm going natural. I'm going to grow out this chemically straightened hair of mine and let my natural, god-given, curl pattern show through. A lot of people (Kuh Reel Yuh, Lynn, etc.) don't think I'm actually gonna go through with this. Let's talk about this, I did just meet a guy; he probably likes my hair as is. However, I told him that I'm thinking about cutting my hair off and starting over; he sounded concerned, but not so much that if we were to become something more it would pose a problem. Either way, I've decided that my last relaxer will be my last relaxer.

I'm a bit nervous about this transition though, just because I haven't seen my natural hair since 5th grade. I just remember my hair being long and thick and not wanting a comb anywhere near me. I don't really know why, when my 10 year high school reunion is coming up, when I just met a really nice guy, why I would even venture into this natural hair journey now? I'm doing it, and I don't know what I'll be looking like for the next couple of months, but I'll definitely keep you posted.

I wish I had my MooMoo's natural curls:

But ultimately, I want my hair to look like this: Which may be a feat considering that Tracee Ellis Ross is mixed. But you see my MooMoo's hair, I got some mixin' going on somewhere in the chain. I just hope it shows, teehee.

When I get further along, I will start a natural hair journal on Fotki, I'll be sure to post the link on here as well. For now, here's my 4 weeks past a relaxer picture:
Nappdom, here I come.

A Dominican saved my life.

So we all know that I've been dealing with uncontrollable hair nappage lately. It's been highly inappropriate and almost offensive. Yesterday my scalp started hurting because even it is tired of the naps.

Here's the proof:
I had heard that Dominican salons do great African American hair and most are open on Mondays. Last night I did some research online and found out that most people think Lilly's Hair Salon is the place to go in Atlanta for Dominican treatment. I left my house at 11:15 this morning and got to the shop in Norcross in about 25 minutes. When I signed in I noticed that every hairdresser was of hispanic descent except this one lady in the back. She was a black woman with a red and black weave who looked to be the outcast of the group. I didn't want her. I know that sounds bad, but why go to a Dominican shop to have a black lady do my hair. I looked at the sign in sheet and noticed that a lot of people had requested Ada. After asking the lady at the desk which one was Ada (and that she wasn't homegirl), I requested her too.

When she pulled me back for a wash, I told her that I needed a relaxer. She looked through my hair and called another girl over to translate that my color looked too new and that I would have to wait 4 more weeks for a relaxer to be safe. I did my color a month ago; waiting 4 more weeks would mean NO relaxer for 12 weeks! That's unheard of. I went ahead with the wash and set though because in some of the reviews I'd read online people were saying because of the Dominican hair salons they were never going to relax again. I didn't know how she was gonna do it, but I just hoped Ada could work her magic and get my hair as straight as could be without chemicals.

She put a treatment on my hair (don't know what it was; it smelled just like regular hair grease from back in the day) and sat me under the dryer for maybe 15 minutes. It was then that I realized that "homegirl" that I didn't want to do my hair wasn't black, she was Dominican too. She was espanoling all over the place. I activated the shun on myself because I had prejudged. Damn me!

So in the end, I found out that Dominicans almost style like the Eygptians back home in Chicago (shout out to Osama's!) except Dominicans roll your hair first (I hate sitting under the dryer) and at Osama's in Chicago they just blow you dry. After the sitting under the dryer for an hour (damn you thick hair), Ada used a blowdryer on extra, EXTRA high heat and a regular brush and straightened my hair. She got the naps in the front, on the side, them beebees in the back, everywhere!

My hair isn't bone straight on the edges but considering the fact that I was NAPolean Dynomite three hours prior, I'm very pleased. AND it was only $38! (I know, I thought that was a random price too, maybe that grease treatment she gave me costed $8.) I don't exactly know how long this blowed straight style is supposed to keep the nappagery at bay, but I'm planning on going back in two weeks for another round.

Ta-Daaaaaa:

Friday Rap Up - My naps won't quit

I've been in Atlanta for about 2 years now. It's the 6th state I've lived in and the only state where I haven't been able to find a good hairdresser. I've been to like 10 beauticians (maybe more) across the metro area (expensive, cheap, ghetto, etc) to no avail. I'm not afraid to ask people with cute hair who styled them, but it seems stylists out here can't ever get my hair right. I always come out of the shop looking like I could've done my doobie at home.
*A doobie (also known as a roller wrap) is when your hair is set in rollers, then styled.*

I'm tempted to drive 3 and a half hours away to Charlotte and hit up my old stylist. Shame, huh?

Enjoy the nappagery!




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Tonight at midnight will be the cut off for FRU topic submissions for next week's rap. So go to the entry post and let me know what you wanna hear. Voting will begin tomorrow.