Forgive Me- Natural Hair ‘Moments’

by Noni of Three Naturals

We all are familiar with the importance of forgiving others and the issues that prolonged bitterness can cause. But we don’t often speak about forgiving ourselves for past stupid choices. And even more rarely do we speak about forgiving our hair…
Just follow me for a moment.

If you’ve ever experienced the following you have suffered hair unforgiveness:

Situation 1– You wake up late and have limited time to get ready for work. You start to take down your twists (or whatever you’ve done to set your hair the night before). Your hair though had ideas of its own and refused to dry while you slept.
Reaction -Aarrgh, followed by being pissed the remainder of that morning at work.

Situation 2 -You’ve just watched another 12 minute hair tutorial on YouTube. Defeated, you log off your computer. Her hair looks wicked but that will never work for you. You don’t have her curl pattern.
Reaction – Aarrgh, followed by being pissed that you can’t achieve that style or look.

Situation 3 – You’re excited because your favourite band is coming to town. You got tickets months ago and you just found out that you have an opportunity to meet the band after the show at an exclusive VIP event. As the night goes on, so does your ‘ms. independent’ hair, frizzing to oblivion.
Reaction – Aarrgh, followed by being pissed that what you looked like when you left the house has become a distant memory… your hair looks vastly different, perhaps a little homeless.

Sounds familiar? Don’t worry, there is a remedy for this type of unforgiveness too. It’s called perspective. The key to forgiving your hair is to look for the light in every situation.
Let’s revisit the situations and plug in perspective.

Situation 1 – Waking up with wet hair and 7 minutes to get ready for work…
Reaction – That unexpected wet hair in the morning nurtured your ability to think outside the box, deal with the inevitable changes of life and use skills that will come in handy when your boss requests you implement major changes to a proposal due in the next half hour.

Situation 2 – youtube Hair tutorials = youhair depression…
Reaction – So you don’t have her curl pattern, her length, her DNA. What to do? Love what you’ve been given. While you can’t do what others can, know that you CAN do what others can’t. Nothing about you is an accident. Embrace your inner curly to inspire yourself and those around you.

Situation 3 – Uninvited frizzing at an inopportune time…
Reaction – So you had a werewolf moment and instead of morphing during a full moon you transformed during a hot, humid, but killing concert. Hey, you were able to keep your cool as the expansion happened and maintain your funky. By the time you took your treasured photo with the band you looked like a cool, confident, fashion-forward naturalista.

My point?
Unforgiveness is a bitter pill and a slippery slope. Forgiveness is a tree of life. Plus, it’s not your hair. It’s never been your hair that has caused your angst. Change your perspective, practice forgiveness in every situation and be better for it.