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| CocoaBrownCurlsXo |
normal weekend routine of laundry, food shopping, and of course…wash day. For
over the past 7 years I have proudly navigated my natural hair journey. I have
gone years at a time without applying heat. I have had moments of being a
strict follower of the Curly Girl Method. I have washed and styled and
washed some more. My journey has certainly been my own, and I have truly
embraced all things “natural” about my curls. Well, all things except for the ever
so noticeable silver streaks no longer sporadically placed upon my head.
As I think back to a younger, less stressed, and certainly
less tired me, I cannot think of a time when my tresses weren’t sprinkled with
a grey hair or two. Even as a little girl, I was always flattered when adults
would say things like “Oh, I see you have a few grey hairs! You must be so
smart!” or “I see your wisdom streak.” My two or three grey hairs growing from
my temple became a stripe of honor. I felt proud, wise, and unique. As I
continued to grow into my teenage years, my long waist-length straight natural
hair cascaded down my back. My streak of silky grey strands always flowed and
stayed neatly tucked behind my ear. I never felt ashamed or the need to hide my silver truth. I seemed to
get positive reactions and attention. Then in my mid-twenties….I went NATURAL
NATURAL.
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| CocoaBrownCurlsXo |
Gone were the days of my waist-length hair. Now I found myself trying
to embrace my curl pattern and learning to accept the love/hate relationship I
was having with shrinkage. My grey hairs no longer had their silky sleek
appearance but were now coiled and unruly. Instead of a stripe of honor they
now felt more like an eye sore! What started as two to three strands quickly
multiplied into an entire army of salt and pepper protestors. It seemed as if
every time I experienced a major life event, or even stubbed my toe too hard, a
new grey hair would pop up. Whereas they were all once strategically placed at
the front center of my head I began to see them pop up on both the right and
left temple. There were greys in the center, grey hair near my ears, grey hairs
in my kitchen, grey hair EVERYWHERE! How could this be? I had yet to reach my
thirties, however my hair seemed more like I was age appropriate for a mid-life
crisis. I began to draw more and more attention and to me the comments
seemed less flattering. Now I heard remarks such as “Oh girl, is that grey I
see?” and “Oh honey, you’re so young to have all that grey.” To my surprise,
even those who grew up with me would often say, “Did you always have that grey
hair?” as if having straight grey hair was acceptable but now that it’s coily
grey hair they don’t remember ever complimenting it. Talk about quick shots to
my ego!
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| CocoaBrownCurlsXo |
accepting using a flat iron roughly 2-3 times per year. As it became harder to
embrace the multiplying grey I found myself applying heat more often and thus
causing major damage to my hair cuticle. When seeing an abundance of long silky
grey hair was no longer keeping me sane I unfortunately took matters into my
own hands. I discovered my ability to apply box color! Insert horrifying
screams and sighs of disappointment. Yes curlfriends, I became that girl that
naively applied box color to my tresses every few weeks because now that I was
presenting myself to the world with this perfect shade of Clairol Natural
Instincts Black Midnight #2 there was NO WAY I could be seen as that old tired
grey streaked girl again right?! Box after box I slowly began to ruin my curl
pattern for the sake of vanity. I found myself frustrated with my now damaged
hair but too ashamed of my grey to stop applying color. My grey hair was no
longer viewed as cute, or signs of earned wisdom. I associated the grey to the
exhaustion of being a wife, a mother, a full-time corporate healthcare worker,
friend, sister, daughter. I thought as each grey showed itself this was a sign
to the rest of the world that I wasn’t handling being an adult very well.
insecurity about my grey strands had only increased. Day after day, I saw
myself scrolling past and supporting other curly girls my age and even older
who were yet to show any signs of grey. I felt very out of place and even more
so like I wasn’t aging gracefully. I began to compare my overall beauty and
base it partially on my hair color. Although my husband compliments me all the
time, my marriage became affected in the sense that I struggled with feeling
attractive despite his reassurance that I am beautiful, grey hair and all. It
wasn’t until I began to search for other curly girls that I could relate to
that I began to ease up on myself. Natural hair blogger Naptural85 was someone
I found the most relatable to my own journey. She is young, she is a wife, she
is a mother of now two, she is absolutely gorgeous, and she too has a streak of
grey hair in the same spot as me. As time went on I realized her hair is
sprinkled with grey strands, and although she has various YouTube tutorials
dying her hair, her motive to dye never seemed to be fueled by lack of
confidence due to her grey strands. The more I watched Naptural85 the more I
realized I needed to include more silver strands in my newsfeed. I began to
follow Gabrielle Bass, Naturalsilversista, and MzCurlyRizos just to name a few.
My confidence began to slowly rise.
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| CocoaBrownCurlsXo |
Through it all, seeing other women embrace their grey
strands has certainly helped me to not be as anxious about going grey at such
an early age. Not only do I want to continue to grow in my confidence, but I
also want to open the conversation about my struggles with other women. Now,
this is not to say that I don’t still have my moments. Yes, I’ve personally
chosen not to alter my hair color, but there are certainly days that I feel
overwhelmed and find myself trying different hairstyles that will hide most of
the grey. I no longer want to feel a sense of shame tied to the color of my
hair but instead I want to embrace how this makes me unique. Not only will
opening the discussion to other women let them know that they are not alone,
but it will also help me to continue to embrace my now natural GREY hair
journey. So, cheers to getting older, wiser, and greying gracefully.
