When I decided to go back to being natural, it wasn’t an easy decision to make. The process was an intimidating one for me and for many young women who decide to transition, especially if you have worn chemically relaxed hair for a number of years.

There are many of us who found that it’s not an easy decision to make on your own. For people like us we look for inspiration from others such as friends, family, bloggers, vloggers and YouTube channels of people who are openly natural.

We dig into their history to find out what made them return to natural hair, the first steps they took, the difficulties, the setbacks, the comebacks and much more.

It’s exciting and helpful to see the wonderful “before and after” images, the do it yourself mixes, the hairstyles and techniques on that person’s natural hair journey. We want to know how that person got back to their natural hair and became comfortable in wearing it out confidently hoping that it gives us that little push we need to make that step for ourselves.

It often makes us question, “can I do it just like she did?”. What I learned from the natural hair journey of others that I followed helped me to finally decide to go natural myself.

We know that at the end of the day you have to decide for yourself; however, the decision can be greatly affected by the information we learn through those we consult with on our conquest to being natural again. These are the individuals I like to call natural hair ‘influencers’.

They share their journey through a social medium and as such can have a great impact on the people that happen to be enamored with their journey.

My story is unique but not uncommon. I never knew I would be natural and like many others, my hair was relaxed every 4- 6 weeks without missing a beat.

My hair was lifeless and it hardly looked lustrous unless I went to the salon. When I did go to the salon I always walked out feeling like a “boss” and twirled all the way to my “boss” car, which at that time was a Mazda Protégé (don’t laugh, it was a BMW in my head)  .

I never could see myself as natural because it just wasn’t something common in my environment and it had a negative connotation attached to it.

I thought the only way I could go back to natural was to cut all my relaxed hair off to a TWA. This was not going to work for me.

There was also my attachment to <a href=”http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/2zVZ3JmAy”>weaves</a> which was another reason for me not to entertain the idea of going natural because weaves gave me an alternative and straight hair was my norm.

When I finally decided to be natural it was a decision I could not have made on my own. As mentioned before, I never entertained the idea so I couldn’t picture it happening, yet for some reason, if I were to be truly honest, I had to admit that being natural was on my mind.

One day I did a fresh sew-in on my hair and I was definitely feeling glamorous. You know how we ladies get with a fresh sew-in of 20-inch hair (hey runway!).

Well, my handsome older brother came over and as soon as he walked in he said these impacting words to me: “You’re not you behind that “weave” or that white stuff (relaxers) that makes your hair flat like paper. Just be natural, it’s you!”

I looked at him in bewilderment thinking, why did he say that when my weave was clearly on fleek; however, I did understand him because I knew it was not the authentic me. The authentic me is who I needed to feel right with and that drive is what led me to begin my natural hair journey.

I immediately grabbed my laptop and googled “how to go natural”. So many blogs, vlogs, and videos popped up of people sharing their natural hair with the world. These women became influential in my journey and as such I realized how important their obligation was to a person like me who was just starting out.

As natural hair influencers we have an obligation to those who are not natural but are curious to convert to being natural. Our obligation is to encourage them through the authenticity of our own natural hair journey that we are sharing openly online.

Now wait a minute. Before you jump up, smack your lips like Shanae-Nae and say, “I don’t owe anybody nothing, my hair is my hair”, let me explain. I believe that natural hair influencers who chose to use social media to blog about their journey hold an obligation of honesty.

When we begin to video blog, post pictures, write articles about our natural hair we are doing so in order to reach out to other naturals and inquiring minds who are considering becoming natural again.

Our obligation is to encourage viewers to go natural by being authentic with what we share. This obligation is heightened the moment you receive an inquiry from a curious follower of your social media presence asking you “How do you go natural?”

4c hair is beautiful, lovely, lively, and so much more. If you care for it well it will show. When you have a realistic outlook on what your texture is and the reactions it gives you it makes the journey a lot more enjoyable. It’s my wash day and I just want to chat about caring, maintaining, loving and living in your 4c natural hair.

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We call the new editor Gutenberg. The entire editing experience has been rebuilt for media rich pages and posts. Experience the flexibility that blocks will bring, whether you are building your first site, or write code for a living.

It seems that Gutenberg has been a term of controversy in the world of WordPress lately. Hailed as the most significant change to WordPress 5.0 this year, the Gutenberg editor has received a positive response from web developers and regular folk alike. All of this power is making it awesome.

Wider Galleries

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What does Gutenberg Change

The sole purpose of the Gutenberg editor is to provide an alternative to the current open text editor, not to mention the difficult-to-remember shortcodes, with an agile and visual user interface (UI). So, unlike the current WordPress editor, you don’t have to:

• import images, multimedia and approved files from the media library or add HTML shortcodes;
• copy and paste links for embeds;
• write shortcodes for specialized assets of different plugins;
• create featured images to be added at the top of a post or page;
• add excerpts for subheads;
• add widgets for content on the side of a page.

Consider a block as the most basic (therefore, smallest) unit of the new editor.

Only a quarter of young adults are financially literate. You don’t want to overwhelm them.

Shane Doe, Entrepreneur.

They will be the building blocks of WordPress 5.0. In other words, everything—including content, images, quotes, galleries, cover images, audio, video, headings, embeds, custom codes, paragraphs, separators and buttons—will turn into distinct blocks.

Because you can drag and drop each block, identifying these items and placing them on the page becomes a lot easier.

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Tables? You got them.

Adding a table using custom HTML code was a tedious job. With the table block, however, the task is a lot easier. You are able to add and remove rows and columns of a table without coding.

ID	First Name	Last Name	Profession
1.	John	Doe	Entrepreneur
2.	Shane	Tripp	Writer
3.	Groot	Will	Web Designer
4.	Jemma	Kindle	Robot

Gutenberg ❤️ Columns

Finally, yes. Columns are available natively in WordPress now. You can align them normal, wide or full in full-width post styles.

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More for Images 

As of Gutenberg 0.5.0, you can now drag and drop images directly into an image block, just like you are used to with the visual editor. And there are several new alignments available with CheerUp.

Above is an image Align Full Width, that works with our Full Width post style.

Besides just having the standard blockquote which we have been using for years, they also have a new pull quote. And yes, pull quotes are different.

It is also nice to see some variations on the positioning of the blocks. For years, the standard visual editor has given you the ability to align left, align center, align right, and assign no alignment.

With the Gutenberg WordPress editor, you can also align wide (as seen below), and align full-width. 

Blocks are a great new tool for building engaging content. With blocks, you can insert, rearrange, and style multimedia content with very little technical knowledge.

A single block is nice—reliable, clear, distinct. Discover the flexibility to use media and content, side by side, driven by your vision. A single block is nice—reliable, clear, distinct. Discover the flexibility to use media and content, side by side, driven by your vision of the future.

 

More Gutenberg Blocks

Gutenberg comes with new buttons that work right out of the box with CheerUp. 

Gutenberg is available as a plugin now, and soon by default in version 5.0 of WordPress. The classic editor will be available as a plugin if needed.

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Whether you like it or not, Gutenberg is coming to WordPress 5.0. Do try to be a part of it.

Smashing Mag

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There’s a lot more…

We can only show so many of the blocks without bloating the page to excessive size. There many more Gutenberg blocks that just work. And this is just the beginning. Very exciting times ahead.

Gutenberg is primed to shape the future of WordPress with v5.0 default editor. Do try to be a part of the ongoing discussion about it on the web. It will certainly help.