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There Is An Obligation Of Honesty When You Are On A Natural Hair Journey – My Thoughts On Natural Hair “Influencers”

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 chemically- 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.

Also, because I am Nigerian, the only way I thought I could go 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 <a href=”http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/2zVZ3JmAy”>weave</a> 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, <em>why did he say that when my weave was clearly on fleek;</em> 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?”