Doing the Most!

     



         I have been "natural" all my life and it has without question gone through some stages. When I was about 9, my mother let me loose on my own hair. I never combed it and would brush it into a ponytail on the top of my head which a teacher called "the water spout". Not until I met Shontell and Rachelle did I learn about the brilliance of gel, moose, and hair spray. With these three things, you could get your hair to withstand anything! I was hooked! By the time I was in 7 grade I was a champ. Frizz was my defeated foe (even though we lived in hot ass central Florida) because I had switched from RAVE to PUMP It UP. You couldn't tell me nothing! My hair was hard as a rock and my ponytail had that "cheerleader swing". One day in the car on my way to the rec center, my father reached out, touched my hair, and snatched it back so fast you would have thought it was a snake. He told me that my hair felt like cement and that no man was ever going to want to touch if it was like that.( It should be noted here that while I was completely boy crazy and my father's warning should have mattered, this was the 90's or as I like to call it, the I DON'T NEED A MAN ERA. I was 12 and impressionable so I bought into the hype and would let crazy things come out of my mouth.) I explained to my father it didn't matter to me if a man liked it or not because it was my hair and that the only person who has to like it is me (neck roll, snap,snap, snap)!
     Fast forward a few years to high school. I had discover Pink Oil Moisturizer (like ever other black woman on the planet at the time)  and protein gel. I still used L.A. Looks from time to time but mother said that the alcohol would break off my hair. I was now at school/friends with more black girls which truly tranlsated into "Bring on the grease!" Every oily product there was, I was using and with little to no regard for what it was doing to my hair. Oh but when it was time to take the cheese bus home I would dread the greasy spot that my hair would leave on the seat. Teenage boys were not huge fans of the grease either so from that point on, I was on a quest for balance. 
       Presently it is always my mission to make my hair as soft as possible because there is a gang of it. I mean Andre 3000 said, " I just wanna lay in her hair." which suggests to me that it oughta feel like a pillow. I have found something that provides the softness that I'm after but always have a longing to try new things. Today I tried the DIY thing with shea butter, coconut oil, and aloe vera gel. My hair has never felt softer but baby, you could fry chicken in it. Seeing as how this isn't the 80's I wonder how you explain the grease spot you put on a man's shirt when you lay your head in his chest?