Why did I go natural?

I was asked on formspring: Why did you go natural?

It probably started with the African American studies classes I took towards the end of my college career. From the classes I came into a consciousness of how deep hair hatred runs in the Black community. {Many women straighten their hair to conform to a standard of beauty that is not innately their own. Little Black girls grow up thinking that a relaxer is what they are SUPPOSE to do with their hair. Most don’t realize until adulthood that there is an option to not chemically alter their hair.} It can easily be said that relaxing hair is a matter of preference, but the only way I could see to tell if I was conforming or preferring was to let the relaxer go.

Now that I am about 2 and a half years natural I love my hair, more than I ever loved it relaxed, and I feel like my hair is a perfect representation of ME. I also feel like I haven’t so much “gone natural” as I have just been myself. I live with my hair the way it grows out of my head, at this point, it seems like a simple decision.