Friday, March 28, 2014

Natural Hair: Why Hair length now matters

By Briana Whiteside

Before I went natural in 2013, I did not have a problem with the length of my hair. I knew that at best I would have shoulder length hair. I was used to it, these were the effects of a relaxer on my hair, I was cool.

When I big chopped; however, I noticed I developed a hair-length complex. I say hair-length complex to refer to the monthly growth checks that I do. I stand in the mirror and stretch various sections of my hair to see where they stop on my body. Then, I proceed to use a tape measurer for the accurate inches.

This is a monthly routine on the 17th of every month. As the 17th marks the date that I big chopped back in May 2013. Yet, I didn’t realize the severity of hair length matter until I went to get my hair done professionally and got 1’’ of my hair cut off. Split ends!

One inch didn’t seem like a lot when she said it, but to visually see 1”, which converts to two months of hair growth, gone off my head was a different story. I almost freaked out as I felt that I had been set back two months of progress.

Although I realize that having long hair is not as important as having healthy hair, I can’t negate the effort it took to grow my hair for 10 months. Hair length matters to me.


Briana Whiteside is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.     

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