Okay. So I've started this blog just so that I can document the journey I will be embarking on in a day or so. My Sisterlocks Journey. I'll be able to use this neat medium to talk about how they influence my life...what having them really entails...and ensure there is one more public, and hopefully informative, place for many other girls, women, etc to continue productive research on the subject.
I'm new to this whole blogging thing, and I would've actually never considered setting one up if I hadn't been rendered aware of the fact that WE NEED MORE SISTERLOCK SISTERS OUT THERE ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT THE JOURNEY...LOL! I have been natural for a good portion of my life (I am 17), but that doesn't necessarily mean my hair habits were always natural. I braided my hair most of my life, and when I wasn't braiding it, I was blow drying it at the Dominican salons I live near (Not Good!!). So in reality, I've been natural for a good amount of time, but never really knew what it felt like to wear my own hair as it is (it's a shame, I know). It wasn't until a year ago that I stopped braiding and blow-drying my hair, and I started treating my hair the way it needed to be treated.
I really have no other way to put this so I'll put it like this: I fell in love with my hair; everything about it from its texture to how it feels when I'm washing it. Realizing how free and real I felt with my own hair was bittersweet: I was happy to have found somewhat of a solace in myself, but I couldn't get over the fact that I had wasted so many years basically covering up something truly and irrevocably beautiful. It wasn't until I decided --on a pure and complete whim--to braid my hair again that I came to the decision that I wanted Sisterlocks. I was sitting in the salon literally cringing at how tight and uncomfortable it felt for the hairdresser to be putting synthetic hair in my head and came to the immediate and rash decision that I wanted locks. I never wanted to feel fake (human or synthetic) hair in my head again!
Now, I believe that people are entitled to their own autonomy; if they want to wear wigs, weaves, braids etc. it is obviously and rightfully up to them. But for me, personally, I don't think it's fair to my hair, my well-being or self-image. I believe that I utterly am what I portray and if I can't wear my own hair I'm sending out a message-that at any moment-can be misinterpreted by the masses. "She doesn't know who she is." "She isn't proud of who she is naturally." Other's perception of my self-dignity status plays a role (I admit) but my contentment in the matter plays the predominant role and quite frankly I am content with my natural hair.
I started researching the infamous Sisterlocks. From internet blogs (although not many), google images, youtube videos, and Facebook pages I was a sponge and anything having to do with Sisterlocks in anyway was the water. I found them and still find them completely beautiful! They are so unique and small (hence wonderful for a wide variety of styles). By personal accounts I have watched and read up on it seems as if they afford wearers a freedom that I believe the average Black American (Or for that matter any woman who feels inclined to alter the structure of their hair or hide their hair underneath synthetic hair) has never truly experienced.
Our environment has taught us to believe that if it's not straight and shimmering, or at least braided and European in features, it is not acceptable. This is simply not the case and if every woman suppressing their natural state would break free of this fallacy's chains society would be forced if not even happy to accept the NATURAL in us. The naps and the tight coils...the thickness and resilience...these are traits only seen as unappealing if labeled and treated so. Long story short, I think Sisterlocks is the answer; the perfect medium for which more and more women of color (and others as well) can experience a freedom with their natural hair...never experienced before.
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