Quit Playing With Your Hair

"Quit playing with your hair."  Every little black girl has heard this from their mother at some point or another.  I certainly heard it from my mother. Whether my hair was freshly washed and I was playing with my still damp fro or she had just completed hours of braiding and she didn't want me to make it fuzzy.  It was always, "Quit playing with your hair."  And then later when I got it relaxed, she still didn't want me to play with it.  She knew how fragile my newly relaxed hair was and she didn't want it to break off. 

When I finally got to an age when I could do my own hair she encouraged me to do my hair and then leave it alone.  Don't play with it.  I didn't listen.  I brushed and combed, used blow dryers and curling irons, clips and hairbands.  I even did that thing where I rolled my hair up in a comb thinking that would curl it only to have to have the whole thing cut out. 

And 20 years later, here we are. I'm going natural.  One reason is I'm tired of all the damage I've done to my hair over the years playing with it.  Styling my transitioning hair I've learned one thing really quickly.  I need to quit playing with it.  Style it and then leave it alone.  My hair doesn't require that much handling.  In fact over-handling just results in a frizzy crazy looking mess.  Plus, transitioning hair is especially fragile right at the point between the natural and the relaxed hair shaft.

Today I'm rocking cornrows.  I've been experimenting and playing with my hair for weeks.  Time to give it a rest.