Love is at the core of the relationship I have with my hair. But like with every single relationship you learn to know about it, to understand, sometimes hate is also something you feel.

 It’s been 5 years since I went natural, but I am still discovering things about my hair.
What’s beautiful with it is that it’s versatile, it has its mood and phases, elements pushing us to experiment and explore different types of techniques and hair products.

My hair was relaxed most of my life, to the point where I didn’t really know what my real hair would look like. Then came a moment when I could notice that my hair was curling even though it was relaxed and this pushed me to question the whole situation and led me to try the Brazilian straightening technique.
Bad idea: I lost most of my hair and had to cut everything.

I understand that some girls struggle to go for the big chop or event to go through a hair transitioning process. We have never been told to love ourselves the way we are, we’ve never been told to like our features, our hair, our skin colour…
This is a strong part of our culture that’s missing here but I am glad to see that we are now reclaiming it.

We keep questioning our beauty and who we are on a day to day basis. For instance, when I am about to go for a job interview, I am wondering what hairstyle I should wear…
Even though I love my hair, I am aware that this hair type isn’t seen as positively in the workplace. I remember starting at a new job where strict rules about outfit and appearance were in place. I asked if I could possibly come with my hair down. The response to this was: “it depends…How does this look like? Is that a messy afro or something?”

There is a lot to do in France when it comes to representation and diversity. When this will change for real, this type of questions won’t be asked anymore.