Natural Hair Journey Mardnie C Mentor

Do you know what your hair type is? Probably not, I have natural 3c-4a hair. Beyond interesting trivial, I honestly care less as to what my hair texture is, but at one point in my life I felt as if my hair texture would either make me or break me. Society doesn't help with this internal battle for black teens in America either. The standard of beauty is unrealistic for most and causes them to want to change who they are and become someone they're not. Growing up I wanted to have pin straight hair like all the white girls, because that’s all that I knew.

I didn't think it was acceptable to rock my natural hair in an afro. I saw that as ugly and barbaric, as awful as it is to say. In hindsight, it almost makes sense as to why l thought this way. All the young black girls on television had straight hair: That’s So Raven, True Jackson V.P, and My Wife and Kids. These protagonists lived up to white beauty standards. Even though I craved pin straight hair, the closest thing I came to having was a bunch of protective styles. Protective styles are styles that tuck the ends of your hair away from being exposed to damaging agents such as sun, heat and constant manipulation. With a little bit of straightening I never had manipulated my...