Monday, April 30, 2012

Natural Empowerment

Good Monday morning!

Well, here is my only blog post for the month of April....I have only three words "Do Better Rachel."  

A couple of weeks ago I met a nice young lady in passing, and we both admired each others' hair.  During our conversation we talked about how going natural has increased our self-confidence and feelings of the like. Then she asked me, can going natural automatically increase a young ladies self-confidence/self-esteem?  In my opinion, the answer is "NO."  What you get out of being natural is relative to each individual.  I believe that going natural will not make you be or feel something that you are not or already possess.  If a young lady or man is suffering from low self-esteem, going natural is not going to automatically boost their self-esteem. I think that in some cases it could make the low self-esteem worse.  I say this because making the decision to got natural goes against the grain of what society has labeled as beautiful.  To have long straight hair is having good hair and to have short kinky hair is having bad hair.  Thankfully, this is becoming less of the case, but still, going natural is a decision that shouldn't be taken lightly. Some people need to be mentally prepared for it because not everyone is accepting of natural kinky-curly hair.  I believe that if you already have a decent amount of high self-esteem/ self-confidence and have made the decision to go natural then you are have probably said to yourself that this is what you were going to do and you don't really care what anyone else thinks about it.  You are making this decision for YOURSELF. With that decision may come increased confidence, increased since of self, and freedom. For example, girlfriend of mine who went natural shortly after I did said that going natural has given her more knowledge about how to take care of herself.  Learning to take care of her hair has contributed to taking better care of her skin and watching her diet. 

So in the end I can say that going natural has ADDED to my self-confidence that I already possessed.  What has going natural done for you?  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.  

Thanks for taking time to read my blog and please subscribe :)

Peace & Blessings....

Natural4Rachel

4 comments:

  1. Thank you, Rachel, for your blog. As you know, I just recently decided to go natural. It has been about 2 months, and I am noticing more and more women with beautiful natural hair. I like the sincere smiles I get from these women as I wear my natural twists. This is truly a journey and has drawn a lot of comments. I am one of the I really do not care if my appearance pleases those around me. I love my natural hair, grey and all, and I am taking more interest in keeping up a healthy diet, as well. I am taking better care of myself and I do connect this with going natural. I look more closely at me. I am finding I like my mirror image. Thank you for the support, Rachel. Kimmy T

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    1. Thanks for sharing what natural hair is doing for you Kim. I have found that I've received more compliments and questions about how I take care of my hair since going natural. Going natural has created a bond and opened up a dialog amongst women which I don't feel existed as I was growing up. I feel it's this new since of commonality that is bringing us together and it making it easy for someone to stop you and say, "I like your hair....my name is Rachel," and then the conversation continues on into other directions. It's like opening doors to other avenues and helping each other along the way.

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  2. Since I've gone natural, I'm definitely more aware of how I treat my body as a whole. It's a struggle to turnaway from the cookies and cheeseburgers (and I still give in a lot of the time), but I don't want just my hair to be healthy. I want to be healthy all around. I've made an effort to appreciate my hair and give it the nourishment it needs, so now I want to make sure I want to do the same with my skin, heart, mind, soul...everything.

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    1. Wow! Thanks Courtney for sharing what natural hair is doing for you. I agree with wanting to keep your entire YOU healthy. Yes, I give in a lot of the time too when it comes to sweets and burgers. I do drink a lot of water, so I will toot my little horn on that. But in the end, if I don't get a handle of the other stuff, drinking my water will be negated....LOL!

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