AlwaysNiecy28

I had the privilege of interviewing one of my best friends who is also a vlogger and making tutorials of multiple hair styles. We talked about our first relaxers, hair types, and what it really means to transition to natural hair.

What’s the first memory you have of your hair?

The first memory that I have of my hair is when I was in Pre-K my mom used to do my hair in a really big puff and I used to take like pictures with it.

What was it like going to school after getting your hair done?

Ummm going to school, I wanted people to be cautious of my hair.  Like just Watch out for my hair ‘cause if you don’t and a barrette falls out or a knicker knocker (also called baubles) falls out, I’m gonna get in trouble at home so I was like can you watch out for my hair.

What were the reactions of your classmates or teachers upon seeing your hair?

I mean, if it was done in a really elaborate style, that was not the norm to other people, I would get responses like: oh. that’s cool, or oh that’s different, but our hair is always different you know our versatility. [laughs]

Yeah that’s true.

Just curious, but can you describe what it is you have done to your hair since the last time I saw you?

I am currently in the process of installing faux locks, which is basically fake dreds, so it gives you the illusion that you have long dreds like someone who has actually grown it for like 10 years.

My friend Laneesia, has a natural hair vlog on youtube where she shares tutorials of different hairstyles

Was there any reason for your choice in colors?

I wanted to try something new. I’m going for this royal, this African royal goddess deity look. Like the queen of Africa. And after I’m going to put gold cuffs on it.

When did you start doing your own hair?

I think I started doing my hair in the 5th or 6th grade, where I used to just wear a ponytail all the time. My mom would perm(relax) my hair and I would get up in the morning and put it in a ponytail.

When did you get your first relaxer?

I got my first relaxer when I was like in second grade, but before that I had a jerry curl—we are not going to talk about that jerry curl.

[laughs] Ok. No talking about the jerry curl!

What was it like getting your first relaxer?

I remember it very vividly, once I took my head out of the sink, and they were officially done, ‘cause my mom did it herself, so we had these really huge mirrors so the first thing I did was run to the mirrors—I was like “I’ve got to see this” so my hair was just long and it was just hanging there and it was straight and I was just like “Oh, I’m cute!” I mean granted, I knew I was cute before that, but with straight hair I felt like I was the one like this is perfect; this is the life.

And when did you go natural?

I went natural unknowingly when I was in 10th grade when my stepmom stopped putting relaxers in my hair. So I transitioned without even knowing I transitioned. It wasn’t it until I got to college and when it had become a new trend to become natural, so it was like oh I fit this category I’m natural, look at that [laughs]

Now that you are natural by choice how do you decide which styles you want to do, either a twist out, or a wash n go?

Well I have 4c coily hair, which means I don’t have a curl pattern. So I don’t do wash and go’s. Because I cant. I just can’t achieve the hairstyle, it just doesn’t work. It would just shrink and it would look like nothing so I don’t do wash and go’s I’ve never actually done one. Twist out’s, it depends on what time of the year it is. If it’s hot and humid its just going to shrink up and look like nothing. So I usually do protective styles, I usually either wear them in braids or I do some type of flat twist hairstyle.

Types of hair patterns

What was the inspiration for starting your YouTube tutorial page?

I started it because I feel like I had a gift or some type of talent of being able to do hair and I wanted to share that with other people on a larger platform versus just one on one interaction with people me asking me to teach them to braid. In addition, I wanted to state that I didn’t go natural because it was a trend. It was something that I grew into. And I wanted people to know that just because they are natural doesn’t mean you know who you are or if you are natural that it defines you as in African American woman. It doesn’t. I think sometimes it makes you more aware. But that doesn’t make you know who you are any more than someone who perms [relaxes their hair] I think that’s is a notion that a lot of naturals have. [To me] It’s wrong because you relax your hair, and I KNOW you know who you are.

That’s true. [laughs] So the natural hair movement is like a black women’s movement its like: “we’re throwing off our bras, we are no longer getting our hair relaxed, but that meaning changes for a lot of people because after they do it, it’s like what’s next, what now.

Yeah. For a lot of people they should go natural because you want to because that’s the look that you are trying to achieve because it’s going to make you feel good. And also people go through stages, that’s life, life is made up of stages. 

So, just because you are natural at one point in life doesn’t mean you can’t be relaxed in a different stage of life and then revert back if you want. That’s the versatility, that’s the best thing about having our type of hair. And I think a lot of naturals believe that once you go natural you can never go back. That’s not what this is! This is my head, I can do whatever I please!

Because I am very much on the verge of feeling like I want to perm my hair [laughs]

So you are entering a new stage.

I really do feel like I am entering a new stage only because a lot of people see me and are like “Oh, your so cute” or “Oh, you are so adorable” and it may be because some of the hairstyles that I do are in puffs and people usually associate puffs with little 1 year olds and 2 year olds. When you see a little one year old with a puff, that’s what you think, their adorable. But I’m grown. I’m going to be 22. I want to look like an adult. So I think a relaxer may give me that grown up look.

Trying something new is always good, we can’t do all styles but we can do a lot of different ones and depending on our curl pattern we can be limited in what we can do but overall we have a lot of versatility.