I'm not

I’m not

This is not the piece of something that defines me, or identifies my roots.

This is not the image I was born with, so why are my remodels all straight and smooth?

Why do they hate the kink and advertise the smooth of the unnatural?

At the age of one, I was vibrant and joyful

At the age of two, I clenched my hands realizing my new found strength

At the age of three I was too energetic and limited myself to a bench

At the age of 4 I was running I felt so beautiful I was stunning

At the age of five I thrived, but at the age of six, I learned the term Nappy hair

I learned about the perm, the ultimate solution to supremacy.

I saw the L’Oreal add and was amazed at this long glossy hair, thinking if I get a

Perm I could be there with the shimmer, gloss and shine and get rid of the curls, kinks and

Untamed hair type of mines, but I was confused and deluded by a flaw when I was four, five and

Six there was nothing wrong with me at all.    

But now this little afro girl has entered a new world confronted with an imitation sparking off her insecurities and making her think bad about her kinky hair, now she walks down the street and is conscious when people stare! They think she is radiant, she thinks she’s not disappointed by the portfolio of black remodels she got.

She walks into a hair shop spotting the magazine on the top shelf, reading black hair she grabs it with hope and says my remodels in there. But could you imaging the look on her face, when she turned page after page and could not reference her race, it was covered in brunet and blond wig fronts made of lace, paraded on a face like her own, she felt her hair a said am I normal I’ll just get straight hair to fit in.

She remembered how she tied her hair in school and they demanded she took it off, they said

“take of that bandana” she looked and scoffed, and said I have a reason for tying my hair, as the teacher stared not knowing the problem, the problem was the at the age of 1, 2, 3, 4, and five I was not told I needed fake hair to survive, or be a star, I was un aware of the term Nappy hair.

So here’s my reply ten years later, I refuse to let this define me, I refuse to give it credit as it

Discredited me, distracted me from who I am and what I could be, see I don't want a distortion or

a counter fit of beauty! I want my own, I don’t want it straight, and glossy I don’t want media to

Give my roots a script, I want to be free and rip this hair stereotype, I am over the disliking and

Aspiring to the so-called superior blend of Brazilian, and Remy I will wear my hair with pride because there is no such thing a Nappy hair, it’s just another hair type so I choose to embrace myself

And ignore the hair hype, by throwing this shit of and keeping my identity, baring my face and represent my Afro hair race.