🔥 LORENA 🔥

Deeply flawed

🏳

I do like my wild, kinky and nurtured hair though! I feel anxious and worried about my safety, because of the reactions I experience when I wear it down without gel. With gel, my hair can look like curls. The reactions to that are similar to the reactions with this braided hair. But without gel, just combing it out and wearing it down? It almost feels like I’m making a political statement, even though both my father and my grandfather were involved in politics, it’s not necessarily the path I want to take. And even if it were, I think it would be focused on connecting. So letting my hair be in its most natural form may not convey that. That’s why I also wear blond hair, because it seems more like I want to fit in, instead of rebelling. Which is true, I need to belong too and even if I wear my afro without gel, this is still the case. My temperament doesn’t change because of a hairstyle. I find it frustrating that it has so much effect. And even if my hair doesn’t come across as a political, it still elicits reactions because of how present it is and how much space it takes up. That means I can’t enjoy my peace as much. I don’t always have the energy to deal with strong reactions, both negative or positive, and that’s why I find it nice to stand out less and blend in more. So finding a middle ground to protect both my wild hair and my peace of mind is a journey I’ve been taking step by step so far. May 5th will be 5 years of my natural hair journey.