I am not my hair...

Going Natural: The Long Goodbye

I am not my hair...

So I did it.

I cut every stitch of relaxer out of my head.  Gone.  It started with a post on Facebook.  Someone told me, whenever you are going to do something, like start losing weight or eating right, to tell as many people as possible, then you will be held accountable.

Here’s what I posted on my wall:

About to cut all this hair off and go natural… scared to death… looking at the relaxer and still not sure. Don says “just do it” – but the thought makes me want to pee my pants. I have been “Eva with the long hair” MOST of my life… what now?

So forty something comments later, I called my husband.

He said that we could go get some earrings as soon as he got home.  We headed out to Kohl’s and after the money he spent – there was no turning back.  We had a “farewell to the hair” dinner – or a “it is too late to drive all the way home and fix dinner and get the kids in bed at a reasonable hour” dinner – not sure which, then headed home with leftovers and my bag of shiny goodies.

The kids didn’t want to go to bed – they wanted to stay up and see what it was going to look like after I cut it, but I have strict bedtime policies, so they were allowed to rub my hair and then retire for the evening.

It was suggested by a friend on Facebook to donate the hair to LocksofLove.org – an organization that uses donated hair to make hairpieces for children dealing with medical or treatment related hair loss.  I went to their website and in the guidelines, they said the hair had to be clean. So instead of just cutting it off and tossing it in a bag, I had to wash it, comb it, AND blow dry it with no product.  Now that was a labor of love.

To be continued…