Before the perms, the braids, the texturizers, and yes, a weave — I had natural hair. This weekend I read Good Hair: For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Weaves when the Chemicals Became too Ruff.

I spent some time sitting in front of the fireplace laughing out loud in the last few days. I remember getting my hair washed and combed — the pain, the pain. My weekly press & curl with a hot comb straight from the stove. And yes, the ubiquitous stocking cap.

My chemically altered hair ride began when I was in fourth grade. I had something done to my hair called a Vigorol relaxer. From my memory, I believe the relaxer was supposed to be less damaging to the hair than a lye relaxer. It worked, I had bouncin’ and behavin’ white girl hair. But there was a little catch . . .

When it rained, my hair would emit an awful, shall we say, sulfur smell. There I was, day after day, lined up outside of my catholic elementary school in the Brooklyn rain. This is when I learned what women did for fashion.

About five years ago I went back to my natural hair and haven’t looked back. But the short ‘fro is getting old — so now I’m looking forward for new things to do with my hair that doesn’t involve chemicals. Given the billion dollar industry of black hair care products, I imagine that it’s going to be difficult to explore the alternatives. All the hair magazines that I pick up tout the latest and greatest product to approximate white hair. I haven’t yet found anything that celebrates natural hair and guides us on taking better care of what we have, naturally. There’s natural food, organic clothing, but nothing for organic, natural hair.

I’m going all the way with organic living and this should be no different.

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