Love your Natural Hair (featuring Jessica Lyles and Nzinga-Ain)

- By Shanice DK

My Natural hair, Loved. Hey all, I feel blessed and proud each time I prepare the entries for this series.

‘My natural hair, loved’ is a weekly blog series posted each Tuesday. The aim of this series is to showcase the beauty of natural hair as well as the self-love and confidence that is achieved from it.

Your natural hair is much more than a style. Your natural hair should be loved.

Today we are being joined by two fellow mental health bloggers and they have interesting stories to share. Do Enjoy.

The writers used the following Questions as a guide:

What is the state of your natural hair?
When did you go natural and why?
What do you love most about natural hair?
Share some advice for people considering to go natural.
Tell us about you or your work/blog.

Story 1: Jessica Lyles

My name is Jessica Lyles but you can Just Call Me Jess. My hair is currently mid-length Type 4c (I think). I went natural a few years ago because I wanted something different and I wanted to embrace my natural beauty more. I was going through a self-love challenge and wanted to be all in! I love being natural! I actually love how versatile it is. I felt so limited when my hair was relaxed but now I can style it in so many ways.

I want my natural hair to send the message “your black is beautiful, not just some parts but all of you”! I want black women to know they are beautiful if they have relaxed or natural hair.

My advice to someone going natural is to NOT listen to the naysayers. The same individuals that told me I needed to perm my hair were the same ones shocked at how healthy, full and versatile my hair is now. Be you!

I currently work as a mental health and addictions counselor. I blog part time at CallHerJess and have many posts related to motivation and mental health with occasional lifestyle topics.

Story 2: Nzinga-Ain

My hair is a mixture of 4a-4c. Mostly 4c except for the very top of my head.

I’ve been Natural my whole life actually. When I was a baby my mom locked up my hair. I cut those off at 7yrs old. I had short hair till 12 at that point I got sister locs. I cut those off a year later. And I’ve just been growing out my hair for a year or two and cutting it ever since then!

I love the way I can wear it as an afro one day and braid it up the next. I love how if I put in leave-in conditioner it looks entirely different than if I just do a wash-and-go. I just love trying new things whenever I please.

To me, my hair means accepting myself exactly how I am. Sometimes I struggle with how it isn’t “curly” enough or how it isn’t long enough or how it doesn’t do exactly what society thinks it should. But when I love my hair I feel like I’m loving myself and I like that feeling.

My advice is to really see how often YOU need to wash your hair. Maybe it’s every day and maybe it’s once a month. Look into co-washes. Look into rinsing and conditioning. Don’t just shampoo all the time because you think that’s what you need. See how your hair feels and go from there.

I have a mental health and lifestyle blog! I just started in October of 2018 and I am really excited about everyone I’m meeting and connecting with. My website is nzingaain.com and I hope to continue writing and blogging for as long as I can!

Thanks,

Nzinga

Summing it up

Huge thank you to these two beautiful ladies for gracing my platform with their presence. I truly enjoyed reading their entries and I hope you did too.

Until next time: Love, Light and Peace