Natural hair is the vogue

Growing up I used to admire women who wore a short haircut, I particularly admired Mrs Gifty Afenyi Dadzie, and I sometimes wished I had not permed my hair.

Then one day my friend Hannah came visiting, and she had twisted her natural hair, I just fell in love with her hair. All that while, I had been saying to myself that I would cut my permed hair, when I gave birth to my first child.

At the right time, I proudly cut my hair and began wearing my natural hair. The quest to get the hair to grow quickly so that I twist it was insatiable.

Soon, my hair was long enough to get it twisted, and heaven knows how I felt the first day, I twisted my natural hair. I really did not care, whether it looked nice or not. All I cared about was that it was my natural hair, I had twisted it and I am good to go.

However, wearing a natural hair is not as easy as it seems. The natural African hair easily entangles, it becomes very difficult to comb, and sometimes it just looks impossible to keep it kempt.

Probably reason why our mothers took to perming, or adding creams to soften their hair. Perming the hair as we call it in Ghana made it easier to comb and just tie it or do a pony tail.

However, I think that the natural hair brings out the real beauty as someone once said, anything natural is the best.”

Then suddenly I realized that almost one in five Ghanaian women wear the natural hair, in various forms and styles. Esi who used to be a fan of permed hair has suddenly cut her hair, and is keeping it natural, so I curiously asked, Esi why have you cut your long permed hair? and her answer was amazing…

Esi said she was keeping natural because of Ghana’s energy crises which has become known as “Dumsor,” she said more often than not, I go to the salon to get my hair fixed and I am told there is no light, out of frustration, I cut my hair and decided to maintain the natural and it is just so easy. No stress she said.

Another friend of mine, said she had become tired of the permed hair, the creams, the chemicals, the time spent at the salon and all and so she decided to go natural.

Agyeiwaa, also said all she needs is a comb and she can attend any function or event with her natural hair. She explained that when she un-twist her natural hair, she only has to wash it and comb it and she is fashionable enough to go anywhere.

During a conversation about natural hair, one day in the office, one of my colleagues remarked: “See how fashion really revolves, gone are the days that the fetishes were the once keeping their hair natural, these days it is the top-notch highly educated ladies who keep their hair natural.”

Lydia said when she was a younger lady, she used to fear those who wear long unkempt natural hair because they were usually fetish priests or priestesses, but now, even some pastors keep their hair nicely natural.

Aba also said, may be it was the colonial mentality that kept most of us thinking that if one’s hair was like that of a white woman then the person was beautiful. The African woman is naturally beautiful, she said, and keeping ourselves natural is definitely the way to go, she asserted.

It looks like everybody is going natural now, the professionals, the market women, the celebrities and all are keeping natural and one can only conclude that Natural hair is the vogue.

By Hannah Awadzi

Source: GNA