Au Naturale

Alright so I've decided to take a big -what I would call big- step in my life. Yes I'm already married at 21 and no I'm not getting pregnant. I'm going natural... with my hair that is.

I've spent my whole life perming my hair with chemicals in order to make it stick straight. Growing up, it didn't seem weird to me at all. All my friends' had hair that was loose and straight, so originally I thought that was how everyone did it. Then I started to get a little older and notice that no one else did it besides me. This was because I grew up in a predominately white community. Now before everyone starts picketing and calling me a racist, that's not the case. I've had a great life, made some lifelong friends, and wouldn't change my past for the world. The only thing I would change is how I did my hair. Lately, I've started to feel as though I am apologizing for my race and my culture when I perm my hair. The idea of black women perming their hair/wearing weaves has been made more prominent in today's society, but I'm not sure if people other than black women know how big of an issue this really is.

I remember there were many times throughout high school that I wanted to stop perming my hair, but I was told by a lot of people that I love that it would be a bad idea. I would look ugly. That alone was enough to make me change my mind. You see in a world where beauty is everything, it was important for me to fit in. But now I'm starting to wonder if that helped or hindered my confidence. The older I get, the more confused I am by it all. Why can't black women just leave their hair as it is. The texture of black hair can range from no curls at all to teeny tiny little ones (like mine) that are impossible to comb out. And it's a beautiful thing. People in general try so hard to fit this one-sided view of beauty that it almost becomes ridiculous. Women in our culture are becoming so fake and plasticized, it's sad. Don't get me wrong, I'm in favor of doing whatever someone thinks is best for themselves. I know that looking beautiful really makes people feel good on the inside too, but how far are we going to push it? There are some women who have gotten so many surgeries, you cannot even recognize them. I just think it's important for people to realize that they do not have to go through such drastic measure to be "beautiful", something that I am really trying to be an advocate of.

So finally, after years and years of battling myself and those around me, I've decided to stop with perms, stop with the weaves, and just be myself. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a transforming journey.

-Laure Capre Naragon

Back to basics

Hey everyone,

So we're doing a project in my English class where we started a blog to keep track of a research assignment that we are in the middle of, and got me thinking about how much I love to write; but how I don't like writing about topics I'm required to write about.

I like to be free. To know that I can express myself without dreading whether I'm going to get a good grade or not. Somehow, in the midst of life, I stopped doing the things in life that I really love. I had a tumblr, but slowly let it fall to the wayside. However, even in that blog I found myself unable to express my real opinions, and I began to wonder why. I started to think about my life and those around me. I thought about how my behaviors, actions, words, thoughts, emotions, you name it are different depending on who I am around. I noticed that this was similar with almost anyone I know and it boggles my mind. Why do we feel the need to act a certain way? Are we all really that desperate to fit in? And if we were all truly ourselves, would we still have the same people around us that we do now?

Anyways. That's the premise of me starting this blog. I want to go back to the basics. To talk about things that really interest me and maybe even others. I'm not trying to do anything spectacular, just trying to be myself.

-Laure Capre Naragon