Black Girls Can Grow Naturally Long Hair

By Sophia Taylor

Ever since she was a little girl growing up in Jamaica, author Sophia Taylor hated her hair. She disliked the texture of it, the look of it, and all the labor of trying to change it. She was so miserable she often buried her real hair in wigs, weaves, and extensions. But she discovered a way to enjoy her natural hair and its beauty.

In Black Girls Can Grow Naturally Long Hair, Sophia Taylor shares a step-by-step process for growing and caring for naturally long hair. Using her personal experiences, she tells how she battled her bad hair and how she devised a way to increase her hairs length and keep it healthy, the way nature intended.

Black Girls Can Grow Naturally Long Hair presents a strategy for finding your way to natural beauty with natural hair. Sophia Taylor discusses how your natural beauty and charm can grow from deep within, just like your hair.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781491784440

Sophia Taylor

Sophia Taylor was born and raised in Jamaica. She is an author, singer, and songwriter. Sophia Taylor, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has been in the United State since 2001.

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Copyright © 2016 Sophia Taylor.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-8443-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-8444-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015920230

iUniverse rev. date: 02/22/2016

CONTENTS

      Preface

Every Day Was a Bad Hair Day

      Introduction

You Can Do It

      Chapter 1

My Journey Begins

      Chapter 2

Weaving a New Look

      Chapter 3

Rocking The Fake Hair

      Chapter 4

Moving On to a Perm

      Chapter 5

Making a Big Impression

      Chapter 6

The Issue of Money

      Chapter 7

Boys Love Long Hair

      Chapter 8

The Dangerous Beauty of Braids

      Chapter 9

The Problem with Hairdressers

      Chapter 10

A Vow of Natural Beauty

      Chapter 11

Learn to Do It for Yourself

      Chapter 12

Even Kids Care about Hair

      Chapter 13

How to Avoid Combing Your Hair

      Chapter 14

Three Easy Steps To Long Natural Hair

      Chapter 15

If Your Hair Is Really Short …

      Chapter 16

Your Regular Hair Care From Now On

Resources

To all the wonderful women who have ever wanted longer natural hair. This book will help you understand how you can have it.

PREFACE

EVERY DAY WAS A BAD HAIR DAY

A s a child, I often woke up in the morning, looked at my nappy hair in the mirror, and felt condemned to being ugly forever. I so wanted my hair to look and feel a certain way—in particular, like my cousins’ good hair.

I struggled with hating what I saw in the mirror. I hated my hair—the texture of it, the look of it, and all the labor of trying to change it. I was so miserable that I would often just bury my real hair under a wig, as I know many of you do too. I just wished my hair could be straight and soft like the hair in those wigs.

As I grew older, in addition to my vast collection of wigs, I also started wearing weaves. Think about it. I would pay to have some other woman’s hair sewn into my hair and bonded onto my head with glue. Of course, whenever you substitute something artificial for something natural, you begin to lose the real thing.

After a few years, I realized I was progressively losing the ends of my own hair on the sides and the front of my head. My confidence dropped even lower. I became even more afraid to show my own hair because it was so damaged. I worried about what people, especially men, would think and say if they saw what I really looked like. I felt more trapped than ever, on a downward spiral. I had started with bad hair, and now it was becoming worse as I continued to try to change it.

My dependence on wigs, weaves, and extensions was like an addiction. I knew it was hurting me, but it seemed that the only way to deal with the damage done was to depend on my addiction even more.

Ladies, let me tell you: You don’t have to be addicted to artificial hair and artificial processes. I discovered there is a better way.

I noticed that every time my hair would grow out under my weaves and wigs, I would get excited and feel good about myself. So I would go to the hairdresser and get my hair permed. Then I felt really cool and beautiful, with long straight hair. I could put it in a wrap or a ponytail or just about any style I liked. People would compliment me and even ask me why I was always wearing weaves, when I had such nice long hair hiding underneath. Of course, they only knew half the story.

I would give them a phony smile and just sweetly say thank you. I didn’t tell them I knew this wouldn’t last for long. I didn’t have the money or the time to keep going to the beauty salon to maintain my hair like that. Soon I would have to start wearing my little hairy friend again.

But I never forgot how much I loved that great feeling of wearing my own hair with pride. After all, a woman’s hair is supposed to be her glory. But I was making mine an ugly shame.

I knew that when I wore my own real hair in public, I felt like the real me was on display. I liked that. But when I wore false hair, I was always anxious about whether my wig might fall off or a boy wouldn’t like me without it or so many other things that went through my mind.

I wanted to just be normal, to wear my own hair all the time without thinking about all the things that might go wrong.

Since my fake hair was like an addiction, I always worried about hiding my habit from the world. I feared what might happen if someone found out … or I had to quit. How would I survive without my addiction?

There were even times I just wished I were a boy. I even thought about hacking my hair off like a boy or maybe even going bald.

Yeah, it was really tough being Sophia back then.

But now I’m here to tell you—all of that is in the past. Today I have amazing self-confidence