Move Me

At the same time as my decision to wear my hair in its natural state has really increased, so has my decision to delve deeper into my writing. No longer do I want to just write a pretty sentence. I want to write a sentence that has to be rewritten over and over again before it makes me say BOO-YOW. I want to write not just for the sake of being "deep...yo, that was deep, man". No, I want to "go free", as Tamara Jeffries, my Creative Nonfiction instructor has been pleading with us to do. But no amount of pleading and prodding from her can take us there until we are ready to be taken.

When I wear my hair bone straight, which is how it is typically styled by my beautician, I feel pretty. I feel ready to face the world. I feel as thin and as straight and predictable as my freshly wrapped hair in the morning. And after 20 years...I finally spoke the truth: it was boring me.

I've always secretly wanted to be natural. My heart jumped and did a little shimmy each time I saw someone holding the tips of their curled ends, reaching to the sky and smiling along the way. Yes, my hair looked bomb and fierce when it was straightened, don't get me wrong. Beauticians in the past have hooked up my hair, providing me with layer upon layer, color upon color that at one point, my hair resembled the sun as it bid the sky adieu. Beautiful is how my hair has always been to me.

That's what I've been known for--my long, thick beautiful hair. At the mention of cutting it, I received so much flack that I wished I could take each letter of my suggestion and stomp it out on the floor until no one ever remembered it existed. Except me.

Good words inspire me, to be a higher me like the first artist who really took me "there"--Lauryn Hill. Whether I'm reading a book or magazine or listening to poetry set to a beat (what I call music...I'm sure I'm not the only one), I feel moved. I feel like jumping in my car and driving to South Carolina for no other reason than because I can. Words are my food. They are what keep me going, especially those words that make you remember them during the time when they were intended for--when we need them the most. Depth is what drives me wild.

I'm realizing that I like my hair when it is wild. I love when it is all over my head in curls. I love the things that it does, the shapes that it makes. I never know how it will look. It's getting to know me as much as I'm getting to know it. It's not always a love relationship, either. Sometimes I feel like calling a relaxer up and apologizing for leaving it cold in the rain. Other days, I feel like hugging each curl, even with the relaxed ends, and taking them all out for ice cream.

My writing is figuring out that "Hey...sistergirl is changing up on us!" And of course, it would be right. I pay attention more to word order, to sentence length, to whether or not something is right for the story. I pay attention to craft.

Much like I do when twisting my hair each night. It's all in the arms. It's all in how you do it. If you don't twist it right, it'll look all wrong. But sometimes, that's the point. Sometimes it has to look wrong in order for you to style it into something that will end up right where you want it to be.

My writing and hair move me.