A girl in love with her fro'

I remember how I would get irritated when my mom asked me to stop using relaxers on my hair and to just grow out my natural hair. I would angrily tell her that I wouldn't look good with natural hair and that my hair was too coarse for my liking. I didn't think I was beautiful with my natural hair, fast forward to 2012 and I became completely in love with every strand of my hair. I wish I could tell my younger self that my hair was never ugly, that society and it's ridiculous beauty standards are what's ugly, I grew up thinking straight hair was the epitome of beautiful hair because that's what the media force fed us, day in and day out. I wanted my hair to look like the girl on the hair relaxer box, bone-straight and beautiful with no kinks in sight but being young I didn't know how much damage I was actually doing to my hair. As I grew older I realized there was absolutely nothing wrong with my hair in the first place and that moment came when I realized how badly damaged and thin my hair was, so I cut it all off  and started my natural hair journey and it has been such a beautiful 6 year journey. After years of reflecting on what beauty meant to me I realized that beauty was what I chose it to be and for me wearing my natural hair was the start of me defining what beauty was in my eyes not in society's eyes. My hair is much healthier and fuller than it has ever been and I have dedicated a lot of my time and energy into taking care of it. Next month marks 2 years since I did the big chop but my natural hair journey has been going on for 6 years now and I've loved every moment of it.