Before I shaved off my processed hair in a radical step to go natural, I was thinking a lot about my life style. I was 17 and I wanted to be 'real', to represent as Nettrice: young, Black, visionary and individual. I needed to follow the beat of my own drummer and not do what everyone else did.

I grew up where it was proper for some to drink beer every meal, put salt on everything, eat any kind of meat, and suffer the consequences. My generation (and my mother's generation) was having babies at 14, 15, 16, and so on. Weed was a staple for people in my community and I knew more drug dealers than I knew preachers. Folks were suffering and I did not want to suffer like that. High blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and cancer were more common than colds but most people never broke the cycle. This was unnatural.

The same people I grew up with had a problem with my natural hair and I began to think that I was on to something positive for myself. A few years earlier I got flack for going vegeterian but I was the only one doing it so there was no fad. What I was doing was breaking a cycle of unnatural habits and finding myself in the process.

I love being natural, living natural, and I believe I can improve my life if not prolong it. Hair and outward appearances is only one part of it. Taking a leap of faith and standing firm behind what I value is a bigger part. There are no dashikis here but I am beginning to know what it's like to be free within and how to treat my body & mind like a temple or spiritual vessel.

"Know thyself"

"Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you". So we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
-- Hebrews 13:5,6

"There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path"
--Morpheus in "The Matrix"

"It's our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"- Dumbledore to Harry Potter "Chamber of Secrets"