It happens sometimes... you make the decision to let your hair do whatever it wants but every so often, you try to tame it, control it. No one is immune to those lapses where you find some ways to keep your head in some form of holding pattern - and I'm definitely no exception.
It was March 2008, and I was living in South Africa for a brief period. It was nothing but blazing heat in Cape Town when I sat in the stylist's chair and as she (dreaded down in her finest) dared to ask me with the clippers poised over my scalp, "Why are you cutting your hair? It's growing so beautifully...", I realised that I'd gone from being addicted to relaxing my hair to being addicted to keeping my hair slick and short - and that day, I decided to just let my hair do whatever it felt like.
Cut to 2011 and that's exactly what it's done over the time passed... there have been good and bad days, always something new with every head massage, every clear-out, every length check but one thing remains true: I am not my hair. It no longer defines me, it is merely a natural decoration God has bestowed on me, like a crown. And O, what a beautiful crown it is.
So now, I think I'll continue to let my hair whatever it feels like - and just watch for the wonderful surprises. To another 3 years and counting...