Appreciating Hair At Every Stage

I walk into the lobby area while at work and spot a beautiful natural girl with the most glorious hair. And I find myself thinking "Oh how I wish..."

I've noticed something about myself. I am guilty of looking at other naturals hair and thinking with longing "Oh I can't wait until my hair gets to that point." Then other naturals will come up to me and say "Oh I can't wait until my hair gets to that length." It's funny that we are looking at the next natural wishing and that natural is looking at the next natural wishing.

Then, I realized I need to appreciate my hair at every stage.

At every stage of my natural journey I have tried a significant number of hairstyles. And as my hair grows those hairstyles will change over time.

For instance, my pinned-up braid outs no longer look the way they did when I first became natural. Also, I am currently wearing this cute curly twist updo (post on this style to come later) and I know that as my hair grows its not going to look the same and I may have to tweak it a bit. For example, just the other day on Facebook BeautifulBrwnBabyDol was doing a hairstyle that she tried on her hair a year ago. She even said "I think the style looked cuter on the shorter hair."

I say all this because I realized that I am growing to appreciate my hair at every stage. Yes, I am still inspired by other naturals who are further along in their journey. Yet, I am also inspired by naturals who just started their journey.

So, in the future when I see a natural with a gorgeous head of hair--like I saw at work yesterday--I will just appreciate the beauty of her hair while also recognizing the beauty of my hair.