After 20-something years, I took my hair down! Loved it! Oh, so bouncy and curly and soft. THEN, St. Simons Island reared its humid head! So after all my styling and twisting and product, I’d walk outside and POUF!! My hair would be a round cotton ball. Shoot, I forgot one of the reasons I got braids in the first place, was to get my life back from trying battling (perm and styled) my hair in this humidity. I wanted to love my island home and my hair. Besides, I had novels to write. My friend Alfajiri braided my hair on her first visit to St. Simons back in 1984 and I’ve worn it that way (one or two variations) ever since.
Wow, 28 years of just washing and conditioning and going. For this black woman, it was heaven. And I sorely missed it, even when I was having fun playing with my unleashed hair.
I’ll unleash it again when I travel to an inland dry unhumid city. I’ll shake my coils around and enjoy knowing I will return to my beloved braids.