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I
stopped
relaxing my hair in 1998. I had endured almost
20 years
of scalp burns and hair breakage. It
took
that long for
me to start to question why I was
putting
myself through
this every few weeks and also,
why
the
majority of Black women did the same thing.
Choice
or not, this wasn't a healthy thing to do.
Over
the next couple of years I scoured the internet, looking
for
guidance
not only with styling my new found
natural hair,
but also looking for cultural and
historical
information surrounding
black women 's hair
issues.
I found a lot of sites which offered
information
in boxes - culture sites, styling sites,
historical
sites, links, but none which acted like a
portal
- a first point of contact for people looking
for
all the information they could get on their natural
hair.
And none which showed pictures and had
links
to the journals of dozens of real, everyday women
who have
stopped
fighting their natural texture. I
knew these women were out
there
because I had conversed
with them regularly on hair
message boards
and
Yahoo groups.
In
December of 2000 I was in a bad car accident (hit by
a drunk driver)
which left me with serious neck and
back
injuries and suspended
my career as a graphic
designer.
I found I could no longer spend
hours at a
desk,
staring at a computer screen or illustrating
over
a drafting table. I lost much of the use of my right
hand and arm.
After undergoing neck surgery in
December
2001 the doctors
informed me my design career
was
basically over.
I needed to look at changing
careers
and at 38,
that's not an easy task. I battled
for
months with the pain,
depression and anger about
what
had happened to me,
and now this
news made
things worse.
But
I was not ready to give everything up yet. Design
has
always been my passion and I was determined to
find
some way to express it. Armed with a Mac Powerbook
with
trackpad
(I am now unable to use a mouse),
I decided to give myself a project. Something
I
was passionate enough
about to give
me the determination
to work through the pain and
complete.
And
something that would help others in some way.
The
concept of Nappturality.com
was born.
In
March 2002, I set myself an important first goal:
to
learn html. It took weeks and weeks and hundreds of
hours
of online time but by the end of March I had
enough
of a grasp of it to design my first web page
using
pure html. I enquired about web hosting and learned
about ftp.
I
designed a logo and
created it using only a trackpad and two
fingers
on my right hand. That was a big
achievement in
itself and gave
me a burst of
confidence
because I had been
told my design days were
over. I had
proven the doctors wrong.
Even though
I could only design by sitting on the couch,
computer on my
lap, with my feet up on the coffee table,
I
could
still design.
In
the beginning of April 2002 I began to gather
information
on natural hair. I posted to message boards
asking
for people to submit their natural hair photos and
links
to be included on a new website I was
creating.
The response was tremendous. I had no idea
there
were so many
proud, napptural women willing to
share
their experiences freely,
to help each other learn
about the truth behind our natural hair.
In
mid-April 2002, I put Nappturality.com
up on the
internet
and announced it on 2 messageboards.
Since
going live, I have found Nappturality.com
to be
one
of the most challenging and rewarding projects I
have
done. As more and more women put down the
relaxers
and learn to appreciate and accept what nature
gave them
we are saving our future young girls
and
women from the pain
and unnecessary burden of
chemical
dependence.
The rewards are great.
I
will
continue to grow
Nappturality,
promoting
good
health,
acceptance and fearlessness.
It
will be a good day when
all
black women everywhere, will no longer
feel
the need that they MUST relax their
hair
in order to be acceptable.
A
very good day indeed.
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