Newly Natural: Meet Nicole

I think Nicole contacted me through the HoH Facebook page a few months ago. She told me she was newly natural, and very excited. We e-mailed back and forth a bit and I suggested she could write a feature about her hair journey thus far, and maybe update us on her progress on a regular basis. I know many of you about to start your natural journey or have just started it and it's nice to hear how others experience it. Especially others in Scandinavia, since there's a lot of naturalistas that share their stories from the UK and the US.
If you want to write a feature for HoH just contact me by leaving a comment or sending me and email at hairofheritage@gmail.com

Hi! I'm Nicole and I live in Copenhagen, Denmark and I recently went natural. I've been natural for 5 months to be exact. I've been keeping track on my calendar and like most things about being natural, I'm completely obsessed. 

I guess I should start with why I went natural. I wish I could say that I had an epiphany and realized I was damaging my hair with chemicals or I had a sudden revelation that by not relaxing my hair anymore I would stop subscribing to the "white man's version of beauty".  None of that was true for me. I decided to go natural because I couldn't find anyone in Copenhagen to relax my hair. My mother tried to be helpful and sent me boxes of relaxers, but if you have ever done one yourself, it can be a little hit and miss. At least that was the case for me.  So, my hair grew longer and more unkempt and my options were looking slim. One day I just told my husband that I wanted him to shave it off. I've had extremely short hair before and I figured it would buy me some time to figure out what to do with it.  

So, I started doing some research and found so many great websites, blogs and Youtube videos of gorgeous, proud natural women. I became inspired. I couldn't remember when I had ever felt my natural texture. I decided right then that I was going to go natural. I had no clue what that would entail, but there was a slew of information at my fingertips. I did have to explain what all that meant to my husband. I'm married to a Dane who has blonde, bone straight tresses and he has never put much thought into his hair. Going natural was difficult to explain to him, but after a few hair journey videos he eventually caught on. Although I don't think he was quite prepared for how obsessed I have become with my hair. There's not a day that goes by that I don't check my fave hair blogs (like Hair of Heritage) & Youtubers. Due to them, I have become the queen of moisturizing. I started dying my hair with henna and indigo. I even make my own hair concoctions. It's become such an integral part of my life and the best part is...my hair. I LOVE IT!!!!

My hair, my beautiful curly, coily, kinky hair. I don't know why I waited so long to become natural. I do suffer from serious hand in hair disease because I cannot stop pulling the spirals and feeling the curls. Don't get me wrong, it can be a pain in the butt when it wants to. I have 3 distinct textures all doing their own thing, but when they are in sync it's a beauty. Like I said, I'm only 5 months into my natural hair journey, but I'm loving every minute of it. I can't wait to show you all my progress.

I felt very inspired when I read this, and very excited for what is to come. Thank you for sharing, Nicole!