The King’s Crown

Peace and blessings everyone, Kings , Queens etc.

This is going to be a little bit different blog than usual. The title is subliminally self explanatory. Real quick short story of exactly how I started my hair journey & a few fun facts of African American hair and styles over the years. 

It’s been 6 going on 7 months since my last haircut. My original idea behind growing my hair out was to wear a natural afro. But before even a week into hair journey I snapped back into reality. The reason why I have never had a fro over 5 months old. A full head of my texture of hair has to be twisted or constantly platted. The contrast of the thickness and coarseness of my hair mixed with the laziness of myself when it comes to maintaining a hairstyle is just too much. 

The big chop was in September of 2016. I’ll locate lost footage eventually. If I remember correctly it was a clean all around fade. Again at this point I was under the ridiculous impression that I was growing an afro. 

Some where between October & November things started to get a little hippy-ish. I couldn’t take it and I ended up getting a lining and a fresh taper , leaving my virgin curls untrimmed and untamed at the top.

For some strange dumb reason the hair that grows around my knowledge knot in the back of my head is nearly the total opposite of the texture of the rest of my hair. It’s like “happy feet” I still have baby hair. It’s awkward and responsible for numerous ‘bad hair days’ in junior high. I thought the taper would solve the problem but alas it wasn’t high enough *sadface. So I went to my go to back up plan , “The Frohawk”. It’s always my plan B when I wuss out on growing a full head of hair. I can hide my baby hair in plain sight at the back of my Frohawk.

The Frohawk only lasted a few weeks in December, again trying to recall correctly, and by mid to late January I had broke down to a “High Fade w/ Curls”. It was a new year joke that I couldn’t pull off a man bun if I tried. But by the end of January it was no longer a joke. Chop , Chop.

A few bad fades and sad attempts at braids later I found myself finally getting my natural unlocked hair successfully braided for the first time in over a decade and a half. February 2017.

I’m not “tender – headed” but I didn’t exactly miss getting my thoughts and ideas braided into my scalp , ha ha.

And now here we are at the end of March and going into the 7th month of my hair journey and it’s hasn’t been a single day in the last 3 weeks that I haven’t thought about doing chopping it all off.

Blessed with the gift and curse of having hair that can defy gravity isn’t all daisies and roses. Luckily it’s still a pretty chilly spring up here in New York so beanies are still acceptable. It’s not without a great struggle that I can get my free hair in or under a snap back.

Since I have enough length to grip I usually keep my hair braided cornrolled or platted but we all have a bad hair day where it would be immoral to leave out your residence with out some type of headgear. I just seem to have had more hat days as my hair grows longer and my patience grows shorter. 

Normally for me the half a year to the first year is the ugly stage on the growth timeline. To avoid that I plan on keeping my hair braided or platted untill at least June. Wish me luck. 

Over the years of my adult and prepubescent life I have had just about ever hairstyle or some version of style. Fade, waves, dreads , clean just to name a few; but as always I’m looking for something new , something to test out.

I did some research on what is the “man-bun”, not a whole lot of recent information pertaining to POC; not that much of a surprise. The style seemed to only resurface at the beginning to mid 2000s. Now it seems to be popular with people of every ethnic background. 

Originally the undercut was worn by people in poverty that couldn’t afford a barber with the skill and training to fade out the sides.

Personally I think I would enjoy the style because it gives me the opportunity to grow my natural hair out but only having to put in half of the work it takes to maintain it.

I’m not a natural hair “guru” , in fact I probably would be the worst to ask for tips on natural growth for POC. Honestly I do alot of things to my crown I shouldn’t. Or they say I shouldn’t.

I usually wash my hair every day; bad habit I picked up in the military, which of course in BCT it was beyond necessary. I put absolutely no type of anything in my hair; which is not for the lack of trying. I’m currently looking for a line of natural hair care products from a small business I can trust.

There’s been several occasions where my hair was combed through with too fine tooth of a comb; realizing now that the pain is a sign of split ends to come. 

I don’t protect it from the friction of my sheets at night of the elements of the weather during the day. 

It’s not like I don’t love my hair or respect my crown. I do my own thing & so does my hair.

Haven’t decided on the extent of the amount of documentation I am going to do during this hair journey, I mean shit I can barely make a stable weekly blog. But if my readers & viewers are interested I’ll try to add it to the line up.

Until next time

Fb : Iman King