The Ms. Napptuality competition has been a wonderful experience for me because it has allowed me to present myself to the world and show that having natural hair is not only something beautiful but something sacred.

The Ms. Napptuality competition has been a wonderful experience for me because it has allowed me  to present myself to the world and show that having natural hair is not only something beautiful but something sacred. With the role that society plays in how we as women of color view ourselves it is very difficult for many of us to have love for our own hair. Many of us press, perm, glue, and color our hair to fit a standard of beauty that is not of ourselves, all while not paying attention to the fact that our hair is becoming more and more brittle, dry, and damaged by practicing these unnatural and unhealthy beauty rituals. A lot of us don’t want our hair to look or be “nappy” when in reality many us just simply have a lack of understanding about our natural hair and how to maintain it in a more healthy, patient, and natural way. Because the other women of the competition and myself have a better understanding on how to style and maintain our natural hair we were fortunate enough to be able speak about it and show the versatility of it. This then has led to many women who are not natural to be able to actually see what it is like to embrace and see your hair for what it truly is; beautiful. The more women who see and share these experiences with us the more they are inspired to go natural themselves. That is what I feel is most important about this competition. I must admit it was somewhat difficult at times working on the challenges each week while going through every day life and not having access to everything that could have made the photos perfect but I  did stay true my purpose of the competition and that was to show how beautiful natural hair is and to have fun while doing it. Unfortunately due to the holidays and other things I did not get the last challenge done in time but I refused to give up and still present my last article and photos for the competition. ANNM has allowed me to use my creativity and free spirit to bring out the best in my myself and my hair. I am honored to have been able to be apart of the competition and to have shared this with the other beautiful women on the panel. For the new year I look forward to continuing different  styles with my Locs and to them growing longer and fuller. I also hope to inspire more and more young women and girls to go or stay natural. Thank you Going-Natural!