If being natural is so 'popular'....

then why aren't more black folks doing it?

i've read comments in some online cirles that being 'natural' and/or locking the hair is a recent fashion 'trend,' but in everyday life i'm not seeing the masses of natural heads that folks are talking about...

now don't get me wrong. there are lots of black women who've walked away from the creamy crack/ fire cream. but there are lots of black women who continue to straighten their hair on a regular basis, or chemically color treat it, but claim to remain natural. let's think about this scientifically. obviously, coloring the hair is a chemical process, but heat also facilitates chemical changes (think about baking bread or burning wood - the finished product is not the same as the staring materials)...overtime, heat can permanently change the texture of hair, even if you haven't saturated it with relaxer. are you really sporting natural hair if you never wear your own texture and are constantly flat ironing? what about the constant layering of hair color?

then others have presented the argument that "everyone is getting locks now" but "folks are doing it for the wrong reasons"....in some ways, this may be true since locked styles are more widely accepted now than ever. and locks do seem to be a fad of sorts....still, i have only personally known a couple people, men or women, who were locked before i made the commitment...of course, now that i'm locked, it seems like everyone's doing it...probably because i'm more aware of HOW people are wearing their hair and WHY...

then there are others who start locking with lock extensions/weaves.... and those who 'commit' to locking their hair three, four, and five times over....that's a whole 'nother story....

in the midst of this "natural hair/locking revolution" that i hear so many natural/dread heads talking about, i'm still surrounded daily by women (and some men) who continue to lye, fry, and dye their hair to get straight, wavy, "good" hair....

if being natural is so popular, why aren't more black folks embracing their own natural curls?

i think about tonia, a white mother who adopted African American children. she wanted to keep the girls natural, but found it hard to find role models of Af. Amer. women loving their natural hair where she lived. why was this such a difficult feat? (this enlightened mama later decided to lock her daughter's hair so that she can grow up feeling proud about her natural self. good job, mama! see their blog)

i've read too many blogs about whether folks are 'keeping it real' or being true to their natural selves throughout this whole process. whether folks truly have a spiritual connection to their hair beyond cosmetic arrogance. one blogger even spent months and months and months repeating the same ill feelings about newbies vs old skool lockers who locked for deeper significance than today's fly-by-night lockers. i was amazed by the shear energy this individual used to blog about the same things for the better part of the last year.....don't black folks have enough issues that keep us divided without picking through the nuances of our natural hair? regardless of how ridiculous some sound - 'why do my locks look fuzzy/lumpy?' duh! they're dreadlocks! - we gotta move past some of this superficial bullshit.

the real issue is not why or how one is "going natural" or locking their hair (although people should realize that their locks are more than a just "style," even if they're locking because they like the look.) the real issue is why are black folks across the world still hooked on texturizers, relaxers, flat irons, and blow dryers that promise to straighten away our sense of identity in the first place.... i'm not even gonna touch on the issue of wearing fake hair....better yet, why don't we dialogue about *real* issues like why there are more black men in prison than in college, or whether kids in Chicago Public Schools need to be paid to get good grades, or how the US government can spends trillions of dollars in an overseas war while our economy runs into the ground....but i digress...

yeah, i know....we're all at different stages of "enlightenment." i recognize that i made some serious shifts in my paradigms of thought to get to where i am today, and i'm certain that my consciousness will continue to expand and transform as my locks grow and mature with me....in the meantime, lets just agree to embrace the fact that at least some folks have started (and continued) the process of locking and loving themselves in whatever natural state they're in. let's get concerned about what really matters - education, poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDS, racism/discrimination, nationalism, criminal/child welfare system, politics/government corruption - throughout the African diaspora. now thats whats up.