****AA Group**** Natural Kinky Curly Wavy Hair.

[1StrongBlackMan]

11. Great Post, that brought back many memories ...

she would spend hours on my sisters and I's hair when we were children. She had that hard black Ace comb she would pop us with when we started squirming. But the worn, soft-haired boar bristle brush gently brushing up our edges at the end of the process was worth the trouble. She combed our hair out of love.

I see my Mother (R.I.P.) and my Sister ... though they got on like vinegar and oil, those moments were bounding ... even the "pops". LOL.

I've always loved and cherished Black women with natural hair ... it is/was my first (but not only) clue, as to how she felt about herself (as a woman) and herself (as a Black woman) ... In both cases, it displayed strength and courage (and I love(s) me a strong, brave, Black woman).

It took me the better part of a decade to encourage Mrs. 1SBM to fade the "process" (I refuse to term it "relaxed&quot and go natural. It took baby steps.

When I met her, she had processed straight hair that came to just below her shoulder blades. She wore her hair that way for about three years. Then, I asked her to stop getting her hair processed and I encouraged her to go with braids. She wore them about 5 years. Then, a funny thing happened (well ... funny to me) ... I usually went with my wife while she got her hair braided; but, on this day, I went to play golf.

In the middle of my round, I got a call from my wife, "Come get me right ... damn ... NOW!" When I got there, my wife looked a hot mess and was pissed ... as BabyGirl 1SBM recounted, the woman that did my wife's braids and my wife got to watching movies and drinking and laughing, and when the woman went to cut out the last braid, someone slipped (it's still in dispute whether it was the woman or my wife moved) and real hair got cut ... a lot of it.

On the way home, I convinced her that she couldn't go around with a plug missing from her head, so we went to my barber (that was before I went for the bald look). He looked at her hair and convinced her to let him cut her hair down, "Just to even it out." When he was done her hair was a little more than an inch long ... and she looked ... well ... so hot.

Over the years, she has cut it closer and closer, so that now ... she is sporting something like this (the before picture):

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However, I noticed that with every cut, she became more out-going and confident ... And, I love her for it.