Chicas, meet Sharon who is an amazing artist and photographer and has a blog (www.artgyrl.com) dedicated to these talents of hers!
Natural Chica: How long have you been natural? And if you haven't been natural your whole life, what prompted you to make the change?
Sharon: I got my last relaxer at the end of September 2008. Wow, I can't believe it's been nearly a year. I decided to make the change because I honestly couldn't afford to pay $50 or so dollars every month to get my hair done. I loved my stylist, but I just wasn't getting the results and I wasn't doing a great job of maintaing my hair, so I decided to go natural and see what would happen. In mid-July of this year, I took out my twists so I could work with my hair. I ended up cutting off the remainder of my relaxed ends shortly after that, having discovered some very inspirational and encouraging natural hair blogs.
Natural Chica: Do you feel that anything changed in your life (i.e. Boost in confidence) when you became all natural?
Sharon: I do feel more confident. My decision to go natural coincided with a lot of things. I had gotten braces two years before, and I've always been sort of quirky (being an artist and all), and then I had lost a lot of weight around that time, so I suppose this was part of my "quarter-life crisis," but in a good way. It was more of a transformation. Let me tell ya, if being twenty-six with glasses, braces, and a head full of kinky hair you're not quite sure what to do with doesn't make you reevaluate your self-image, I don't know what will. 😛 I'm naturally rather shy and introverted, but I do draw confidence in my skills, in my art and my intelligence, and I like to do things in my own way, so that helped me persevere in the process.
Just last week, as I was about to go out to work, I passed the mirror, looked at myself, with my fresh twist-out and thought, "Today I look the most like me that I ever have." It was a good feeling.
Natural Chica: When and why did you start your blog?
Sharon: May of 2003. It's been bumped around to a few different servers, but most of my entries remain intact. My blog in it's current incarnation is housed at http://artgyrl.com/wordpress.
Natural Chica: What types of topics do you post on your blog?
Sharon: I began my blog as a means to do updates on my online portfolio (artgyrl.com), and the earlier posts reflect that. Now I try to keep it updated with my art and photography, and the occasional rambling about life. 🙂 And then there's this new thing called twitter...
Natural Chica: What do you love most about blogging?
Sharon: I love that's it's an interactive means of documenting my life. I can post art and photos and keep them organized fairly well. I liked to go back and look at what I was doing/posting about around the same time the previous year. It's pretty cool.
Natural Chica: How would you describe your hair?
Sharon: Very coily. I got my first relaxer when I was about 7 years old. I'm extremely tender-headed and it was hard for my mom to comb my hair, so I got in the mindset that my natural hair was unmanageable. But when I finally grew it out, I was amazed at how soft it is. I just washed my hair, and though there's lots of shrinkage, overall, my hair isn't particularly course or hard to comb through. All around the edges of my hair the texture is a lot softer and fine, and the middle front section of my hair doesn't hold twists (but I think that might be partly due to heat damage from flat-ironing..oops) like the rest of my hair so that's a bit of a challenge when I'm styling.
Oh, and it grows quite fast. 🙂
Natural Chica: What are 5 products your hair can't live without?
Sharon: I'm just figuring out what works well with my hair, but right now I use (1) Pantene Pro-V Relaxed & Natural Shampoo, (2) Garnier Fructis Fortifying Cream Conditioner (Moisture Works), (3) Garnier Fructis Leave-In Conditioning Cream (Sleek & Shine), (4) Garnier Fructis Fiber Gum (styling putty), and Carol's Daughter Mimosa Hair Honey. That is everything that I use on my hair right now.
Natural Chica: What words would you leave with someone who is thinking about going natural?
Sharon: (1) If you're planning on transitioning for any period of time, it's imperative that you have a plan of action as to how to manage your hair while it grows out. I decided to flat iron my roots at first, and then, when enough of my hair grew out, I got kinky twists for a few months.
(2) Be prepared to put more effort into doing your hair. I've basically had to relearn how to style my hair, because it's a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT regime from washing and wrapping or whatever you're used to with relaxed hair. Goodness, I was so lazy with my hair when it was relaxed, so I don't blame my mom and sisters for not thinking I'd go more than two months into my "going natural" process before caving and getting another perm. All that to say, just be prepared for the change, because it can be a bit traumatic at first, especially when you do the big chop. 🙂
Natural Chica: Do you have any other electronic means that we can use to keep up with your natural journey? (i.e. Fotki)
Sharon: I haven't set up the gallery yet, but I do have a flickr account (http://flickr.com/photos/artgyrl) that has a few of my pics up. If there's interest, I'll keep that updated. I do have quite a few photos of my transition process.
I loved Sharon's artwork so much that I asked her if I could display some of it here! Enjoy!
Thanks so much for sharing Sharon!!
