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By Angela Clay Photos courtesy of Naturalchica.com
Beauty blogging is nothing new, but among the endless count of posts on models, make-up and mosturizer are a few bloggers who have a winning concept and stick with it
LS: What made you want to go natural? NC: My two younger sisters were my initial inspiration to make the journey towards having natural hair. They had started their own transitions to natural hair long before I did, and it was amazing to see how healthy their hair looked once they stopped using relaxers. When I told some of my friends (who were natural) about my interest in going down that path, they were eager to share with me all of the wonderful resources online geared towards women like me who wanted to make the transition. I was so encouraged when I saw the beautifully diverse textures and styles that were abundant online and couldn’t wait for my own journey to begin! LS: Why do you think so many women are leaning that way when it comes to hair? NC: This is a hard question to answer because in the many emails that I get through my site,
you would be surprised at the plethora of reasons women give for going natural! For some, they believe relaxers are too expensive and want to save money by going natural. For others, they are purely curious about seeing their natural texture after not seeing it from the time they were little girls. However, the most recurring reason I see is that relaxers are damaging to their scalp and going natural is the only way they can save the hair on their head. Whatever their initial reasons were, in the end, many women express the empowerment they feel by embracing their natural tresses. LS: For me it was and has been an emotional journey why do you think it’s that way? NC: Until I went through the journey myself, it was hard for me to understand why a transition to natural hair could be such an emotional experience for many. One of the most important lessons I learned in my experience is that you can’t allow what other people say and do, dictate how you view yourself. I can still remember many of the comments directed towards me, insinuating that I was more attractive with “long, pretty hair” and what was I thinking by chopping off all my hair leaving me with this “bush”. In the beginning, these comments hurt me
to the core and really did a number to my self-esteem. At the same time, these remarks eventually also led me to realize that as long as I was happy and felt confident in my own decision, then it really didn’t matter what others had to say. This way of thinking permeated throughout other areas of my life and really helped to grow my confidence in who God made me to be and gave me the strong desire to help uplift others as well! LS: Tell us about your blog? NC: My blog, NaturalChica.com, began a little over a year ago as what I thought to be a simple way of documenting my transition to natural hair. I thought it would be great for me to keep track of my hair growth as sort of a “selfencouragement” tool throughout my journey. It honestly shocked me when people outside of my friends started reading my blog and would tell me that my posts had encouraged them to begin their own transitions. From that point, I decided that I wanted my site to be a place where people could find encouragement in their own journeys. The site is always evolving, but you can always find stories of those who have recently gone natural or have been natural for years, profiles of businesses that cater to natural hair & natural products, as well as posts of inspira-
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click videos to view Mae!
tion and encouragement. I still chronicle my journey from time to time on the site, but my YouTube channel (Nikkimae2003) and Facebook Fan Page (NaturalChica) are places where I really keep up-to-date with that now.
With her blog NaturalChica.com Mae chronicles her life and hair styles, as well as opening the blog up to users to voice their own opinion about hair and fashion.
LS: What do you do in your free time? NC: Besides the blog, a lot of my energy goes into maintaining my YouTube channel (Nikkimae2003). My vlog acts as a partner to my blog where I can give visual demonstrations on how to care for natural hair. However, it also acts as a window to the other passions in my life, which include singing, photography and education. I’m a person who loves life so you’ll always find me trying out new things! : LS: The future for Naturalchica.com…. NC: I really consider it a blessing to see how much the site has grown over the past year and my main goal for the future of my site is that it will always be centered on providing useful information and encouragement to those who stop by! Check out Mae’s blog at: Naturalchica.comcom