And so the blog was born! Welcome to Natural Nappy Nigerian Girl! (Could be Triple NG for short but I don’t know if that will catch on. Lol)
Hello there, my name’s Jen and I’m a newbie natural. Well, almost! I’ve got my big chop coming up in about 3 weeks. I’ve marked it in my calendar, June 14th.

Anyone who knows me well knows that Google is my best friend in the whole world. So, as you would expect, I have done loads and loads of research on all things natural. There is surprisingly a whole lot of info out there; I was pleasantly surprised( I even picked up some natural hair lingo e.g referring to the cutting of your relaxed ends leaving just your natural new growth as the big chop). People are becoming more and more accepting of their natural hair. Even more surprising to me was the fact that I found Nigerian blogs about natural hair! They are not a lot, but they are there and I’m proud, today, to count myself as one of them. And I hope that this blog will help others the way the blogs and websites I found, both Nigerian and non-Nigerian, helped me.

The big chop is a scary thing, I won’t even lie. Maybe we should start calling it the big bad chop(like the big bad wolf). Even after you decide, you may find yourself second guessing every now and then. I know I do. What makes it so much worse is that almost nobody supports the decision(if everyone supports you, you are truly blessed my friend). I’ve even stopped telling people about my plan to cut my hair and go natural because hardly anyone is ever in support. They’ll just have to see it for themselves when it’s done. Maybe they’ll love it, maybe they won’t. I’ve decided that it is my hair after all and I don’t really need anyone’s validation. People have told me I won’t look good, I don’t have the right face/head shape to pull it off etc. At some point, you may want to back out, but don’t. I wanted to big chop some months ago and I told my mum about it and managed to convince her. She agreed but went ahead to report me secretly to my aunt and both of them formed a team hellbent on discouraging me. I caved and put the idea out of my head but when it came back, it came back in full force and so, here we are.

The last time I put relaxer in my hair was in February but in March, I used some relaxer just for the front part of my hair. I’ve been a little worried, therefore, that I don’t have as much new growth in front so my hair will be too short when I do the big chop. I’ve also worried about looking like a dude, looking ugly etc. I’ve thought about the fact that I’ll have to wear makeup/earrings even when I don’t want to because I can no longer rely on long hair to distract from that. I’ve thought about how natural hair will be hard to maintain; I’ll have to religiously wash, moisturize, deep condition etc. I’ve thought about how it will take a while to grow and I’ll have to wait a while till I can style it however I want. I’ve thought about how I may be walking around looking crazy and messy headed. I also thought that short hair looked better on slimmer people so maybe I should lose a little more weight before I do the big chop(I’ve been on this weight loss journey since January and I’ve lost 11kg so far but I’m not yet at my goal. I’ll see if I can share about that on this blog as time goes on).
I almost talked my self into waiting till the end of the year so I’ll have loads of new growth but then I said to myself, ” It’s a big chop. It wouldn’t be called ‘big’ if it were easy”. So, I’ve decided to stop worrying and just do it.

I plan to do the big chop myself at home. Hopefully, my sister who currently is one of my many discouragers about the big chop, will lend a hand in cutting the places I can’t see in the mirror. So guys, let the countdown to le big chop begin! 18 days to go! I was going to start the blog when I actually did the big chop but then I realized that sharing my experiences and how I felt before the big chop would encourage or help someone who is contemplating doing the big chop.

My aim is that this blog will chronicle my journey and be helpful to people considering going natural, newbie naturals, natural enthusiasts and even people with relaxed hair who are just looking for good products or healthy hair tips.

I’ll leave you with a picture I found of a beautiful girl rocking her big chop for some motivation 😉

Welcome, again, to Natural Nappy Nigerian Girl!