It's getting hot in here,all you heat treated natural's better watch out! Things have started to get hot in the natural hair blog world recently.

Over at the blog Black Girl with Long Hair they are debating whether natural hair is for pretty black women only. It gets pretty deep into the mind set that many of us black women have about beauty and it starts to delve into a lot of the apprehension we have towards accepting our natural selves, kinks and all.

What do I have to say about it? Natural hair (and when I say natural I mean the texture that immediately pops into your mind when you think of the natural texture for black/ African people) is what God made for us! It is what he intended for black people to have coming from their scalps. So how can it only be for "pretty black women"? That is ludicrous.

What is even more ludicrous to me is the idea (that I had for a very long time) that straight hair will make anyone look better. That is a laughable statement. Straight hair is not meant for us. Period. If it were, we would be able to grow it naturally. Which we can't, so if anyone thinks that walking around with a head full of kinks and coils and napps is ugly or strange or a look that can only be pulled off by "certain" black people, then there is something seriously wrong with their psyche. Seeing a whole race of women spending billions every year to achieve a look that is inherent to another race altogether is what's strange.

Imagine seeing zebras walking around wearing fake elephant trunks and thinking that without the elephant trunks they were less attractive?!?!? That would be hilarious. You would find yourself wondering, firstly, who they were trying to fool. We all know zebras don't grow trunks!

Secondly you would wonder what is going on in the heads of the trunk wearing zebras to really think that another animal's features would be better for them than their natural features. Imagine a zebra family where the children and the daddy zebra have their regular, natural, snouts and features and the momma zebra wearing the elephant trunk thinking she looks good and believing her natural snout would make her look less attractive. Crazy,huh?

Then comes the question whether constant heat treatment of natural hair still makes you "natural". What do I have to say about it? To me natural hair is what I described earlier; it is the hair that God intended for us to have growing out of our scalp. Yeah many would like to say that straightening your natural hair still makes you a natural and I am not going to debate what "title" anyone has. But here is my stance.

If you're constantly straightening your hair what is natural about that? If the Zebra isn't using a chemical to start growing an elephant trunk but is still wearing a fake one or is manipulating her face to look like an elephant trunk, the fact still remains that she is preferring and sporting the look of an elephant trunk. And if your hair is straight whether it is via chemicals or heat, it's still straight and it's not in your natural texture.

I guess it matters why you went natural in the first place. There was a point in my life where I was not using chemicals on my hair but I was getting it blown straight almost weekly at the salon. There was nothing natural about me or my intentions. I just thought the chemicals were too harsh and I knew I could get the same results if not better results with it being blown out. I still had the mind set that straight hair was right and my naps in their unaltered texture were wrong. So when someone says to me that they are natural but their hair looks like it has been permed I'm thinking,okay,why are you telling me? Because you want me to see that we're on the same page,but we're not!

If anyone wants to argue about natural hair being this that or the third let us pay attention to most of the natural hair blogs and videos and inspiration pictures. They are almost exclusively about kinks, coils, napps and curls. We all have a definition of black natural hair and it is evident in the images we choose to demonstrate natural hair. We don't generally show someone with bouncy straightened hair as a natural look because that's not what we're talking about when we say natural.

Bottom line however, I don't care what title you use, all I care about is this, natural hair ACCEPTANCE, which is learning to love what God gave you. And he gave you kinks. When I went natural it was because I was tired of believing that my features were inferior and that I needed alterations (which cost a lot of money) in order to be considered beautiful. I wanted to be proud of who I am without the need to conform to the mainstream and pop culture ideas of beauty. I want to show people that black is beautiful and I don't need help from a chemical in a box, or a blow dryer or heat in order to feel that way.

I want to show EVEYRBODY that I am proud to be what God made me which is a nappy headed Queen with many features unique to my African roots. And I know not everyone is making that stance. I get it. We are all here to fulfill our purposes and this one happens to be one of mine. To bring napps into the forefront where it can be appreciated and loved and styled into the fiercest of looks that only the kinky textures can achieve.

I am taking the stance and demanding that OUR features get the love and respect and equality they deserve. They are not inferior to any other cultures features. My napps are beautiful and they need not lay down, fly in the wind, hang down to my bra strap or anything of the sort to be seen as beautiful.

If God thought my hair was a good look for me, I agree. Yeah, yeah, yeah natural hair is versatile and if you want to wear it straight one day or kinky the next, good for you. All I'm saying is, I don't want to walk around with hair inspired by a different race and culture. I don't want to be the trunk wearing Zebra. Call me a natural supremacist or say I'm judging or whatever, but they're like elbows everybody has them and this was mine.