your crown

first let me say, shoutout to all the mothers in the world but this a special tribute to the moms raising black daughters.  

My grandmother and my mother always made sure my hair was done and they had to.  I had long, thick and curly hair which is all a recipe for the looking the f.ck crazy.  But nonetheless, every week I sat down and got up with bows, ribbons, elaborate designs, plaits, fish braids, twists, curls, french braids, single braids, you name it, I had it.  Now I can't tell you how much time of my life I spent with my hair getting tugged at but I appreciate that my mothers, (I meant to make mother plural) felt it fitting for a little queen like myself to wear her crown well.  Was my hair difficult to manage?  Of course, but never once did they make me feel like my hair was a burden.  Every time, they did my hair, they made it a point to make me feel beautiful.  

Now I'm raising this little woman, there are days when I certainly do not want to dedicate to three hours of taking out her hair to redo it BUT, my daughter is beautiful and doing her hair is a reminder of such.  When she looks into the mirror, I want her to know that her self esteem matters that much to me and I want her to feel comfortable with her reflection.  If I don't think she's worth putting effort into then she won't.  It is my job to teach her that she is important, that she is beautiful and that she is worth more than she can ever even imagine.

People stop us on the street often to admire her hair and though I know she's thankful that someone thinks she's pretty, she sounds very proud to say that her mommy did her hair.