Nappturality is all about embracing your NAPPtural, natural hair. Many, many thousands of African American women and women of African descent all over the world have stopped relaxing their hair and are wearing their natural hair proudly. All have different reasons for doing it -- damage, scalp problems, illness, hair loss, finances, curiosity or maybe simply being tired of wasting all day Saturday waiting in a salon. Others saw someone on the train wearing a fierce set of locs, coils or twists and started to rethink their choices.

We're in many of phases of nappturality. We're transitioning, or wearing braids or weaves and thinking about transitioning -- and some of us have just cut off the relaxer and are beginning to learn how to care for napptural hair in the real world. But regardless of how we got here, all of us have these 3 things in common:

1. We want to have healthy, beautiful, natural hair.
2. We want to see pictures of other women's natural hair.
3. We want the transition to natural hair to be as painless as possible.

Going natural can be a daunting task, but you have already made that first step. You have arrived at Nappturality! We are here to help and support you in your decision to go natural. It is a personal journey, and if you are deeply embedded in the straight hair mindset, you will find the challenges can be daunting at times but the rewards are great if you hang in there. Please visit our Transitioning section, where you will find our more information about your hair, the best to transition for your lifestyle, and resources for assisstance.

If you are still relaxing your hair you are welcome here, however be warned...We don't debate the wonders of relaxing and we don't talk about the benefits of chemical or heat straightening on Nappturality because frankly, there aren't any benefits to using high heat or that caustic chemical. There are other ways to show your length without such damaging practices. But we all had to start our journeys somewhere. And I am glad you chose Nappturality as a place to start to learn.

That said, if you are still relaxing and thinking of transitioning out of the relaxer, you are welcome to ask questions and ask for help and advice. Make sure you tell us your hair is relaxed, don't be afraid to say so. We need to know this to help you.

Just be aware that those of us here who are napptural are committed to being napptural and spreading the word of nappturality. We don't like relaxers. And we don't sugarcoat that fact.

We hope you learn something beneficial from us.

1. Nappturality is all about acceptance of our hairtype and not carrying false expectations of what it can or can't be or do.
2. It's not about taking the easy road and conforming.
3. It's not about destroying your hair through continual straightening.
4. It's about accepting yourself and your hair as it was intended to be.

That's what NAPPTURALITY is.

Submitted by Sir Aje the Math Tutor

Natural hair amongst African American women has been a growing trend over the past few years and there are many victories for advocates of natural hair to celebrate. There are cases of discrimination in the workplace filed by women of natural hair that were unjustly denied work or terminated from work because of their hair that ended in the discriminatory workplace having to either give the women their jobs back or pay compensation for job loss. There are little girls growing up with the ability to take pride in their hair the way it is without being forced to look like someone of a different ethnicity. Still, there are many sisters that are afraid of Natural hair, and many brothers who are too ignorant to encourage and support sisters in the process.