On the Fence: How to Be a Low Maintenance Natural

Well, it  has been quite a while. What's been going on with me? Life, in general. Everything, in particular. I have not been thinking about my hair much, because I have been steadily studying for the LSAT, which I take December 3, which is right around the corner. I am nervous, but at the same time, I will be so happy to get it over with. The most I have been thinking about my hair has been in the sense of I NEED A CHANGE. What I mean is that my hairstyle needs to change (for easier maintenance), my approach needs to change (perhaps I am making things more complicated than they have to be, or my mindset needs to change (perhaps its not the hair, just other things in life and my hair is just one more thing to do). All in all, when looking at my regimen, my number of products, and my hectic schedule, I realize that my regimen and hair care needs to get back simple, really quick. A year from now, God-willing, I will be enrolled in law school and life will be even busier. Who will have time for hair or money to spend on it. Thinking of this, I have toyed with the idea of two different (maybe polar opposite) ways of dealing with my hair:

Option 1: Bic Chop #2: Doing a big chop and maintaining a low fade natural look. The only maintenance for this would be cleansing. light conditioning, and regular trims/cuts. I would have to find a barber, making this not as low maintenance as it could be, but life will be simpler than it is now in the world of natural hair. I would have to pay that barber regularly for trims, making this not as cheap as could be, but again, simpler than my current regimen. I have been recently told that having a long neck would make it easy for me to pull of a short fade. Cool! I might feel like a swan. How nice?

Option 2: Locs, Take 2: I have already reached out to the woman who started my first set of dreadlocks my junior year of high school. She joked and said, "Why did you ever cut them in the first place?" No worries, no regrets from me. I also told her that I would like them to be smaller, since they were what I consider medium sized. She agreed they could be smaller. With locs, I had exactly four hair products: shampoo, oils, scalp spray, and twist/loc gel. My brands of choice then were Suave Clarifying Shampoo, various oils, a scalp spray made by my loctician, and Jamaican Mango and Lime (I swear everyone with locs uses JML). Anywho, Take Two, I will definitely be using a more gentle, but residue free shampoo, such as Dr. Bronners Castile Soap. The oil of choice: JOJOBA, since it is closest to the sebum made by the scalp. Twist and loc gel of choice: either Jamaican Mango and Lime or 100% pure aloe vera gel.

Life was so simple. The only things I didn't like about locs was retwisting and washing. I liked the end result, but not the long process. I am more and more embracing the fact that I am a low maintenance natural. With the two options, the ulitmate decision will be whether I want to rock long hair and let it grow or maintain a pixie cut. Who know? I am still on the fence. I may just end up tossing a coin to decide. At the moment, I am leaning more towards pixie cut, because I have not maintained one before.

I just love pixie cuts. It is the only straight hair style I like. (No offense to straight hair, I just prefer curly hair). Some great pixie straight hair cuts I love include Ginnifer Goodwin and Emma Watson. But no body does it like Halle Berry.