I was thinking back to the first time CRT first impacted my life this past weekend and why I ever became interested in it enough to do a deep dive into researching it.

Funny enough, it was hair.

A simple feminine interest and that is where I first encountered it personally.

My natural hair texture is on average a 3A depending on the chart you are looking at. (Here's an example of what I'm talking about.)

Hair care is a big deal in African and African American communities because of it's unique texture and needs and the knowledge on how to care for their hair is passed on thru the generations. (There's also a large amount of history here, but I'm just moving on.)

Now I was born into a family of straight haired women. Both of my grandpa's had curly hair, and I inherited that from them.

My mother had no idea what to do with my hair and she treated it like she would her own. This was an utter disaster and my hair looked awful my whole life.

About the time my kids were born, the natural hair movement made it's way into my awareness and I was fascinated. There were these beautiful black women on the internet explaining how to care for curly hair and how to make it look good. I learned so much.

Then I happened across a youtube channel where this lovely black lady was teaching curly haired white girls how to care for their hair. I was so excited! Something for people like me!

Then I scrolled down looking for more tips.

The comments were unbelievably brutal.

I couldn't believe how political hair care was. There were long diatribes on oppression and how white women should be blocked from the natural hair movement and how they were appropriating black culture.

They also viciously attacked the black woman who presented the information.

I was just trying to figure out how to care for my hair and deal with it's out of control texture without having to spend 2 hours every day flat ironing, curling and otherwise destroying it or putting it in a bun.

Then I, rural, poor and completely disconnected, stumbled into a

whole thing I didn't understand. It was mind boggling.

It was just hair.

But it was more than that. Much more.

And so the journey started. I wanted to find the heart of the matter and where the intense emotion came from.

That's how I got here.