the soundtrack to our curls. (all pictures from last.fm)
I love stereotypes. After reading that sentence, you may be giving me the o_O face, but I genuinely do. I love them because I love getting the chance to break them. (Or maybe I’m a masochist, who knows?) Now there are a million and one stereotypes out there about us girls that have decided to go natural. Everything from we’re all militant feminists, to we’re all vegan, to we could never dare be friends with ANY woman who could even remotely think of putting a perm in her hair.
(._.)
One of the BEST (and absolutely hilarious) stereotypes is that girls with natural hair only listen to “conscious” music. No Southern rap, no booty shakin’ music, and DEFINITELY nothing outside the genres of R&B/approved hip-hop.
precisely what my face looked like.
My good friends Peebz and Alise that brought this assertion to my attention, and I got confused. Real confused. So what they’re saying is, the minute I chopped all of the perm out of my hair, I forfeited the right to listen to such great (and sometimes ratchet as all hell) artists such as UGK, Project Pat, and Gucci Mane? Oh. Ok. What am I supposed to listen to on the way to the bar? I mean, right now, I’ll listen to Racks on Racks, or Rack City, or The Motto (YOLO!) but am I supposed to be listening to Next Lifetime, Golden, or Doo Wop (That Thing) instead? And all because I have baby locs in my hair? NO MA’AM, NO SIR. I liked my ratchet music when I had a perm, and I might like it even more now because I get to shake these locs to it!
Don’t get me wrong, I love every song that I just named at the end of that sentence, but I feel like my selection of music shouldn’t be expected to change SOLELY because I don’t perm my hair anymore. Sometimes the world needs a little ratchet music. My iTunes isn’t indicative of what anyone else listens to but me. Hmph.
That being said, it was only fitting that I came up with a playlist of music that is #NaturalHair tried, tested, and approved. Here is a sneak peek into some of what will help all of my natural-haired sisters through those long bouts of detangling, co-washing, re-twisting, Bantu knotting, and deep conditioning.
Sister Jill...
Because I am *not* my hair.
Queen Mother Chaka! (And ATCQ)
See? All vetted through the #NaturalHair Committee on Musical Selections.
The playlist can be found on my Spotify, and the more than 200 songs should prove to be your new go-to track list on your hair days, or any other day that you want to get a dose of approved music. 
To my readers, I come asking you for your help. If you have any suggestions on songs that could be added to the playlist (and that are #NaturalHair friendly), please toss them into the comments, and I’ll add them to my ever-growing list of songs. Happy co-washing and conscious music listening!
At this point, I was trying out the idea of growing my hair out to try and go natural. I was concerned about length, so I wasn’t about to chop it all off, but I wanted to see what my hair would do in its natural state. So, I stopped getting perms, and started doing more roller sets, more crinkles thanks to my friend Vogue, and a lot more trying to hide the new growth coming in on top with the permed ends I had. Well, that eventually got really old, and really tiresome…so one day I went to the hair salon and decided, hey, let’s cut all my hair off, and go natural from here!
