Review: Thank God I'm Natural

I've been reading Chris-Tia Donaldson's book Thank God I'm Natural since, like... February. No, I'm not slow! It's just that the ADD kicks in overtime when it comes to reading. I'm currently reading four books--this one included--along with reading books/articles for work and class. Needless to say this is pretty inefficient, but I eventually finish them. I'm wrapping up this book now, so here are the things I did and didn't like about the book.

Since my "didn't like" is pretty short, I'll start with that first. This book seemed to rely heavily on the "Evil relaxers" theme. Not only did she make it seem like it was impossible to have healthy permed hair, but she even makes a REACHING assumption that because relaxers are "addictive" like cigarettes, they could cause cancer. Ummmm, what? There is no research supporting this (which she does admit) but I'm thinking why even bring that up when there is absolutely nothing to back up that statement? Plus, Skittles are addictive (to me, at least). Does that mean I'm gonna end up with cancer because I like to taste the rainbow regularly? According to Donaldson's logic, yeah. The scare tactics really turned me off of this book for a while, because I was not looking for a diatribe about how terrible relaxers are and that I didn't love myself when I had one. Been down that road, not interested in a walk down memory lane.
But I can kinda see where she was coming from, in a marketing sense. To make natural hair look better, you have to make perms seem awful. (OF course, this could have just been done by extolling the benefits of natural hair, but hey...) It would be like Jenny Craig saying "Hey, buy my food! My food makes you lose weight! Don't eat regular food if you wanna be healthy... Although you could lose weight and maintain good health by monitoring your portions of whatever you eat and getting regular exorcise." No, they can't say that! They have to say "Buy Jenny Craig!" Much in the same fashion, Donaldson presents natural hair as the only way to have beautiful, healthy hair.

However, there were some great things in this book. I don't want to give away anything, so I'll just briefly say something about the chapters I enjoyed most.

Chapter 3: A Brush With History
Chapter 4: Anatomy 101 & Chapter 5: Type & Texture (I learned a lot that I didn't know in regards to hair growth, the composition of hair, and types of hair. Very informative for a natural hair newbie like me.)
Chapter 15: In the Kitchen (This chapter has a lot of recipes for making your own shampoos, conditioners and rinses. I have not tried any of them yet but I'm anxious to do so!)

There is also great information about what ingredients to look for and what to avoid, various styles natural/transition styles, tips for transitioners, locs if you decide to go that route, and coloring natural hair (something that I am planning to try soon).

Overall, I enjoyed this book. While I would not tout it as a "natural hair bible" like the reviews I read before I bought it, it did prove to be a valuable tool to me, both while I was transitioning and now.


If you are interested in ordering the book, you can go to Thank God I'm Natural or online retailers such as Amazon.com.