Somebody help me.

"As my life was slipping away, I remembered the Lord. And my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy Temple." - Jonah 2:1

Braids are a beautiful thing.

For us natural girlies, it means a break from having to manage our hair. As much as I love my hair, it can be a lot to tame. Looking nice and presentable with little to no effort? Sign me up!

I'd gotten this set of waist-length small knotless braids for my little sister's wedding (she wanted all of us to have our hair in a braided style). To my surprise, the braids ended up costing $300!! Good thing I saved!

For that reason, I was determined that - regardless of how they looked - I was keeping these braids in for a MINIMUM of 2 months.

Last week, I reached that 2-month mark and it was finally time to take them out... *sigh*

I started the process on Sunday evening around 4pm. After undoing the first braid took me nearly 5 minutes, I knew that it was about to be a long road ahead of me to get all of the braids out. At this point, there's no turning back. Time to get comfortable and find several shows and movies to watch.

One down, Two hundred more to go!

As I sat undoing the braids, I thought about how much of a normal process this was for so many black women. SO many of us get braided styles, but this part - the part where you sit (or stand) for hours undoing each braid one by one - is hardly ever broadcast. Why is that? Just a thought!

Anyways, I ended up stopping on Sunday with a half-unfinished head. Gratefully, I worked a split shift on Monday so I would have the second half of the day to address the other side of my head. In the meantime, it meant tying up my hair in a scarf and walking around like "Erykah Ba-DON'T" for the first half of the day!

(Ha. You like how I did that, don't you? LOL)

After finishing up 4 hours of "work", I got back at my hair around 12pm. I sat on the couch watching everything from 90-Day Fiance to the new Trolls movie to 100 Day Dream Home. Each piece of wavy synthetic hair that I pulled out felt like a victory - even though it seemed like I still had forever ago!

By a little after 7pm, I finally reached my very last braid which, of course, gave me a hard time. But, yeah. After 10 hours of work, my afro was finally released. Surely, I've could've used some help, but hey...

Very quickly though, I just want to speak to anyone that's facing challenges where it seems like there's no end: you are not helpless. Remember, you have an everlasting help in God. He hears your cries for help and, in just the right time, he's going to come through right when you need Him. He loves you and will see you through. (That's my testimony this evening!)

Well, y'all. It's about that time for me to get bed.

In case you're wondering - NO, I still have not actually washed or styled my hair and probably won't until the weekend!

Lord, send help for me with all this hair!