The natural hair movement was created to encourage women with African ancestry to celebrate their kinky, curly, hair texture. For most, being natural has involved unlearning the deep-rooted beauty standard that straight hair equates to “good hair.” From a very young age, many black youth are forced to get their hair chemically straightened in order to be accepted by their peers and society, not realizing that using all these chemicals and heat products would be detrimental to their health and well-being in the long run.
Thanks to the natural hair movement, more black youth and parents are becoming aware that it is not necessary to conform to these Eurocentric standards. Consciousness is being heightened around the fact that natural hair is beautiful and does not need to be mindlessly altered into something else. Natural hair is a way for black girls and women to take pride and ownership of their body; a way to shape their authentic identity and take control of the way they present in society.
While I was growing up, I did not have the opportunity of seeing anyone with my hair type caring for their natural hair, making the transition toward being completely natural much more difficult. I did not have an image of what healthy natural hair could look like, so I had to teach myself how to care for my own hair.
My mom put relaxer in my hair for the first time when I was about 7 years old. She would use relaxer regularly in order to save time when doing mine and my sisters’ hair. In 2013, I cut all my hair off as a part of a cultural coming-of-age tradition. I let my hair grow out for six months afterward. This was the first time I saw my hair completely natural. I did not like it because I had no idea what to do with it. It was exactly what everyone told me having natural hair would be like; unmanageable. Not having the money to buy the products I needed to style my hair in a way I was comfortable with made the experience of being natural at that time more dreadful.
Even though I did not like my natural hair, I hated the process of getting it relaxed even more. It was always a painful experience because the people who were left responsible for doing my hair did not know what they were doing. After another month of letting my hair grow out, my mom forced me to get it relaxed again.
Once I became old enough to take care of my hair, what I did to it was left up to me. I choose to keep getting it relaxed and to keep it straight as a way to reduce my stress around getting ready every day. However, since I still had no money to keep up with getting my hair relaxed, I stopped getting the treatments done as often as before.
The last time I put a relaxer in my hair was on June 8th, 2016. I got my first set of crochet braids on July 11th, 2016 and kept them in until October of that year. I kept switching between protective styles for almost a year. Finally, after my third set of crochet braids I did my first big cut on May 25, 2017. I cut off all the relaxed ends of my hair without letting anyone in my family know, and I have been completely natural ever since. This is significant because cutting my hair for the purpose of going natural, without letting my mother know, is seen as disrespectful in my culture. As a black woman, hair is a large part of what makes up my identity. Culturally, how a person styles their hair is an indicator of their social class and how much they care for themselves. My mom has always emphasized the importance of maintaining relaxed hair because she had felt it was a way for her to protect my siblings and I from the scrutiny faced by people who wear their hair natural.
It has been interesting to see the shift in how natural hair is treated in my own house. Before I started my natural hair journey, no one in my family had respect for people who wore their hair naturally. They did not know the amount of time and patience that actually went into maintaining natural hair, so they automatically assumed people who wear their hair natural do not take care of it at all. As my family saw me trying new things with my hair, improving its health and growing it out longer, they gained respect for the process. Now, whenever anyone in my family has questions about hair health, they come to me.