Everyday more and more Black women are letting relaxers go for a variety of reasons. For some it's a matter of ease. The care and upkeep required for having healthy, relaxed hair can be overwhelming. Others just wanted to know and love their full selves.
An apologetic Sheryl Underwood revealed her natural hair after taking a year to reflect on the
comments she made about Black hair on "The Talk" in 2013.
Is your hair strange? Is your hair professional? Why natural and not straight? These are some of the questions explored in
HAIR FREEDOM, a short documentary by Zindzi Rocque Drayton on the natural hair movement, Black beauty, and the term "natural hair."
Calling all Naturalistas! One of our favorite beauty bloggers, Naptural85, has created a new song just for you! UpCROWN Funk is her take on Bruno Mar's hit song, UpTown Funk. Naptural85 and her crew of natural haired women strut through the streets embracing their kinks, coils, and curls while proclaiming, "Coils thank ya, Hallelujah!" in this fun-filled video. This one is definitely for textured girls all around the world!
Mothers are often our first teachers, and we learn to model their behaviors early. The lessons on self-love and beauty they pass down affect us early.
Filmmakers of Eastside Community Heritage
asked Black men and women of East London to share their opinions and experiences of living with Black hair in Britain. Whilst some simply shared their favourite hairstyles, others explored the more serious topic of how their hairstyle choices impact their identity. This film explores how and why Black women have been made to feel that their hair is inferior.
Dove has known that
speaking to women about beauty and body confidence is a winning marketing strategy. Their latest ad attempts to tackle the straight hair beauty ideal.
Four year-old Riley is something like a natural hair icon. Her spunky personality and beautiful fro have made her a social media sensation, but Riley does more than look adorable on Instagram. She's also given us this cute-to-death videos including a twist out tutorial. Check out her
Instagram and watch the video below.
After a three month review, the US Military is changing the rules about approved hairstyles for female service members after guidelines that came out earlier this year were accused of being racially biased. Previously, twists and large braids were banned, but now female troops will be able to wear more types of two-strand twists and braided styles.
There's more than a slight chance you've seen a natural hair tutorial in your lifetime, and many of them have a few things in common. Vlogger
Akilah compiled a handful of natural hair guru quirks and created a hilarious parody.
Watch and see if any of this looks familiar.
Kathleen Cleaver, now a law professor, was once married to Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver. At the height of the Black Panther Party's visibility, Kathleen became recognizable for her striking red afro and knee-high boots.
In 1968, she was asked about the embrace of "black is beautiful," and here's what she had to say:
YouTuber Jouelzy is one of my favorite vloggers because she's always honest and articulate no matter the subject matter. In one of her
latest videos, she discusses the discrimination she's faced because her 4b/4c hair is less "visually appealing" than some of her fellow vloggers.
If you're looking to make some customizations to dolls like
Queen Robinson, you can start with the hair. This is a short tutorial for anyone who wants to change the traditionally straight Barbie to a coarser texture.
Kesha Monk's battle with colon cancer inspired her to embrace her natural hair. She decided to make a video showing off her natural pride and invite some of the natural sistas of Durham, North Carolina to represent.
Her reinterpretation of Pharrell's "
Happy" as a celebration of "nappy" hair is fun and infectious. Watch below.
Let's begin by saying that, generally, we are not fan's of Steve Harvey's advice. It's often patriarchal and regressive. But when a woman named Love wrote into the Steve Harvey show because her husband can't stand her natural hair (the husband is pretty awful by the way), Harvey set the him straight with a simple statement, "it ain't yo damn head."
That's exactly right, and (never thought I'd say this) I wish more men would adopt Harvey's viewpoint on the issue. Sadly, Harvey seemed to be the only man on that stage who cared about Love's fragile self-image.
"I'm going natural. No more relaxers to straighten my hair," announced Pam McKelvy of WMC-TV during a broadcast, still wearing her wig and introducing a segment about women and their "crowns of glory," in which she discusses how recent chemotherapy treatments caused her to go bald.
Little Miss Riley Elle couldn't be more adorable. If she looks familiar, you've probably seen her in this photo that's been floating around the web for months. Riley's sassy pose and gorgeous mane caught our eye.
Natasha of
Mane Moves TV and Yardley of
The Coil Review help a young woman embrace her natural beauty.
In the season finale of Make Me A Naturalista, Angie faces a big dilemma as her wedding approaches. She doesn't know whether to wear her hair straight or natural for the big day! Angie contacted Natasha and Yardley for some wedding day style help and they gave her just that. We brought her to Meko New York Natural Hair Care Spa & Boutique in Orange, NJ to work it out. Take a look at what went down!
An art exhibit/social experiment that took place in New York last week generated innumerable discussions about the politics of black hair and personal space. "You Can Touch My Hair" presented by Un-ruly.com placed three models in Union Square Park in New York City holding signs that read "You Can Touch My
Hair."
One of the models, Malliha Ahmad, offers her insight the exhibit.
video and transcript below:
