Transcending Textures: Growth of the Natural Hair Movement

Transcending Textures: Growth of the Natural Hair Movement

Lauren McEwen

Words: 780

Type the word “natural” into your Google search bar, and the second phrase to pop up is “natural hair styles”. In the past few years there has been a noticeable uptick in the number of black women forgoing relaxers – and sometimes flatirons, as well – to “go natural. “

Crops of natural hair care blogs, YouTube videos and forums are popping up all over the web as a response to the trend.

There are many debates that spark over natural hair care blogs – To do the “big chop” or to let your relaxer grow out? Carol’s Daughter or Miss Jessie’s? – but one of the most difficult ones to end is how to define natural hair…click to read more

On the blog Around the Way Curls,
one commenter was upset
about women with “multiracial/mixed hair” being included in the conversation.

The commenter wrote in all caps, “First off, natural hair is not mixed white and black hair that has not been chemically altered. (Natural hair in terms of black women’s natural hair) is kinky or soft afro hair that has not been altered with chemicals.”

This effort to define natural hair could get confusing – wouldn’t it mean wearing your hair the way grows out of your head?

“I have always wondered why the mixed race curly hair women state that they have natural hair nowadays. Perhaps you want to fit in now and gain attention along with our fabulous big fros that we wear,” she continued. Her main gripe was that black women with looser curls or “Type 3” hair who do not chemically treat their hair are more easily accepted by society than women with tightly coiled “Type 4” hair.

“I think that women with kinky hair sometimes believe that women with curly hair do not go through a journey to learn how to take care of their hair so they don’t include them
from
in the natural hair movement. I believe that is unfair because I know many women with curly textures that have once permed and had to go through the journey of growing and learning about their hair just like women with kinky textures,” says Sabia Wade of YoungBlackFemale.com, who cut off her hair after a texturizer gone awry, decided to grow locs, but then cut it again. 

Dorianne Mason, a Howard University alumna who runs
BlackGirlCurly.com
, says that she has seen this argument made before, but very rarely.

“I do though think that to say that curly hair or fine/silky hair is more easily accepted by society and even the black community, would be a true statement. But, I think any afro-textured, curly, kinky hair, no matter how curly or fine, has a place in the natural hair movement and I think most natural-haired ladies would agree with that,” says Mason, who stopped getting relaxers in 2000, and stopped straightening her hair altogether in 2010.

“Though I was natural, I always wore my hair straight and began to wonder why that was, why I was so 'afraid' to wear my hair in its natural state. So, I decided to stop straightening and see what affect it had on me and others and document the process through my blog as I went along,” says Mason.

“The word ‘natural’ is to be contended anyway, because not everything we do is natural. There are some ‘naturals’ who dye their hair. Does that still make it natural?” says Latisha Thompson, a senior psychology major at Howard University who stopped getting relaxers during her sophomore year of high school.’

Aside from settling on terminology, black women who decide to “go natural” have the difficult task of figuring out just how to do their hair.

“I believe that the most difficult part of natural hair care is finding which products work for your hair. Even throughout my two months of loose natural hair I’ve gone through many products trying to find which products work best with my hair texture. I believe all natural
s
face this issue because no hair is the same. One product may work wonders for your friend but work terribly in your hair,” says Wade.

Not only can it be difficult for women to find products that work for them, but styling can be so much work.

“Honestly, relaxed or natural, long or short, styling is always an issue for me. And it is not because I don't know what to do. It is pure lack of motivation and laziness. It takes time to prep your hair for the next day and sometimes you just wish you could lie down then wake up with every hair in place. I am sure many women with natural hair share this sentiment,” says Jessica Gray from
HairGetsKinky.com
.