I was watching youtube, as I normally do to get through my day, when the “curly hair routine” I was watching turned less into an informational fun video into a bashing of the curly hair movement for non blacks. The youtuber was adamant that only black people can call not using perms and going back to the hair that they were born with “natural.” This movement goes much much farther then hair. My topic that I chose was “What the natural hair movement means in the Hispanic community.” I watched a few more videos, I read comments, I read blogs, and news articles, and this is what I found. Some people believe that if you are not black or don’t have kinky or coily hair that you can not claim to be part of the “natural hair movement.” This movement to natural hair for me, was a struggle. I am from the Dominican Republic, here natural hair is a sign of poverty. This generation is now changing that mind set. But it was not easy. Our hair is straightened at a young age. From there we must have it blown out every 1 to 2 weeks. In elementary school! One youtuber sunkissalba talks about the struggle of being Hispanic and wanting to go naturally curly. The older generation didn’t get it. This is something I am very familiar with.
The problem with curly hair is that after years of straightening and chemically altering your hair, it will not curl the same. The ends begin to resemble the end of an old broom without straitening. The only way to recover from the heat damage is to chop it all off. “The big cut.” Then comes the wait. To grow your hair to the length of your shoulders can take years. So this movement is a commitment that I feel is important and shouldn’t be cast aside because my hair although curly is not kinky or coily. There is prejudice in the Hispanic community against natural hair too.