Destiny

Who’s Becky and what’s her hair type again?

 Posted by on Sun, 9/25 at 11:58pm  ideas  No Responses »
Sep 252016
 

I think that the natural hair movement in the 70’s represented black power, and not assimilating into western ideals of beauty it was a political stand. The movement is gaining power in 2016 however I think the representation has shifted. Natural hair is now a symbol of self acceptance, self love and cultural connections. I chose to no longer receive chemical straightening treatments and damage my hair with heat because I am choosing to accept myself and change my own ideas of what beauty is.

The natural hair movement community is divided. Some people believe that only girls with coily hair can become a part of this movement. They even want to exclude biracial women and light skinned women from this movement. I think that anyone who decides to embrace their hair can be part of this movement. Black, white, Spanish, dark skinned, light skinned , it doesn’t really matter. If you are choosing to love your outer self and accept your hair for how it is, damage free then join this movement and claim it. My argument for this is that natural hair stands for something different then it did in the 70’s.

This is a personal choice to go natural with your hair. The key word is choice, you can choose to go natural or you can choose to continue to alter your hairs texture. Some women in the natural hair community online like to bash non naturals for not embracing their curls and coils. Going natural costs a lot more and takes more time then getting a new perm every few weeks. I am aware that this is not a priority to some people and if its not and you are happy with chemically straightened hair that’s fine too. There is no need to bash each other. We need to eliminate the terms “good hair” and “bad hair” from our conversations. Although I still want to know who Becky is and what constitutes her having “good hair.” I dislike this distinguishing modifier used  to identify a person. It adds to the illusion that there is one right hair type.

 

Curls in Coils

 Posted by on Sun, 9/25 at 4:57pm  reading  No Responses »
Sep 252016
 

The natural hair movement is a movement that encourages women to embrace their natural hair texture. This movement is nothing new but it has made a strong come back in recent years. In the late 60’s and early 70’s this movement came in the form of the Afro and represented black power. Nowadays this movement is about embracing the way your hair is without chemically altering it. The movement is empowering all women to be themselves.

Going natural isn’t something that you can simply do from one day to a next. This journey called “transitioning” is exactly as it sounds it is the journey that you embark on while transitioning from chemically altered or heat damaged hair to natural hair. Once hair has been chemically altered or damaged by heat it can not be undone.  To begin this journey you must chop all of your chemically treated hair off. This is called the big chop.

This movement has grown substantially, over the last few years sales for perm products have decreased by  26%. There are hundreds of youtube channels, blogs, events and books dedicated to this movement. It is important to know that there are different hair types. These hair types range from wavy hair to tightly wound curly hair. This difference in hair types have created a divide in this movement that was meant to unite and empower us.  Some believe that the hair movement prioritizes certain curl types, this in part is because of the images associated with it. When you look up natural hair, you are greeted with images of light skinned black women with bouncy voluminous curls but we come in all different textures and other hair types are feeling left behind.

This movement is gaining much more followers in France then the US. They have recently held a conference for natural hair girls  and thousands of people came. News stories of girls being told their hair is too big and must be tied back because it is a distraction in the classroom have emerged. The media is taking notice of this divide and have began featuring girls with different hair types in commercials. More products geared towards textured hair have began to emerge. Salons that are specifically for curly hair have been opening around the U.S. Boca Raton is home to one of these salons called curls rock studio.

Touch my hair

 Posted by on Fri, 9/23 at 12:35pm  mini analysis  No Responses »
Sep 232016
 

Image result for boy touching barack obama's hair

 

While looking up information on my topic, I was watching good morning America. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama we’re being interviewed about a new museum that opened up highlighting black history. Interesting enough the same interview that he was giving of the museum had a Display showcasing hair picks with a fist at the top. This symbol shows that there is power in our hair power in loving ourselves. I thought great there’s my photo. I began to Google when they showed another picture that absorbed my attention.

They showed a picture of a little boy touching the president of the United States hair. Barack Obama spoke about the experience. The little boy was taking a picture with the president and his family. When the picture was over he asked the president A question he had been pondering. he wanted to know if Obamas hair felt just like his. The president smiled and said well why don’t you touch it and find out. That is when this picture was taking as the boy was touching Obama’s hair to see how it compared to his.

So often when researching about natural hair my biggest motivation is inspiring young girls to love The way that they were born. I failed to see that boys too are looking at us, the adults to model their own lives. The hair on the presidents head did not represent hair follicles but possibility. The possibility that a boy with hair like his could grow up to become someone important. This picture has helped put into context why The natural hair movement is such an important one. The little boy was looking for a connection. He was trying to see if Obama was really like him. If someone who had something that we tend to find insignificant like hair just like his could become the president of the United States. It is fascinating to me how observant children are. Most people don’t consider how things like hair can effect Young minds. This picture is now hanging in the White House.

Natural Hair *exclusions apply

 Posted by on Wed, 9/14 at 8:33am  Uncategorized  No Responses »
Sep 142016
 

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.

 

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