Growing up, I felt like I was made to feel ashamed of my natural curly hair by the media, by literature and by people of other races who didn't have to deal with thick locks of endless spirals. What was in was the long straight, flowy hair-the kind of hair that barely tangles in the wind. The kind of hair I did not have and could not, without giving up a ton of time and work. In college, I took a pole to see what the average guy preferred when it came to curly or straight hair and out of interviewing over 100 male students of varying ages, obviously straight was the 1st preference, with only 22% preferring naturally curly or neutrality- they didn't care otherwise. So the only way to feel attractive, to me was to cover the very natural part of me. I would damage my hair, burn the curls away as many other beautifully and naturally curly haired women did to fit what society said was beautiful. Before straighteners came out at affordable prices, I even took the clothes iron to suppress and flatten these wild tresses. No joke.
Because curly hair was too wild, almost unacceptable as being something considered beautiful, because it was different. We were born into a society that had a certain view of beauty. But let me tell you, it's wrong.
Later in life, I finally met someone who just absolutely loved my hair as natural and wild as it is. And have met a few more in my life that tell me I should never hide what I can own as part of my beauty. And I eventually realized that natural is beautiful, that some women who can't do anything to their hair, as it lays flat down their back, envied us who have that natural volume, those natural spirals. Curls are beautiful, being natural is beautiful. Yes, once in awhile we can straighten our hair, relax our curls for something different, for the convenience, but to have that choice and not having to work for those curls for hours with a hot curling iron, is something we are lucky to have. All types of hair are beautiful and we shouldn't hide our beauty to please others unless we please ourselves first. You are beautiful. Embrace it.
Rocking the natural curls
