by
Black Girl With Long Hair
Reader Kamilah says;
I have been natural for almost 2 years and I am extremely happy with my decision. Not only is my hair healthier and thicker, I have fallen madly in love with my curls. I am always trying new hair styles but most of my favorite youtube hair stylists tend not to black nor do they have curls. I love bubzbeauty; not only am I into Japanese fashion, but I also love her hair and beauty vidoes. She is extremely creative and I am just in awe at how she can create this cute, fun, and feisty hairstyle.
I also frequent SushiRockStar‘s page at least once a week although she has not done hairstyle videos in awhile. I find, despite not having the same hair texture as them, I am able to recreate these styles with a few adjustments in technique and execution (I also ignore all hair product recommendations). But many times, I feel somewhat traitorous for not following other naturals. But I know I can’t be the only one.
I’m certain you’re not! What are your thoughts ladies? Do you gain inspiration from YouTubers who aren’t natural or black? How do you adjust the styles to fit your texture and length?
32 Responses
I never almost never watch hair videos of african American or even mixed women. My hair care routine is actually based off of a Lithuanian girl I am subscribed to: Chanelette. For hair videos, I always watch the Asian and Indian girls. My faves are:
BeautyKlove
Gia Nasim
Farah Dukhai
They give the best hair advice and I take it because their hair is what is used in extensions and weaves so they must be doing something right.
yes, definitely. i think it’s quite limiting to only actively draw inspiration from those who are just like you. i like lilithdarkmoon on youtube and many others of different ethnicities because the styles they create are cute. i may give their advice the side-eye when they advise that the best way to grow long hair is to get one’s ends trimmed every 4-6 months at half an inch (shoot, my hair don’t even grow that fast, darnit!lol) but sometimes what they have to say can actually be valuable.
I never watched non-black hair tutorials. On TV and in every magazine you see other hair types even in the black media. It just doesn’t interest me to watch it on Youtube. Youtube and blogs is the only place I see afro hair. There’s something so fly about type 4 hair. I’ve actually become obsessed with it lol!
If I didn’t look to straight and wavy styles from across the stratosphere I would be a less happy natural. I love converting non-curly styles to my hair, it’s fun to find the most creative ways to do it. Is the french roll solely a straight or curly style? What about pin curls? It’s a no-brainer everyone is inspired across cultural, gender and era. I don’t live in a fishbowl, but on planet earth.
love bubzbeauty great hair tips
Yes! I haven’t really followed many straight haired youtubers, though I should probably start looking now. But I love fashion and I get inspired by all types of things and people. As far as hair I definitely like a lot of things, some styles I’m like well if my hair was their length/texture I would rock that, while other styles make me want to interpret it using my tightly curly hair.
O this is such a fun post! I’m totally subscribing to all these ladies now! Yes, I love being inspired by everyone – I have yet to try different styles from non-naturals but hearing that other people have is inspiring enough to get me to try! Soon I’ll have a ton more time to play with my hair – yay!
I definetly do get inspired by other women who don’t have the same hair, body size, or skin color as me. I just don’t think the term “natural” should only apply to black women with no chemicals in their hair. There are many other women who aren’t black that rock their natural hair. Just saying. But I try to look for women who are similar to what I look like to inspire my style.
My ultimate style icon is Dita Von Teese. It’s not even all about her appearance, it’s her whole persona. I don’t aspire to look like her but I do like her “f*ck the mainstream, I’m doing what I want” kind of attitude. She embraces a kind of beauty that some people, if not many, find odd, outdated or unnattractive.
If we’re talking strictly about hair, almost all of my inspirations are natural. Dita makes me want to attempt a sleek, jet-black roller set style. Maybe one day.
I mean really, c’mon—
[img]http://bglhonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/dita.jpg[/img]
[img]http://bglhonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/dita2.jpg[/img]
alot of my styles are inspired by other races and aras. I love it!! natural hair is too versitile to be placed in a box.
Yes. I love the look of vintage/rockabilly/pin-up hairstyles. I haven’t tried many yet but I will in the near future. Here is a blog about vintage hairstyles for natural hair (http://www.theretronatural.blogspot.com/). Also check out this YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/curlychronicles).
no, only natural hair appeals to me.
Indeed! Great style is great style no matter who is rocking it. When my hair is longer I am so anxious to try a lot of those updos like the picture above. I just have to use bigger bobby pins because the little things I used when I was relaxed no longer cut the mustard. lol.
I’m obsessed with ILoveGerado on youtube! She has the most amazing vintage styling skills and I mimic them all the time… to the best of my abilities lol! 😀
She’s probably natural right?
as far as hair styles, not really. but as far as clothes? that’s a whole ‘nother story. some of my favorite style bloggers are women who are not natural, including gabi from young, fat, and fabulous, christina from musings of a fatshionista, and fran from frantic dreams.
http://msjanelle.blogspot.com
Yes! I get many ideas that way trying to make a straight hair style natural.
I’m a big sucker for red hair, and that lady is so gorgeous!!!!
Women/people who look like me grab my attention first b/c, well, that’s what’s familiar. I love and appreciate beauty no matter the color, hair texture, age, whatever. Like ForcedSmile said, I can also be inspired by something abstract or objective (such as trees….I love trees).
Great question!
I said the same thing! I love red-heads, always have. I love her look, and for a second, i wasnt sure if she was mixed due to her facial featues. gorgeous woman though.
i’m inspired by toooons of people. of course, my favorite inspiration is fellow (black) natural ladies to gauge how a style will look on my locs when they get longer, but in general i think it’s fun to see styles on people with different hair types and think, “oh i wanna try that!” since my hair is so short right now, i just work with a lot of twisted pin styles and such, and that just takes creativity on my own end. and as someone who also admires certain aspects of japanese fashion, i know where you’re coming from.
and to echo binks, i agree it is important to distinguish, “oh i love her style! i bet my hair would look cute or even better like that with all my volume!” vs coveting something from someone else. i’ve always firmly believed in congratulating and not hating, so i can admire a cute hairstyle!
I agree with binks. We should be able to respect beauty and learn from it from all different sources. Btw, the lady in the featured picture is so gorgeous! I think it’s the red hair that’s got me!
Of course, I think it is good to pull inspiration from everywhere. It would be boring if you only stick to one thing or what you know. Heck, one of the utubers I go to relaxes her hair and I look to her for hair tutorials inspiration and subscribe to makeup gurus who aren’t black. I never got why you had to limit yourself
Word. This is exactly how I feel.
She looks natural to me. Unless she got a relaxer 😛
I’m inspired by LisaFreemontStreet on YT. She does wonderful vintage style hair and makeup tutorials.
But isn’t Japanese fashion so much fun? 😀
I don’t see a problem with being inspired by people of other races. There’s a difference between obsessively aspiring to a beauty standard you can’t possibly attain and being inspired by someone. In fact, I view inspiration itself as being rather blind, as you can be inspired by objects or abstract thoughts.
For instance, I like Michelle Phan on YouTube, but I know a lot of her looks and suggestions need to be tweaked for me, as I am not the same skin tone or type as she is. I use some of her techniques, but I tend to use make up brand suggestions from AfroBella’s blog and other black YouTubers. I recently started wearing red lipstick more often. The color Michelle suggested was too garish on my skin, but I looked around for suggestions from other YTers who were my skin tone and found a better color. Her techniques were otherwise usable, though.
We know the damage that being exclusively inspired by one type of beauty can be. It’s important to appreciate all forms of beauty but also to know what you are and what you can do. So I’ll never have the porcelain skin or long straight hair of my favorite Korean actress Yun Eun Hye, but then again, she’ll never have my skin color or my rockin’ kinks. And that’s okay with me.
I am fortunate to have a wonderful loctician who can style my locs into any hairdo I like. My hair is just past my shoulders, so there’s enough to work with to give me a lot of versatility. I always look at locked styles first for inspiration and ideas, but it doesn’t matter whether the hairdo in the photo is locked, straight, curly, or relaxed, nor does it matter the ethnicity of the model. I simply show the picture to my loctician and she will fashion it for my hair.
If I may add to the list, this woman is amazing- http://www.youtube.com/user/lilithedarkmoon She is not “natural” but does braids, updo’s, etc.
I honestly believe natural hair is the most versatile hair out there and with it you can do almost anything, even if you have to tweak it. Example, my daughter’s hair is too thick to put in one side fishtail braid so I did it on mini twists instead.
I think I’m more inspired when I see styles on natural hair but I still draw inspiration from everywhere.
OMG, I was going to comment about Lilith Moon!! Love her videos and have been inspired by a few. This is one I did about a month ago by modifying her scrunching technique by just pushing an pinning my curls.
http://www.youtube.com/user/lilithedarkmoon#p/u/29/SvqeYgxoWTc
[img]http://bglhonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/LMupdo3-2.JPG[/img]
[img]http://bglhonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/LMUpdo5.JPG[/img]
[img]http://bglhonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/LMUpdo1.JPG[/img]
his style is ADORABLE!
Great post! I personally LOVE the styles of a diverse group of women, so I definitely enjoy finding ways to incorporate different hair and clothing styles to fit my own personal style! I moreso follow diverse groups of bloggers, and I stick to natural hair folks on YT, since the tutorials for straight hair don’t apply. 🙂 In terms of adjusting – it really depends on the style, but I always find a way to make it work!