by
Christina Patrice
When I first began my transition to natural hair, I was concerned about two things: thickness and length. All of the articles I read re-enforced the same things — gentle hair handling, proper moisturizing, pH balancing and endless bouts of protective styling to gain and retain covetous length.
Women would debate (and some still do) if coloring your hair made you any less natural and a perfectly defined twist-out was considered everything. Now that we’re in the tail end of 2014 and on the precipice of 2015 (wasn’t it just May like two weeks ago?), a new natural aesthetic has taken over. Of course there will always be loyalists who won’t roll with the changing tide, but many of our favorite naturalistas and hair crushes have jumped in hair first and embraced change. Let’s take a look at 4 areas that are shifting and defining the aesthetics of natural hair:
1. Shaped & Tapered Cuts instead of Endless Length
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| pRoy, www.steelfeatherlaceelephant.com |
Hair length has been a point of obsession for Black women long before natural hair even came about. Somehow, our beauty and social value became linked to the length of what grew out of our scalps. Many naturalistas are taking a “been there, done that” approach to long hair, and getting second big chops, tapered cuts or frequent trims to maintain a certain length and shape. This shift in style takes the focus away from hair growth challenges, length check videos, and the pressure to hit certain growth benchmarks along the natural hair journey. Short cuts are about self-expression, convenience and of course, style.
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| Jenell Stewart, www.kinkycurlycoilyme.com |
2. Not Being Afraid of Hair Dye
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| Kala, www.youtube.com/thekglifestyle |
Somewhere in the mystic handbook of everything natural, there is a clause that states one can no longer be considered natural if she uses anything other than henna, juices, berries, and plants to dye her hair. Fortunately for us, that clause is outdated. I think I can safely say that we’ve arrived at a place where the full spectrum of what defines natural hair does not dis-include ladies that like color. Even with acceptance, there are still plenty of ladies are still on the fence about hair dye and their concerns are valid. But with all the knowledge and information circulating the web about how to care for colored hair, why not take the plunge and switch it up a little bit? Naturalistas everywhere (myself included) are stepping outside of their comfort zones and embracing new colors — from honey blonde highlights to purple ombre (and everything in between).
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| Donna, www.youtube.com/donedo |
3. More Creativity with Protective Styling
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| photo credit: www.mommynoire.com |
Protective styling used to be a loathsome chore, full of unflattering tucked twists and braids. Even on their best day, most protective styles were still nothing more than glorified buns or a straight wig that looked nothing like your natural tresses. Thanks to the ever-present creativity and ingenuity of naturalistas everywhere, protective styling has become more inventive and glamorous than ever. Companies like Heat Free Hair, Big Chop Hair and even Indique are offering wigs and weaves that can look just like your own natural hair. Faux locs took off after the box braid and marley twist trend, allowing transitioners and naturals alike to experiment with the look sans commitment. I don’t think I even need to mention what crochet braids have done for folks in terms of protective styling.
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| www.youtube.com/thechicnatural |
4. A New Relationship with Frizz
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| Bianca Alexa, www.youtube.com/simplybiancaalexa |
It used to be all about achieving perfect curl definition for wash and go’s, or getting that uber defined braid-out. Combatting frizz used to be a major part of the conversation in caring for and styling natural hair. A few fro’ picks and upside-down diffusings later, the right amount of frizz is everything! Using lighter styling products and a little more fluff action to get that “day 3 look” on day 1 is the new goal. Perfectly defined hair has its place too, but the shift in embracing frizz (whether on purpose or because of the weather) is fly.
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| Sumetra Reed, www.youtube.com/supernaturalmetra |
Do you think your attitude towards styling has shifted since the start of your natural hair journey?
24 Responses
I love the freedom the new aesthetic offers within the natural hair community. It leaves room for individuality. No more frustration, or pressure to have your natural hair look a prescribed way. I’m a Latina with curly/frizzy hair. I choose to wear it in an Afro style, rather than blow drying it pin straight (not all Hispanic women have hair like J.Lo or Sophia Vergara). The new natural “hair rules” make it that much easier to be who you are. There should be no pressure to make hair grow down your waist, or have curls with perfect definition. It’s all about being comfortable in your own skin.
i just love evolution! like most new naturals i thought more about my looking a certain way instead of understanding that my hair wanted to BE a certain way! this article is the evidence that many more of us are moving toward BEING and that’s very cool! 🙂
Love the article. Good information. I am amused by the new younger perspective regarding natural hair. Been a natural hair wearer for the greater portion of my life. I just embrace the natural hair ethic always have. So did my mother even back in the day. As an athlete and swimmer, I love the water, pool, ocean, lake, spa I’m in the water. I’m not bi-racial and don’t have the Tracy Ellis Ross type hair the new naturalista’s crave and aspire to have. I guess the term is the “curly girl” look. I’ve always worn my hair natural and grown accustomed to wearing my natural hair in a variety of styles. I’ve had a Short natural, philly box, waves, twists, braids, cornrows, fro, afro puffs, Angela Davis afro, curly fro, Diana Ross natural mane, Cicely Tyson Love knot all variations of natural hair. I wear locs now. But I have to say my 5 daughters ranging from 13 to 33 and I are curious as to why there is this new classification system being applied to natural hair? What’s all the 3C 4B hair designation crap? My daughters all have different textures of hair within the same family, same daddy same mama. As a mother I never classified their hair types. I just encouraged them to love and embrace the natural beautiful hair God provided. This 4C, 3B stuff sounds like the old back in the day “good hair bad hair” stuff black women have suffered with throughout the ages. My girls keep me updated on the new trends and realities and we are all natural wears of black hair and support all black women no matter how they choose to wear their hair. So please stop with the categories and show all the diverse range of blackness, not just the photos and images of curls, curls. Black hair is more than corkscrew curls. We are so much more. I know advertisers want to show only the curly girl perspective because these images sell more product to consumers but please throw more images of the “Afro Sheen” queens out there cause we are all “Wantu Wazuri.
I think the categorizing has more to do with learning personalized hair care, than anything else. Different care techniques and styles are more likely to work on certain hair types than others. The purpose of classification isn’t to label some hair types “good hair”, and others “bad hair”. It just provides a language that all natural women can understand and work with. For example, if I want advise about hair products and styling, I’m more likely to seek an opinion from someone who shares my hair type (4c) and from someone who’s hair behaves differently (3a hair). Especially nowadays when so much of our knowledge of hair is shared virtually, it helps to filter out whose knowledge is relevant to you, and whose isn’t.
I LOVE this article. Everything written is so true and I’m really glad to see this shift and growth in the natural hair community
Love the article and I agree with all of it. What I’m surprised at us the cost of those wigs on the two websites mentioned. Really $400-800 for a wig resembling what you can do yourself???
I hate that every time hair trends change you get price gouged for it.????????????
I love this article! I recently did another big chop for the change and I was bored with the length. A plus is that I can also experiment with more colors without worrying about breakage!
I actually believe that there is more acceptance of styles that use heat. Consequently, there is more information about heat protectors etc.
My natural hair journey has definitely has taken a shift. I’ve been natural my whole life and my knowledge on caring for it wasn’t up to date at all, until my sis in-law big chopped and gave me some tips (to think that took more than 10 years to get help). But even before she came along and helped me my natural styles were definitely differt and fun and funky (due to my mom taking the time to do my hair). My mom did crochet styles on me from kindergarten up until today, and my model hairstyle (aka go to style) was china bumps…Now that I have knowledge it’s all about learning about the curls on my head that I now love (hated it once I hit middle school) I just can’t wait to see where my curls take me in 2015…Thanks for this post!!
I like seeing the changes in natural hair. I’ve hennaed my hair for years but now want more color. I’m thinking more chestnut or auburn but my low porosity hair does not take color well. Any suggestions for coloring over my henna? I’ve done it before with no visible damage, but usually wait about 6 months between henna and color.
This article is SPOT on! I can’t explain how my life has changed after discovering and experimenting with crochet braids.
I like things simple, so I can’t be about too many processes going on no my head at once. Right now—and probably for the rest of my earthly life—I’m all about CG. Seriously, I wish someone had taught me this years ago!
I like nice cuts on other people, but I like me with hair. Masses of it! The more, the merrier, I say :-)! And as soon as I got enough of it, I ditched the braid fiber, ditched it permanently after trying toyokalon and being sick from the moment I installed the first braid until I took the last one out. I was reacting to all the fibers to varying degrees, but nothing like this last one. From that point on, until last September, I twisted or plaited my own hair without added fiber.
And that was an adventure in itself. The only time I could keep plaits from unraveling was when I under-moisturized my hair. Properly moisturized, it would come a-loose every time. Twists, forget about it! And the trauma to my hair every time I did either one, and then undid them—I’m now convinced that this is what kept my hair at a certain length for awhile. Other than flat-twisting my hair in sections for overnight conditioning, or just because I’m sleeping with it wet, my hair hasn’t experienced a single plait or twist for styling purposes.
Wigs, I’ve never worn them. I did a fake wrap-around pony once, and only once. In the right light, it was so obvious that it didn’t match my actual color that even I noticed. It didn’t help that most light was the right light to notice this. No, thanks :-(!
Frizz, I embrace it. My hair does it to a fare-thee-well, even under fistfuls of gel, so I’m kinda forced to :-).
I have been natural for over 10 years and points 1 and 2 hit home for me. I have grown my hair out to almost waist length just to shave it down to a buzz cut a few years later for something different in my journey. I think the “been there done that” attitude allowed me to enjoy my short hair even more. And by just knowing I achieved long hair once gives me motivation now as I go back to the growing out stage. Natural hair can be amazing at any length and style depending on the confidence of the person underneath the hair.
I am a big fan of protective styling and twists, but I am more of a wig wearer because I enjoy the break from styling my hair and the variety of styles out there that I can instantly wear without putting in hours of styling/maintenance everyday to achieve that particular style. People (some) could not understand the point of having “all that long hair” just to hide it under a wig. If I hadn’t hid my long hair, I probably would have chopped it off so much sooner. The break you get from protective styling works wonders on you mentally because spending 2 hours detangling your hair and another 4 hours to twist it can do a number on you. I don’t knock the wig/extensions wearers but the hair must be properly maintained underneath when wearing these styles because it defeats the purpose of a break if you have a lot of preventable damage to deal with after.
Enjoy every cycle of being natural but never neglect proper maintenance at all length (and color!).
I like the article, and I agree. I am so glad that the length obsession has been shifting. I think natural women were eager to learn if their hair can grow once quitting relaxers. Thanks to so many representations of Youtube and our own personal experimentation, natural women know how hair can indeed grow. So we are not attached to length so much anymore.
I love seeing all of the women with color. It is tempting me to color my hair. I would like highlights rather than a big color change. I want something that will make my natural color pop even more.
I’m not a huge fan of protective styling, especially when it involves fake hair. I’ve seen too much breakage, dryness, and alopecia caused by these “protective” styles.
I love that women are embracing the less defined look. Natural hair is interesting in that there are many variations of the coil/curl of our hair. There’s really no need to be obsessed with the one variation where the curls are tiny ringlets. It is a fun look from time to time, but sometimes I like a smoother look that piking out my curls provides. It’s all preference.
By “smoother look” I mean a smooth cotton like texture for my 4c hair, rather than a super spring-coily, defined look.
Curly girl advocate, Lorraine Massey and Teri LaFlesh, who popularized the Tightly Curly Method using conditioner and a Denman Brush turned people on to defining your curls with all of these different kind of conditioners and gels. YouTuber Mahogany Curls also popularized that look. Different strokes for different hair types. I was on that bandwagon off and on for two years and ended up with hard, crunchy shrunken poodle hair. Not cute. I have noticed those movements are not as popular now. I personally can’t have very curly AND long hair. If I do a wash and go my hair shrinks from it’s length of now almost mid back length to my shoulders. It gets very matted that way and I get breakage. No thanks. Now, I wear braid outs or I let my hair frizz like Blue Ivy and Solange . . . and I don’t care who doesn’t think it’s not neat enough, defined enough, curly enough, combed perfectly enough, etc.
I still want length! Chasing you baa <3
Love this article. It’s spot on
#4, but a true fizz though…
Im All for the PRO-COMB movement. Its one thing to have our kind of hair that can mimic all other hair types and can be shaped and styled as we want.
Is another to have it free flowing like a bird and damaging it because we trying to be different (aka giving up on retaining length because hair is “unmanageable”)
Look after your body and it wont kill you, look after your hair and you wont have to be chopping it off or suffering from massive hair loss in your golden years when you really couldn’t be bothered by your hair.
Look at the indigenous tribes, they have their own unique style and it works for them, and it hardly changes. Why cant we be the same and accept what we have.
I’ve never been able to ‘combat’ my frizz, but for me it’s never been a bad thing so, BRING ON THE FRIZZ PLEASE~ =D
I also think that we embrace out “undefined” 4b-z hair more. The I woke up like dis version of our hair that’s not twisted and set to perfection.
I love to look at beautiful hairstyles ON OTHER PEOPLE.
I love well-shaped haircuts Especially the ones where the hair falls perfectly and seems effortless. For me, I don’t believe in hairstyles I can’t do myself. I’m cheap and refuse to visit a barber regularly to maintain my hair.
I love color-treated hair. Well, I only “love” color-treated hair if the color is complimentary to and hasn’t damaged the hair of the person wearing it. Right now, my hair is sun bleached and I’ve contemplated making it darker. I just have a fear of ruining my hair or that the color won’t look natural/flattering.
I love protective updo’s. One day I may attempt that popular Teyonna Paris hairstyle. Every time I see it on Pinterest, I fall in love with it all over again. My hair shrinks so much. Simply stretching it for that style would take a lot of work and manipulation and I’m kinda lazy.
I love frizz on other people. Especially when it makes their hair look more voluminous. On me, frizz means it’s time to wash my hair.
If you want a darker color, you can use a semi-permanent hair color that is temporary and doesn’t penetrate the cuticle. Henna or Indigo is another option!