Natural hair has never been about the curls for me.
Now that I'm back on the natural hair journey I decided to make mental lists of things I am doing and not doing this time around.
In doing this, I got reminded of the things that really annoyed me the first time around.
I've grown though, it doesn't annoy me anymore BUT I am still not here for it.
Curls for Coloured People
I so often pick up in conversation with my cousins wanting to go natural that they will only do it if they can get curls. This is such a let down for me and I then immediately end the conversation because I cannot deal.
Our people have been relaxing and chemically manipulating their hair for so long that they have this false sense of "gladde hare" (straight hair) as being their natural state. And so, with this in mind, they expect their natural hair journey to look like that of a type 3A or B girl...
By gearing the conversation of natural hair toward curls we are simply creating a new "not representative image of natural hair".
The whole reason it has all become a movement and now a new normal is that we all activated so hard for representation that wasn't type 1 or 2 hair.
Why now are we ruining all that by pushing a "curls" conversation in blogs, vlogs, tutorials etc?
The Coloured community struggled to embrace natural hair, especially type 4, now they're accepting but ONLY if you can get type 2 or 3 curls...Really? Talk about 2 steps forward one step back.
My beef with curl activators
If you are lucky enough on your journey to get a beautiful curl pattern, then wonderful! However, you cannot go natural simply because you want to have curls...If that is your goal, you are setting yourself up for failure because NOT EVERYONE WILL GET CURLS.
Some girls, especially in the type 4 family, will get kinks and coils.
The idea that there is a product called a curl activator just makes it seem as though, everyone has curls looming somewhere that simple needs "activation".
What we should aspire to instead
Volume - The bigger the hair the bigger the statement
Shine - Nothing is better than healthy glowing hair
Length - Long lush strands of hair
Until next time...cheers!
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