A growing number of black women are going natural. They are ditching their Brazilian, Indian, Peruvian and other kinds of human hair. And they are embracing their natural kinky and curly African hair.
“Natural hair has been a movement for several years. What we’re seeing now is a confirmation that this is a lifestyle that is very important to a lot of women,” says Cyntelia Abrams, marketing coordinator for Design Essentials, an Atlanta-based hair-care company.
According to a recent study by Mintel, a consumer spending and market research firm, the number of black women who say they do not use products to chemically relax or straighten their hair jumped to 36% in 2011, up from 26% in 2010.
More and more black women are beginning to accept their African hair by going natural. According to Mintel’s findings, the sale of relaxer kits has dropped by 17% between 2006 and 2011.
For so many years, many black women have held the belief that stretched or tightly curled hair that looks like that of Caucasian is more attractive, manageable and sophisticated.
Some even associate women with natural hair with lack of class and exposure. However, many modern and trendy black women of today are changing that perception. They are going natural, and they are loving it.
Below are some of the women that have gone natural by embracing their kinky African hair.
ALSO SEE: Goodbye Weaves: Natural Hair Is The New Classy And Stylish.
Chime Edwards going natural
Chime Edwards was born and raised in West Point, Mississippi in the United States and has natural long African hair. Chime’s natural hair has earned her several interviews from media houses as it is difficult to find black women with hair of such length.
Chime is an Afro-American natural black hair blogger who gives tips to other black women on how to maintain natural African hair. She also blogs about, art, fashion and Christian spirituality. You can visit her blog here.
Nse Etim Ikpe going natural
Nse Etim Ikpe is a Nigerian and a Nollywood actress. While her job as an actress means she would have to be versatile with her hairstyle, which includes wearing human hair, Nse has managed to keep relaxers away from her hair. “I would say that it was Kunle Afolayan that literally led me to natural hair,” she said in an interview with O’naturals.
Her journey to natural hair began when she accepted the lead role on Kunle Afolayan’s movie, “Phone Swap.” According to the Nollywood actress, when she said she was going to use her natural hair for another movie in which she played a lawyer and an activist, some of the people asked her “why would you want to appear like this in a movie?”
She replied them saying, “But I am African. How else do you appear? I am an African lawyer; I’m this and that. This is the only way the other people, the white man, or whoever is watching, would think, I’m connecting to my roots.”
SEE ALSO: NATURAL HAIR ICON: LUPITA NYONG’O THE QUEEN OF TRESS.
Dakore Egbuson going natural
While she has been seen wearing weaves in her recent appearances, Dakore Egbuson is one of the first Nollywood actresses to embrace her natural kinky African hair. For so many years, the actress was seen rocking her light brown coloured dreadlocks.
Although she temporarily left the public eye. Dakore Egbuson is gradually making her come back. The actress and singer were among the artists that performed on Saturday, March 1, 2013, at the Iconic Nollywood event that was hosted by the Nigerian Government. The Nollywood event was to celebrate Nollywood at 20.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie going natural
Multiple award-winning Nigerian authors, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is another black woman who has embraced her Kinky African hair. The author became popular when she published the novels, Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. Chimamanda is also well known for her very famous and influential TED talk – The Danger of a Single Story.
During an interview with the UK Guardian, the writer had this to say about her hair and black women, “My hair is in tiny cornrows; I have a big ponytail on the top of my head. I quite like it. It is natural. I am a bit of a fundamentalist when it comes to black women’s hair. Hair is hair – yet also about larger questions: self-acceptance, insecurity and what the world tells you is beautiful. For many black women, the idea of wearing their hair naturally is unbearable.”
SEE ALSO: 50 Trendy Updo Hairstyles For Black Kids.
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