To me, natural will forever mean the following:
Not using harmful chemicals such as relaxers, texturizers, or anything that alters the state of your natural hair. This also includes products that contain harmful ingredients that can further harm our hair or scalp – be it gels, hair dye, etc. It means to love your natural hair the way it grows out of your scalp and no longer subscribing to the European, colonized, brainwashed, plantation ideals of what is acceptable natural African American or black hair.
To my very core, this is what being natural means to me. I was watching a Youtuber that I follow some weeks back discussing the toxicity of the natural hair community and why she no longer considers herself part of this group. All of her reasons were valid and I was “amen-ing” everything she was saying because she spoke on how I’ve been feeling for quite some time.
So much has changed in the natural hair community, and to me the chasm of dissension and lack of education has gotten wider. Bad and misleading information is accepted under the guise of “to each their own” and “who are we to judge”. I don’t feel like we’re doing our job if we don’t point out and speak on bad hair behaviors and bad hair health and educate others on healthier hair habits. Yes, what people do with and to their hair is their business, but when we’re trying to promote natural hair, natural hair positivity and all the benefits of being natural, we have to be careful of what we put out there.
Case in point: I’ve shared on my blog how I used Blue Magic Hair Grease and water for my twist outs when I was a loose natural. Should Blue Magic be used regularly and heavily? Absolutely not! I was making the point that sometimes old staples are better than the endless products that are on shelves now that don’t work and are harmful to our hair. Now let’s be clear – Blue Magic is made with petroleum which is not good for your scalp. If you use Blue Magic on your loose natural hair you have to be sure to wash your hair regularly with a clarifying shampoo and do a deep condition afterward to replace moisture.
If you’re one who likes to color your hair, share how you care for your color treated hair. Don’t just post photos of your constant color changes. Are you doing regular deep conditions? Are you keeping your hair moisturized? If so, how? A lot of social media influencers are not sharing these things, and their followers copy what they do and then cry foul when their hair is damaged. I see it all the time. We all know color is bad for our hair, especially when it’s not used correctly, and then we wonder why we’re going bald. I have nothing against hair color, but I’m tired of the madness I keep seeing in the natural hair community.
We should be promoting the healthiest ways to care for our natural hair. We’ve been led to believe by companies that we need an excessive amount of products to “tame” our natural hair when that simply isn’t true. These same companies have us striving for things that our natural hair can’t do on it’s own just so our hair can be viewed as pretty or acceptable. Our natural kinks and coils should be enough, but they’re not. Because of this, we have hair discrimination amongst ourselves – 4C versus 3A, mixed hair versus coarse hair, curly hair versus kinky. We also have Tia Mowry out here telling black women that her mixed hair is black hair. Ma’am! Come again? Her ad campaign on her IG account is so horribly tone deaf it’s embarrassing! But you get my point. And let’s not forget those who are leaving natural hair and promoting relaxers, or those who have natural hair or locs but are relaxing their edges.
This is not the community I want to be part of. No matter what natural hair or loc group I join on Facebook, I find so many people who do not know what it means to be natural but are aggressively trying to redefine what being natural is. Yes, being natural means different things to different people, but when so many are uneducated about natural hair and promoting bad hair habits, what are we doing? Where are we going with this once, bold, empowering, “movement” for black women? Maybe the natural hair movement morphed into this space of “it’s whatever you call it” and I missed the memo? I’m holding on tight to the core of what being a natural haired black woman or girl means, and I’m going to make sure my daughters stay educated and informed as to what it means to be natural and practice healthy hair habits.
I can’t help feeling like a small fish in the ocean. I know I’m not the only one who is questioning the state of the natural hair community and have concerns about where it stands today. So much needs to change, and it starts with changing our mindset with the help of education. We have to start from somewhere.
Going Back to my Natural Roots 