Natural Hair Nazis & Product Pushing Ruined The Natural Hair Community

I was reflecting on some of the issues plaguing the natural hair community. When I first went natural I found and joined natural hair groups on facebook and I found natural hair Youtubers to follow that I felt gave great advice. What I quickly came to realize is that there are a lot of crazy zealots out there who are looking for blind followers and worshippers. Literally. There were rules that they came up with that you had to agree to abide by before joining these groups, and there were crazy, rabid admins who policed every comment made, and if they were perceived as negative towards the “page leader/organizer” or if you disagreed with what the page leader/organizer said, you were immediately kicked out of the group and blocked. I cannot tell you how many groups I’ve come across like this in the beginning of my natural hair journey.

I call these crazy women Natural Hair Nazis because that’s exactly how they behaved. They wanted blind followers who agreed with everything they said and followed their ideas and practices when it came to their natural hair. These are the people who ruined the natural hair community in my opinion. There were many like myself who became jaded and disappointed with the amount of people who were more interested in having natural hair disciples or selling their e-books and products instead of providing a welcoming space of learning, discussion, encouragement, positivity and sisterhood. Over time I watched how many began to adopt the attitude of “To each his own” because they became so tired of these weirdos trying to force their way of thinking on everyone else.

In the almost 10 years that have passed since encountering and distancing myself from Natural Hair Nazis, I feel like natural hair education stopped being the focus. More and more people are focused on branding themselves and getting followers for the content they create. There are a lot of naturals who do product reviews and how to videos, and some do very well as far as monetizing their content, partnering with brands and gaining followers. But this is also where I feel torn because while I’m all for people getting their coins, I have a huge problem with product pushing. I know there are still those out there who do put out content that focuses on hair health, natural remedies and DIY recipes specifically for natural hair. I also wish those content creators got the shine they deserve in the natural hair community. Instead, the natural hair community, as it stands today, is more focused on product pushing, and that is a huge part of the disconnect that I see.

The majority of the products on the market today do not work on black women’s hair. The products that do work on our hair either don’t work for long or it works but it’s very expensive. But the bigger problem is a lot of products on the shelves contain harmful ingredients despite being labeled as “natural” or “organic”. They also use other eye catching words on their labels like shea butter, jojoba oil or any other type of oil that we know is good for our hair, but the product has little or none of those actual oils in it. So not only are we watching our wallets as far as how much we spend on products, but now we have to be diligent about reading labels. And let’s be honest, there are a lot of us who are not reading the labels to check for harmful ingredients. We just care about whether or not this product is going to make our natural hair curl and bounce and shine as advertised. And because a lot of these products do not live up to their promises, we get into the cycle of trying a different product, and another, and another. Before you know it you’re a full blown product junkie.

Even though I’m going on five years loc’d, I still see some of this mindset (negativity, harmful hair practices, and loc purists) in the loc community. People want to know what products they should use on their locs to soften them, to make them grow faster or loc faster. The secret is time and patience. That’s it. You have to be gentle and kind to your locs the same as you would be towards your loose natural hair. It amazes me how many people don’t know or realize this. It also amazes me how little people know about their natural hair, and it’s because of…you guessed it…lack of education. So maybe that’s where I go with my blog and my Youtube channel. Maybe my pivot is going back to natural hair education. Instead of complaining about what the natural hair community lacks, get back into doing my part in educating.

See, this is why I blog. Sometimes I have to talk through my feelings and problems with you guys to figure out my next move! Thanks for listening.