Natural hair movement

  I have been natural almost all of my adult life. For over 20 years, long before there were any 'movements', I wore my hair in a variation of several short and medium length styles, carefully chosen to depict the beauty and fierceness of nappy/kinky hair. When the natural hair movement started in the mid 2000's, i was a regular on sites like nappturality.com and lived on youtube pages like African Export and Onixisis, who were darker skinned black women talking about NAPPY hair BEFORE the 3B take over of the scene.

I spent a lot of time talking to other BW about the PSYCHOLOGY of black hair, along with the political, emotional and beauty ramifications of it. And for the most part, I found, even then, that MOST of the women who were in the 'movement', were NOT really open to delving into the issues behind our struggles. I was even 'escorted off' of one natural hair site, for suggesting that some of these 'deep conditioners' that were all the rage at the time, were simply more attempts to change the texture of our hair to better suit our 'curly-vs-kinky' preferences.

It became clear to me even back then, that our 'its just hair' argument really didnt fly. And when terms like "Natural Nazi' arose, the line between those who saw black hair as something BIGGER than style, fashion or personal preference....and those who didnt want to be held to any STANDARDS for what black hair represents, grew. The "Do You!" mindset took hold, and many BW, even many naturals, decided that the political, social, economic, spiritual, racial, and romantic ramifications choosing nappy hair, were too much of a responsibility to burden. This was simply another 'choice' and 'not all women can or should go natural'. I found myself in a group of 'loyalists', who's number grew smaller and smaller, as the movement grew bigger and bigger. As a person who never accepted the first answer, I KNEW that there was much more to our hair than most of us were willing to deal with - even those of us in the emerging natural hair world. I knew that if we didnt DEAL with our PAIN, SHAME and feelings of inadequacy, some sh!t would eventually happen to FORCE us to do so.

By the 2011, the natural hair movement EXPLODED, and many new chics showed up on the scene. Over time, I noticed and more and more of these 'gurus', looked less and less like the original women in the movement. Focus leaned heavily on 'curl definition", 'hang time' and 'length checks". Terms like "sl' and "bsl' were in heavy rotation, as everyone scrambled to find that right product that will take their 4z hair to 3a gloriousness. I saw then, that it was a wrap for this 'movement' and knew that them discussions I was TRYING to start years before, were being LIVED OUT, now. Black womens unwillingness to face and TELL THE TRUTH, was once again, costing them BIG. As the 'moment became a movement', hair care companies began to catch on. Slumping relaxer sales and ingredient conscious consumers, forced them to start integrating 'natural hair' lines in to their product lines. Small, 'kitchen magician' lines, created by regular black women were being replaced by the likes of Creme Of Nature and Organics, who figured out QUICK that black women didnt want 'natural' hair. They wanted GOOD hair. And the promise of that goodness would rake in MILLIONS. The 3B girls on youtube climbed the charts, leaving only a few darker skinned, 4b stragglers in their midst. By 2014, some of the biggest natural hair vloggers werent even black. They were 'foreign', 'hispanic', 'mixed race' and 'other' women, whose platforms were more about showcasing the fabulousness of shiny, bouncy, long ringlets...than the care, protection and maintenance of kinky hair. Youtube was joined by other social media platforms, and the women who were willing to showcase their tresses to the masses, began to BLOW UP. Money was being made, brands were being created, and beauty standards were changing.

Or were they?

When I looked around, I realized that my original thoughts had come to pass. After pulling away from youtube and the natural hair community in general, I finally decided to grow my hair out, and decided to check out what was going on, again. To my dismay, I found that many of the original Type 4 (yes...i know that label is troublesome but thats a discussion for another day) girls that i loved were GONE, and the new chics had hair NOTHING like my frail 4a/b strands.

Descriptions like 'C-nap" (short for Cotton Naps) were no longer in use. It was ALL about length and thickness and achieving shine and curls. I discovered that those women - women like ME- who had the type of hair that MOST black women have, had had to splinter off, and create separate niche categories for themselves, just to have continued access to "The Movement'.

We had, ONCE AGAIN, allowed our image and our INTERESTS to be pushed aside, in lieu of the more desirable archetype. Once again, it wasnt black men, white women or 'the system', that caused this to happen - well, indirectly yes, but directly, NO. It was US - us 'plain ol black girls' who decided that if they were gonna go natural, they wanted their hair to look like THEM, and so we followed, liked, subscribed, celebrated and PURCHASED the image of the very women we needed a 'natural hair movement' because of. WE allowed OUR moment to become THEIR movement, and the money, fame, accolades, respect and APPRECIATION that should have been OURS - went to them.

..........................

In 2014 when CurlyNikki had a white woman on her blog, discussing her 'natural' hair experience, black women LOST THEY MINDS. Upset that this 'Becky' had been allowed to 'encroach upon the safety of black women spaces', many 'an article, blog post, comment, video and the like were made to show our collective OUTRAGE, at what was seen as a white woman trying take over and CASH IN, on our experience. Some of the same women who would tell you, "its just hair', were now in an uproar, the moment Becky showed up with hers. I called that sh!t on my fan page, and received much pushback from some.

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