this is not political this is not about
racism but our beauty is revealed because
we accepted ourselves as who we are it
is not a reminder of what used to happen
in the past
accepting on natural hair is curing a
mental illness but rejecting it is
staying in a form of slavery this
month is about celebrating the fact that
we embraced a beauty that's why it is
important to know the black Month
history and the natural hair evolution
how it got started and how far we're
coming from. In the beginning the first
African hairstyles that started being
used all around the world by slaves came
from variations of traditional West
African braiding patterns but masters
will often remove them because they
wanted their slaves to look more
European claiming that this was the best
way to look the practice of black beauty
not measured by their own hair but by
the European way remains the same for
about 300 years or so being
light-skinned and having straight hair
was very well appreciated in the
community as the best form of beauty
this way of seeing African Americans
will force them to spend a lot of time
and effort to make themselves look
perfect
by using highly toxic product chemical
treatments and hot tools on their
hair in the early nineteen hundred's
some people will start making products
that will make african-american hair
straight and Annie Malone started selling
a wonderful hair grower treatment
product and also was encouraging them to
use hot comb using her company
Madame C.J. Walker became a millionaire
using her own home remedy for hair and
scalp problems using the Walker method
which was a combination of heated comb
with pomade
this practice continued until the 1960s
and 70s when the civil rights movement
also inspired a cultural movement
popularly known as Black is Beautiful
this movement was encouraging black men
and women to embrace their naturalself
their culture their history and leave
their hair natural then the Afro began
very popular to a point where natural
hair was acceptable more than ever
before and the braiding pattern started
all over again
but even with the natural hair movement
that got started people were still
considering African textured hair as foreign,
unprofessional and not good which
made wigs and relaxers become very
popular in order for African American to
achieve that called
perfect, smooth, professional and Straight
look and cornrows was being used as
base for extensions it wasn't used as an
hairtyle to appear in public afro, cornrows
dreadlocks, twisted locks, braids
bantu knots all came from our ancestors
some popular icons of the time who
started the natural hair movement with
their own hairstyles or afros letting
people know that it wasn't
unprofessional were Angela Davis, Jimi
Hendrix, Diana Ross, Abbey Lincoln and so
on this movement caused relaxers sales
to decrease by 26% which forced many
companies to start manufacturing
products that will help styling African
textured hair in their natural way this
included companies like Johnson products
it made its new line of Afro Sheen
products with the words of beautiful
people in radio and print
advertisement sthat stated "WANTU
WAZURI USE AFRO SHEEN" in 1968 Kent cigarettes and pepsi-cola started
printing advertisement of black people
with their large afro as well today you
can see a large amount of people using
West African braiding or Caribbean style
for corrows, dreadlocks,
big afros, bantu knots ,braids, twist out
and more as a way to express their
natural self
the popularity of hair extensions and
wigs give the naturallistas a way to
have more variety of styles and still
keep their hair in its natural state
when needed to change their hairstyle
from time to time each hairstyle is
unique and each of them is a reflection
of our rich history the natural hair
community is growing to a point where
our mindset
could never go back to where it's been
it's an adaptation to the circumstances
that give us freedom and acceptance of
who we are now is a time that African
Americans control the hair market
because we are making our own demands
this is no longer a time where society
is trying to impress upon us or
eurocentric ideas of beauty we're defining
ourselves no more chemical treatment
that hide who we are and where we're coming from
no more saying our kinks and coils are
unprofessional and not perfect
this wasn't a movement of black people
anymore
it was a movement of the natural hair
community that the word accepted as
reality we are ready to bloom on
naturalness because we all child of God
 
