For as long as I can remember, I have always been passionate about the issue of ridiculous standards of beauty and how the media portrays women. From the Marilyn Monroe yardsticks to the Twiggy benchmarks, I had always wondered why women had to be a certain way to fit into society's idealised standards of beauty. Whenever I think about this subject, I find myself asking myself: Why can't we just be ourselves?! I mean, we can try to look like other people, but wouldn't the world be easier if we just tried to be ourselves? Then, we wouldn't have to try. Wouldn't that be nice? Well, all of this brings me to the subject of the focus of my blog, which is, encouraging women of African decent to love and embrace themselves starting with how they see their natural hair. Now, do not get me wrong, when I say they, I really mean we. This journey to self-love which I preach applies to me too, since I had always believed that I needed some form of hair extension to feel beautiful. How ignorant can I get? But that is why I NEVER close the door on learning. Now, I do not condemn women of African decent who love their weaves and wigs (That was me, only a few years ago), but I believe that we do not have to be solely dependant on hair extensions and wigs just to feel beautiful. We can rock our natural hair, just as we would, any weave or hair extension, with as much confidence and still feel as beautiful. My aim therefore is that we redefine beauty! We change our perceptions of what beauty is through a mind shift. We rethink our dependance on human hair, synthetic hair extensions, and fall in love with our natural God-given dark silky locks. This redefinition starts from within us, from how we see ourselves. The natural hair industry has really helped build momentum to redefine how we see beauty and could not have started at a better time than this; this era of social. For both the natural hair movement and the rise of social media has helped us define our own standards of beauty. In the past, we did not have access to seeing and sharing the diversity of hairstyles. Now, with social, we see the richness and diversity of natural hair from different corners of the earth, From Africa to San Francisco. The natural community has created a home and an environment of support, encouragement and celebration. Women of African decent are able to define their own standards of beauty, and natural hair is certainly at the forefront of the conversation. The natural hair community has evolved tremendously in media in the last year and again, I thank social media for the role it has played in fostering this beautiful community. Social has played such a great role that it has been responsible for the growth of the natural hair community because people can now share pictures and experiences they have had on their transitioning journey from chemically processed hair to natural hair. No longer do women have to rely on Ebony magazine or be at the mercy of hair dressers to come up with different styles, they can communicate with females from all over the world and see things they ordinarily would not. For me, the conversation has totally shifted from traditional media telling us how to look to an in-house conversation with us dictating how we want to look and what we think is beautiful. I particularly love how the natural community has evolved leaving mainstream media playing catch up on everything happening on social. The community has become this content generating power house that spins off product reviews, documentaries about hair journeys and a huge feeling of community. While I think women should be able to do what they want as they wish and that they express their beauty in a way that speaks to them, I also believe that this redefinition process starts from within. We need to highlight and focus on how beautifully diverse, stylish, innovative and fun our hair really is and share it first with each other, and then show off for the world to see. I will add though that the re-emergence of natural hair has elevated hair innovation and style to a whole other fabulous level, again thanks to social media. To say the least, black hair seems to have remained one of the most debated topics this year amongst women of color. I hope this debates continues so that we get to build momentum about the topic and hopefully redefine how we see beauty. Love, One natural hair lover xx |