Is the natural-hair movement dead? Far from it

For decades, the hair of Africans and their descendants has been a hotly debated topic. By the late ‘60s, this discussion reached new levels globally, particularly in the United States. The civil rights movement saw black people — specifically women and girls — begin to dive into cultural styles and techniques with the aim of embracing black hair in the then racially divided community.

Closer to home, local movers and shakers like Fae Ellington and Beverly Manley Duncan (née Anderson) were simply embracing their afro.

Looking back on the period, Ellington, a veteran broadcaster and cultural commentator, told Living: “That period of the ‘60s going into the ‘70s had the civil rights movement and black consciousness and feminism, and all of that, and in Jamaica an awakening happened. Yes, women in Jamaica were always conscious, but an awakening of woman and womanhood (was happening).”

Ellington, who has always worn her hair natural at any length, said while in that era it was the status quo, her hair is just an extension of who she is.

“It is who I am. I just see it as an extension of my personality for one, but is how God mek mi. I don’t see the need for anything else. If I’m doing a play and I have to play a character, that’s something else,” she said.

As the years passed, many women moved on to less Afro-centric styles. Wigs and weaves gained particular traction in black communities, picking up where relaxers and hot presses left off.

In the late 2000s, the movement experienced a resurgence. Dubbed the natural-hair renaissance, the Internet was vital in rebroadcasting the message of self-love. Picking up the mantle, YouTubers led the charge away from Eurocentric styles.

And while the leading voices have since grown quieter amid the myriad of options for black hair, there can be no talk of the movement doing its course. “For me, identity and self acceptance cannot be cyclical,” Ellington said.

Local hair guru and proprietor of the Hair Skin Love Salon in Kingston, Joni Williams, told Living that the movement is alive and well and has grown to be far more health conscious. “I don’t think it’s true [that the movement has done its time] as there are more signs coming to light and more and more studies being done to show the negative [impact] of certain chemicals on our body and what it does to us in the black community. And I think as these studies and this information comes to light and become more accessible and become more normative, then we’re going to see people moving away from relaxers. Maybe they’ll find different forms of straightening their hair, but overall, I do feel like natural hair is here to stay if not by the popularisation of it then by the science behind it.”

It has also become vital for the movement that the products being used are made for black people by black people. For Nichole Richards this was the push she needed to start her haircare line and salon, Kurly Kulture Studio. “We bridge the gap between haircare and styling,” she began.

Launched in 2015, she explained, “It has always been a passion of mine growing up, and also, I noticed where there was a gap in the market. There was a volume of people that were transitioning from relaxers to natural hair, and I had the skill and the know-how, so I decided to create a place where they could come and get taken care of.”

Richards and Williams can’t stress enough the importance of education. Williams posited: “I would love it if there was some kind of educational module in both beauty school and maybe, say, at the high-school level that touches on or goes in depth on the history and connection and psychology of black hair, why it is important and how it is that we can treat it well and manage. Education is definitely key, more than the marketing and the trends and the pizzazz and all of that, just the cold hard education aspect of it.”

As to whether the movement is dead? “I don’t think natural hair is going anywhere,” said Richards.

shanel.lemmie@gleanerjm.com