{"id":8202,"date":"2022-07-01T12:04:28","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T12:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.styleseat.com\/blog\/?p=8202"},"modified":"2022-07-01T12:04:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T12:04:28","slug":"natural-hair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styleseat.com\/blog\/natural-hair\/","title":{"rendered":"Natural Hair: Your Expert Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Embracing your natural hair is a journey and your natural curls<\/a> deserve to be celebrated. Caring for natural hair comes with some trial and error, especially in the beginning. Whether you\u2019ve been natural for a while or you\u2019re just getting started, we\u2019ve put together this guide to answer some common questions on natural hair care. We\u2019ll also go over some of the history of natural hair and offer some tips for caring for your natural hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Natural Hair?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Natural hair is typically known as hair that hasn\u2019t been chemically straightened, curled, colored, or hasn\u2019t undergone anything else that changes the natural state of the hair. The term is used to normally refer to the hair of people in the Black community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Textures can range from curly to coily and many in the community have multiple hair textures. Some even have straight hair. There\u2019s a lot of history and symbolism with natural hair that we\u2019ll go into next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Brief History on Natural Hair<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, the Black community has been discouraged to wear their natural hair for many reasons. Prior to slavery in the 1400s, Africans wore intricate hairstyles to signify things like tribe and rank. When Europeans came to enslave Africans, their heads were shaved. Europeans claimed it was for sanitary reasons, but doing so stripped Africans of their identity and the connection to their home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attack on natural hair continues past slavery. Former Louisiana governor Rodriguez Mir\u00f3 passed the Tignon Laws<\/a> in 1786 that required women of color to cover their hair with a tignon headcovering. This was done to stop non-white women from wearing elaborate and regal hairstyles, and was also meant to visually subordinate them. The Tignon Laws were no longer enforced in 1803<\/a> when the United States made the Louisiana Purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wearing natural hair became more popular in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement. People in the Black community were encouraging each other to wear their hair naturally, embrace their natural features, and to move away from copying Eurocentric standards of beauty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


The natural hair movement had another resurgence in the 2000s when more and more people opted to wear their hair naturally. Although this is great progress, discrimination against natural hair is far from gone. There are still people who hold the racist notion that natural hairstyles are unprofessional<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully, organizations like the Curly Girl Collective<\/a> are working to undo the false narrative surrounding natural hair and to help everyone embrace their natural curls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n