By Tan Walker | Community Health and Human Services Intern
In today’s society, glorifying unhealthy and unrealistic expectations makes us beautiful. It is easy to focus on appearance rather than character. Women, especially black women, have to work more than most to attain the world’s idealistic view of beauty.
The Afro hair texture has been the epitome of a black woman’s life for centuries. As far back as the slave trade, Africans were forced to abandon their links and connections to their natural hair to simply strip away any cultural identity or tribal heritage (Black hair and an unjust society, 2021). However, this has not stopped Black women from embracing their natural tresses.
From the infamous “fro” to hair wraps to braids, Black women continue to embrace their natural hairstyles to help express who they are, and to show the evolution of empowerment and Black culture over time.
As a community, we must speak power into our young black girls and remind them that their natural hair is beautiful until they feel it themselves, and that their natural hair doesn’t define who they are.
Black hair and an unjust society. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2023, from https://www.edi.nih.gov/blog/communities/black-hair-and-unjust-society
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