Black womens hair has been much debated and stigmatized in various ways throughout history. "Good hair" and "nappy hair" are concepts that have been used to describe what is good and bad afrohair for many years. This is a categorization with origin from the slave period.
The Afrohair industry is trading annually for billion. Weave, extensions, relaxer, natural and chemical products that either preserve, hide or delete the hair texture. But in recent years, there have been many women who have decided that the texture of their hair does not define if you have good or bad hair. Some call it the "Natural Hair Movement". Now the internet and social media is filled with girls who share personal stories and tutorials about afrohair. On Instagram, the hashtags #naturalhairjourney and #naturalhaircommunity have nearly two million tags.
But there are still women who do not dare to show their natural hair, women who have always been proud of their natural afrohair, women who after many years have begun to have a good relationship with their hair and those who do not define themselves by what they choose to do. This project is done with a desire to explore this diversity of stories and experiences. And with the purpose of getting women to embrace their natural self and breaking the community's perception of what is "good hair".
There are as many stories as it is women. These are five of them.
A special thank you to Haddy Ceesay, Makeda Dyhre, Sophie Valerie and Kadija Kuei for participating and sharing their stories. And everyone else who I've had had deep and inspiring conversations about this topic during this project. At last, a big thank you to Liv Evjan and Johs Bø for mentoring.
#blackgirlmagic
