Is the ‘Natural Hair’ Movement Really Just the ‘Kinky Curly Fro’ Movement?

June 21st, 2012 - By Alissa Henry
"curly vs straight"

source: kissntellchantell

I’ve been looking around the internet trying to determine what exactly constitutes as “natural hair”.

I was under the impression that a person is “natural” if her hair is free of chemical relaxers. However, after observing natural hair blogs, Youtube, Black Twitter, Pi Nappa Kappa, Natural Hair Meetup annoucements and any place black women gather in large numbers, it seems that the “natural movement” is really just the “kinky curly fro” movement.

Am I out because I actually like wearing my hair straight?

18 months ago, I received my last relaxer. As I’ve discussed before, I stopped getting relaxers because my hairstylist told me chemical straighteners stunt hair growth. Relaxers never got my hair bone straight without the help of a cosmetology license, a blowdryer with a comb and a smoking hot ceramic flat iron anyway, so I figured I could do without the chemicals and achieve the same look.

I’m still growing out my relaxer, and I think my hair is about half-natural. Yet, I hear people say “I’m natural” after skipping a single relaxer retouch. More than once, I’ve wanted to point out that washing your hair and letting it air dry doesn’t mean you’re natural, but I refrain.

I can see why they think that though because when I look around, it seems that being natural just means wearing your hair curly. That’s why some of these celebs can throw on a kinky curly wig and become the poster-child for the movement. Meanwhile, I’m on the side thinking wait…isn’t that weave? If I point out the ridiculousness of celebrating a curly sew-in as “natural hair” then I’m accused of throwing shade, when in actuality, I’m just confused.

The other day, I was telling my friend that defined curls seem to be the goal, yet my hair just looks wild when I don’t wear it straight. In response, she suggested I try a twist-out while I’m transitioning. I had no clue what a twist-out was so I went to Youtube. I watched two ten minute videos of a girl demonstrating how to do a twist-out. I was floored by the sheer amount of time, patience and product it takes to achieve that style. Silly me, I thought all these girls were wearing their hair in it’s natural curl patterned state, but really it just looks like the natural hair movement has exchanged using time, products and styling tools to get your hair uncharacteristically straight for using time, products and styling tools to get your hair uncharacteristically curly.

Further, what if I don’t want to wear my hair curly? What if I like being able to feel my scalp? What if I like being able to brush my hair up into a ponytail? What if I like my hair hanging as far down my back as it can get?  What if I can’t afford the trial and error of trying different products? What if I just want to grow my relaxer out completely, yet still use heat to straighten my hair from the root and whip it back and forth Willow Smith style? Am I still “natural”?

Don’t get me wrong, these kinky curly fro chicks’ hairstyles are hot! Looking at some of these blogs often has me seriously considering chopping off the remaining chunk of relaxed hair, retiring my flat irons, spending mortgage money on the natural hair products at Target, highlighting my hair beyond recognition and living a life unfazed by precipitation and humidity, but I’m not quite there yet.

I’m still “going natural” though…right?

Alissa Henry is a freelance writer in Columbus, OH. Follow her on Twitter @AlissaInPink or check out her blog This Cannot Be My Life

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  • afro girl

    Please post some examples of ‘natural’ hair styles. I’m looking for a style for me.

  • Gigi

    Yes, Alissa Henry, it seems that you are quite confused. And I can understand why – you seem to have encountered a number of confused “naturals.” Being natural simply means wearing your hair in a chemical free state. It does not (just) mean a curly afro, but any style that you can manage with your hair while in its natural state – straightened, curl-defined, twist-outs, buns, and yes, even covered with a wig, a weave sewn in or some kanekalon braided in. You are at the beginning of a wonderful journey. I suggest, like anything else you might want to learn about, that you Google it. But spending some time on youtube will be more helpful in understanding not only how to style your hair but how to truly care for it. Because continuing to apply heat to it in the manner you have chosen is just not healthy. If that’s the path you choose, the naturalistas on youtube will show you the healthiest manner in which to do so.

  • Gigi

    Yes, Alissa Henry, it seems that you are quite confused. And I can understand why – you seem to have encountered a number of confused “naturals.” Being natural simply means wearing your hair in a chemical free state. It does not (just) mean a curly afro, but any style that you can manage with your hair while in its natural state – straightened, curl-defined, twist-outs, buns, and yes, even covered with a wig, a weave sewn in or some kanekalon braided in. You are at the beginning of a wonderful journey. I suggest, like anything else you might want to learn about, that you Google it. But spending some time on youtube will be more helpful in understanding not only how to style your hair but how to truly care for it. Because continuing to apply heat to it in the manner you have chosen is just not healthy. If that’s the path you choose, the naturalistas on youtube will show you the healthiest manner in which to do so.

  • Kaay

    It’s not about how u style your hair, but how u treat it that determines how “natural” you are..

  • Kaay

    It was very clear to me from the start of my natural hair care journey that going natural meant being relaxer free, minimizing the use of high chemical moisturizers and washing agents. I decided to lead an overall healthy lifestyle some time ago, so I figured to also include my hair. Sorry, you sound like some of these band-wagoners you speak of. If you don’t see the benefits of chemical free hair, why do it?

  • miche

    just because women wear ther hair natural, doesn’t mean it can’t ave style to it..twistouts,braids, fros, buns, and whatever other way they wear it is just a hairstyle.

  • Sweet T

    I definitely see what you mean about the natural pattern. So many
    naturals, not all (gotta clarify because you know how SOME of you all
    get lol), talk about “embracing their hair the way God/nature intended,”
    but wear twist-outs, braid-outs, banding, etc. Your hair doesn’t grow
    in twist-out texture. To be quite honest, of the majority of naturals I
    see, only one’s with 4a, and 3 curl patterns wear their natural curl
    pattern, meaning your hair air-dries like that with out any manual
    manipulation. I think, in part, it may have to do with lacking a
    “defined curl pattern,” but I can’t help but think if it has something
    to do with the fact that it’s seems that the looser curl textures (i.e.
    Alicia Keys, Jurnee Smollett, Mona from Half & Half) are more
    socially accepted, by blacks and other cultures alike.

    On the other hand though, being natural (meaning relaxer free) myself,
    I’m very well aware of the complications of air-drying, those effing
    single-strand knots. That’s why I do opt to wear my hair straightened 90% of
    the time.

    • LittleBabyBug Jones

      er, not necessarily.. i would say my hair is in the 3b-c range, or so people seem keen to tell me in so many words. and though my hair dries with the appearance of loose curls, in feel and actuality snarly tangly monsters lurk beneath. i think you’ll find that most 3s, like myself, do have to define our curl patterns to reinforce the strength of our hair and reduce tangling. my curl pattern may be loose but if left to its own devices, my hair easily becomes unmanageable. i don’t even dare wear my hair loose unless it’s in finger coils. ocassionally if i’m brave enough i’ll venture a twistout, but i reserve that for either when i’m feeling really lazy or really daring. because it doesn’t take long for the SSK’s and the mass of knots to quickly punish me for my audacity :D

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Lanise-Mondie/1023377083 La’nise Mondie

    For me the “natural” hair movement is a spiritual movement for all women. Not just women of color. Caroline Myss, often speaks of the rise in evolutionary consciousness of all humanity.As a black women I see wearing our hair natural is foremost about learning to accept ourselves, our unique beauty, and making conscious decisions about our health and happiness. I’ve been natural for about 10years and I can honestly say that for the first few years I struggled with feeling beautiful. Prior to going natural, I had never been able to get my hair past chin length. But within two years it was down to the middle of my back. The bigger my hair got, the more challenging it got. I had more hair than I knew what to do with. So, started to press it. But it was wrecking havoc on my hair. I didn’t realize that if you press your hair, after awhile the curl pattern will be lost and it won’t revert back. Which was fine for a minute, but my ends started splitting a breaking off and…what was the point? The expense of getting it professionally done every 2 weeks and the time I spent at the salon was more than it was with the perm. Plus the smell! God, I hate the smell of pressed hair. So I stopped pressing it, and there I was, back at square one with straight ends and kinky roots…I was ‘in transition’ again. It has taken many hours of relearning and reprogramming how I view my hair and myself. And really embracing my kinks. I don’t wash, style or handle my hair the same way I once did. In this Western Culture, black hair and black women are simply not viewed as beautiful by the masses. It is totally a psychological brain washing. And the more you study it (how we are viewed/ignored in the media) the more you’ll come to realize just how much you’ve been influenced to “prefer” straight hair over curly hair. Most of us don’t even know what our real hair is like without perm or a straightening comb. We’ve been getting our hair straightened since we were toddlers. And since we were toddlers we’ve been given the message that straight hair is “good hair”. But as I say, I think this “transition” is bigger than just us women with kinky hair. Across the globe people are beginning to realize just how enslaved we’ve become to unnatural ways and standards of living. Chemicals are unhealthy. Period! They leach into your body and into your blood stream. Because of our unhealthy diets the chemicals then stay in your body and over time accumulate and become toxic. Yet, the industry does not tell us these things…and we wonder why we have so many illnesses that are “untreatable”. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not a dashiki, afro wearing sista. I don’t really like afros…which has meant that I’ve had to experiment with different ways of wearing my natural hair. Some people don’t like twist outs, but its the only way you’ll ever see my hair “out”. Other times its in a bun or french braid or even rocking a curly hairpiece when I don’t have time to do my hair. Yes, I do prefer defined curls because when our curls are lumped together they are stronger than they are as individual strands. And it helps keeps the hair from tangling. This is also why braiding the hair is a good way to protect the strands. I think overall its about us defining our own standards of beauty. If we’ve been straightening our hair since the days of Madam C.J Walker, then its going to take us sometime to discover styles that suite us and are also healthy for us. Twist out will go out like high top fades…I’m curious to see what’s next.

  • jema_elaine

    natural hair is Simply CHEMICAL FREE HAIR. Thats the basic definition.

    But i found the title of your article very interesting because initially, it seemed like women were becoming culturally aware and falling in love with our natural god-given beauty. But being that sooooo many women are making the transition, i cant help but wonder if its becoming more of a bandwagon thing instead of self-acceptance =/. Just like perms were the “hot look” and people followed suit, the same can be said about the natural revolution.

    I WANT HEALTHY HAIR. THATS MY GOAL. i choose not to wear it straight because its simply not healthy for the hair. Alot of women destroy thier hair for a STYLE. the straight, permed look is a STYLE. the long glamourous weave “look” is a STYLE. They look beautiful. but im not willing to RUIN my hair to wear them constantly as if my natural hair is good enough. Cherish and take care of what you have, and it will look ten times more beautiful than what we try to front with

  • Liz

    This was such a cynical post. Why don’t you just “Do You” and not worry about what others are doing to their hair. That is the problem with black women. If you want to call your hair natural, call it natural, even if you straighten it. If you want to pile gel in your hair, do that, Bantu knots, do that too. Who cares. Just do you.

    • Coco J

      Thank you!…I really get soooooooo sick and tired of people (other black women) putting SO MUCH emphasis on the way black women wear their hair or what we do to it….REALLY?… And these be the same women hollerin about “I Am Not My Hair”…yeah ok, so why u worried bout mine then?

    • Coco J

      Thank you!…I really get soooooooo sick and tired of people (other black women) putting SO MUCH emphasis on the way black women wear their hair or what we do to it….REALLY?… And these be the same women hollerin about “I Am Not My Hair”…yeah ok, so why u worried bout mine then?

    • Coco J

      Thank you!…I really get soooooooo sick and tired of people (other black women) putting SO MUCH emphasis on the way black women wear their hair or what we do to it….REALLY?… And these be the same women hollerin about “I Am Not My Hair”…yeah ok, so why u worried bout mine then?

    • exactly!

      You took the words right out of my mouth! How about a Do You movement!

  • kat milli

    My natural hair is wavy and not kinky or curly. So am I ineligible because I have tried every remedy to make it so to no avail? The haters are going to have to hate by themselves. I don’t have time to allow their issues to affect my self esteem. Natural is just that – Not chemically processed. I am wearing my naturally wavy hair without guilt or shame.

  • Lady Di

    I agree with the fact that the natural hair movement is mostly highlighted with non-straight hair styles. I have been relaxer free for 2 years now and wear my hair straight. My hair is so much more healthy now, I will never go back!

  • Mrsadkiah

    IMO you are natural if you have not chemically altered your hair aka permanently altered your hair. There is no true definition of what natural is and there shouldn’t be. The natural nazi’s that holler and scream for one are just trying to put people in a box.

  • Anonymous

    No, it’s like saying eating healthy is eating strictly salad. Eating healthy is not putting things that will damage your body and that goes for hair too. You have different varieties of healthy food, you also have different varieties of natural hair.

    • Carol

      I agree, and good analogy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1438551270 Jessica Lucinda Williams

    natural just means relaxer or chemical free. seriously….no lye! hehehehehe! you can be a straight natural or curly natural. natural doesn’t mean curly. curly means curly.

  • http://twitter.com/NewNaturalSista High GrAdE KarMa

    Yea I hate when they be doing the “define your curls technique” and they be loose curls like a biracial person. im natural and hate having my hair loosely curled i like my kinks to look like black people kinks so when i do curl it i dont make it loose curl. I also notice that most of these curling methods come from white people. For instance the curly girl method was started by some white women who had naturally loose curly hair and wanted to keep the frizz out. Another thing I notice is a lot of these women who cut their hair and go natural already have a wavey or loose curly hair texture. Then the ones who dont they wet their hair and pile so much gel on it to make it curly and when they do a basic afro puff they slick the edges down on there foreheads to make it look like baby hairs smh

    • Smacks_hoes

      Most people I know went natural with the intent of having beautiful curly hair. No one actually wanted Afro puffs that I know of. I’m natural right now for the most part but my intend is to have curly hair as well and not Afro puffs.

      • Mrsadkiah

        You’re right. When a friend suggested to me to go natural I automatically though about the 70s fro and was immediately turned off. When my friend explained to me that that wasn’t what natural was and introduced me to blogs that explained that going natural was just styling your hair in it’s natural for (i.e. without chemically altering it) I jumped on. I do wear “puffs” a lot. I don’t know how she got that most of these styles come from White women either.

  • Just_Me:)

    To me, being natural is having your hair 100% free of any chemical relaxer, not just skipping one relaxer touch-up. Going natural or transitioning is the process of getting your hair 100% free of any chemical relaxer. You don’t have to wear your hair curly to be natural. Some people straighten their natural hair everyday with a flat iron, but if you have hair like mine, it doesn’t matter how much heat you put to it, it won’t be straight for long. You can wear a weave and still be natural. I can still feel my scalp. My natural is pretty long, but I’m not at the ponytail stage yet. I don’t use all of those curl puddings and things. I just use the same grease I used when I had a perm. And I can still whip my hair back and forth Willow Smith style lol I do it quite often :)

  • Sweet T

    I definitely see what you mean about the natural pattern. So many
    naturals, not all (gotta clarify because you know how SOME of you all
    get lol), talk about “embracing their hair the way God/nature intended,”
    but wear twist-outs, braid-outs, banding, etc. Your hair doesn’t grow
    in twist-out texture. To be quite honest, of the majority of naturals I
    see, only one’s with 4a, and 3 curl patterns wear their natural curl
    pattern, meaning your hair air-dries like that with out any manual
    manipulation. I think, in part, it may have to do with lacking a
    “defined curl pattern,” but I can’t help but think if it has something
    to do with the fact that it’s seems that the looser curl textures (i.e.
    Alicia Keys, Jurnee Smollett, Mona from Half & Half) are more
    socially accepted, by blacks and other cultures alike.

    On the other hand though, being natural (meaning relaxer free) myself,
    I’m very well aware of the complications of air-drying, those effing
    single-strand knots. That’s why I do opt to wear my hair straight 90% of
    the time.

    • Mrsadkiah

      No one wears their hair like god made it then. White or other people with naturally straight hair don’t just get up in the morning and go. The wash, blow dry and take a flat iron to it 99% of the time. We ARE embracing our natural texture. Before, almost all Black women felt that to style their hair they had to straighten it i.e. change it from it’s natural form. We are now learning that we can style our hair in it’s natural form. Twist outs, braids outs, bantu knots etc. are all styled on kinky hair. I don’t know why everyone thinks that us saying “embrace our hair” means that we’re not going to alter it at all (meaning style like 99% of women of all races do). Women aren’t only going to wear wash-n-gos when they’re natural.

  • IfUDontCareWhyYouReadingMe

    different people have different views of what “natural” means. To some, natural means non-chemically processed. To some it means no weave/extensions. if you can wear it processed and out -then you can wear it natural and out (which may result in it being in a kinky afro). their are people who wear it natural and in a variety of ways. natural styles can be used for hair growth and health. and to just feel comfy with what you were born with (because alot dont)

  • anonymous

    For me being natural is all about saying good bye to the relaxer. What you decide to do after that, wear it straight, wear a wig or braid it doesn’t matter because for me your still a natural. And article like this should be more seen in the natural community because I think people forget when you braid, or do a twist out you are not wearing your natural curl patern so straightening your hair or wearing a wig is also a form of doing something to your natural hair so if you think about it all it doesn’t matter as long you are free from the relaxer :) / eropean reader

    • Guest360

      I agree. I was under the impression that “going natural” meant no longer using a chemical relaxer in your hair. I guess it just depends on who you’re around and the types of blogs you go to. Wear your hair however you want to wear it whether its straight because of a relaxer or because you flat ironed it. Wear your curly hair whether it looks that way without any help or you need to twist or braid it up to have more defined curls. Put it in a pony tail or a puff ball or whatever makes you happy. Haters are going to hate whatever you choose to do with it so don’t let it affect you. Take pride in how you choose for it to look because it’s yours. No one else’s.

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