Photography embraces natural afro hair | 10 empowering black&whites

Not being confident about the structure of their natural hair, black women with beautiful afro curls tend to hide them behind sew-in weaves or break its structure using harsh chemicals in order to meet beauty standards, imposed by the fashion and media world and be able to recreate ‘popular’ hairdos.

And there would be nothing wrong with the desire to follow hair trends if those trends weren’t directed towards the certain hair type and managed to include the variety of options for different people.

Instead of encouraging versatility and diversity of people’s looks, beliefs and views, the beauty world is pushing everyone towards one universal body, hair, and God knows what else image, erasing the true, natural beauty and devalues human uniqueness.

Commonly idolized long straight and sleek hair or perfect Hollywood chic curls and various hairstyles based on those, constitute what everyone seems to call ‘good hair’.

And even when there’re so many professional hair stylists, who do wonders at helping people to tame their natural African American hair and make it look stunning as it is, the entire industry of sew-ins, hair relaxing and straitening products is built on making people with tight, natural curls feel like the hair they were born with isn’t worth cherishing.

In addition to that, natural hair insecurities have even deeper social roots I have no desire to dig into. Just a few decades ago, natural black curls weren’t something to be proud of.

That’s exactly why the time has come when we embrace our natural hair and make it just as cool as Victora’s Secret models’ beach waves.

These quite simple, yet elegant and touching black&white photographs prove the beauty of natural afro hair. I just wish that there was a lot more of them displayed on the front pages of modern magazine covers to help more and more people fall in love with their wild curls.