Natural hair

The natural hair movement is a movement which encourages women of African descent to keep their natural afro-textured hair. Born in the USA during the 2000s, this movement is named "" in French-speaking countries.

The movement designates black women who wear afro-textured hair in its natural, coiled or curly state (as well as those who do not chemically straighten their hair but may still choose to wear it straight). The word "nappy" has been subjected to denigration since the Atlantic slave trade. Thereafter, some Afrodescendants have positively taken the word back, considered in francophone countries as a backronym made up of "natural" and "happy."

These women, called "nappy girls" or "nappies," give "relaxing" up and let their hair grow in its natural texture. Their hairstyles can be simple or more sophisticated, by the adoption of hair twists, braids or even locks. Not everyone who wears their natural hair chooses to forgo all (non-chemical) forms of straightening or styling. Additionally, "being natural" does not necessarily indicate a strict adherence to any particular type of product or styling regimen; nor should it be tied exclusively with certain social or political beliefs. Women (and men) choose, or are forced into, being natural for a wide variety of reasons. Some may even not like the term "nappy/nappies."

The unconscious relationship that some Afrodescendants have with their afro-textured hair can be approached in a reverse chronological order.

Around 2005 an underground documentary film hit the independent film circuit called "My Nappy ROOTS: A Journey through Black Hairitage". The highly acclaimed film won multiple awards and played on the college circuit. With years of research, the film historically looked at the word "Nappy"; "My Nappy ROOTS" chronicled over 400 years (and 200 hours of footage) of Afro hair culture starting in Africa through the middle passage, reconstruction the creation of the Black hair industry to current day 2008. It became the definitive film on the history, culture, and economics on Black hair. The urban story postulated the word 'Nappy' came from the cotton plant, the small cotton ball inside the plant was called a 'nap'. The word nappy was born because it resembled the texture of unkempt Afro-textured hair. In an effort to be more acceptable socially, it was more desirable to have straight hair like the dominant culture. Once mixed race children were born, Black people internalized that 'Nappy' hair was 'bad' unacceptable hair. This historic film has never been publicly released. It wasn't until the public lawsuit in 2009 with Chris Rock's "Good Hair" that the concept of Nappy (and use of chemicals) was publicized worldwide. The world understood the concept of "good and bad hair" or "political hair" commonly referred to in the African American community. My Nappy ROOTS began screening to sold-out audiences worldwide. International screenings of the film, MNR and the organization called International Black Hairitage and the internet helped to introduce the word "Nappy" to Afro cultures that did not know the word or its meaning. From the US to UK, France, and Africa, some black women have realized that their nappy hair can be beautiful to them. This calls into question the subconscious internalized association nappy = ugly; They stop therefore to comply with the dominant aesthetic ideal of beautiful hair = smooth hair. Through their hair, the nappies thus reconcile with their original African heritage.

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Wikipedia