The mom says that Autumn has never dyed her hair; the color of her braids best matches her natural color.
Naturally lighter hair while black: a fireable offense
Yeah at ex model c all girls high schools in South Africa there were major issues around black girls hair. Even led to full on protests because of how racist these schools were. I remember meeting someone at university detail how they were forced to put chemicals in their hair to straighten it while at one of these schools. But I think the protests led to a change in hair and uniform policy, so at least something happened.
so nice that the girls changed things. sadly hair is extremely politicized everywhere. and just 15 year ago relaxed hair (chemically straighten) was the norm. but than the natural hair movement happened and now its a huge generational divide. I will always be against relaxers because they double your risk of certain types of cancer. My first major act of teen rebellion was cutting off my relaxed hair with kitchen scissors when i was 15. I used to have constant oozing sores on my head from the relaxer. my mother was so pissed she called every family member to tell them i looked homeless. I told her I “was no longer conforming to the eurocentric patriarchy beauty standards” and she said “I dont know what that means, you look ridiculous”. I have a 10000 hair stories, people coming up to me and petting me without saying a word, a BLACK boss making me cover my natural hair because i was trying to start locs, so much so that some of my Muslim customers assumed I was Muslim but I never denied it because that was too awkward, like 5 diffrent white toddlers have pointed to my hair and asked “whats that” back in my babysitting for rich people days.
I’m so sorry that you had to experience all that. Hopefully you’re in a better situation now
i mean in in America so ya know… but yeah I love my natural hair, it took many years to learn how to take care of especially when I had no money and no coping mechanisms for burnout. but its now down to my collar bone! and best of all I have a partner how has learned to do my hair so im always looking cute! and i now wear lots of mens styles which are way cheaper to get done professionally. life is good. also natural hair is weirdly common with black professors ive had. so thats nice whenever go to grad school. Ive heard south africa is having its own natural hair movement. I wish I lived somewhere like cuba where the government was invested in promoting black natural hair.
