A friend of mine always wears her hair straight on a regular basis and I complimented her when she wore her hair natural one day, and she looked so surprised. I grew up in Ghana and I guess your first imagery of people sets the tone of what you’re going to like and all natural hair is what I saw growing up. The girls had short hair like the boys and recently women started getting perms in their hair back home but I will always have a soft spot for natural hair.
Black women in large have always fought the natural look because of media images that portray European straight hair. Even among white women, a lot of kinky tresses get the straightening treatment: “What we call fried, dyed and laid to the side in the African-American community,” Charise laughs.
Charise and Jennifer Thomas believe African-American hair isn’t something to be tamed, weaved, or ironed into submission.
The Detroit sisters want black women to embrace their hair’s natural texture — and their aim is to offer the practical and social support needed for them to step out with confidence.
Acceptance of natural styles is growing, but anyone who was raised by parents warning that employers favor applicants with straight hair got the message that nappiness was a non-starter. And they got it early on. In his film “Good Hair,” comedian Chris Rock says he was devastated when 6-year-old daughter asked him “Daddy, why don’t I have good hair?”
And it’s not just an American thing. “When I saw women in Africa in 2001 having their hair relaxed and with weaves and not accepting themselves for who they were, I was shocked,” says Charise.
“Our hair doesn’t want to lay down,” says Charise. “It wants to stand up. It doesn’t want to be slicked and laid. It wants to do just what it’s doing.”
She recalled the moment she stood on a beach in Africa and made peace with her own hair, pulled out the strands of sewn-in hair that comprised her weave and said: “I can do this.” Soon after, her sister and mother followed suit. Her mother Cassandra did the BC, the Big Chop, to cut the relaxed hair off till she had a very short afro. “My dad was like whoa… you really started something.”
“I’m an advocate,” says Charise. “I want everyone to be who they are and embrace that.”
Education also plays a large role in natural hair. The first time I met a girl with natural hair in America was in college and that had a lot to do with acceptance and getting away from traditional views of beauty. As young active people we discuss and elaborate on hair and what it means to be beautiful.
Charise and Jennifer Thomas believe African-American hair isn’t something to be tamed, weaved, or ironed into submission.
The Detroit sisters want black women to embrace their hair’s natural texture — and their aim is to offer the practical and social support needed for them to step out with confidence.
Enter Naturally Flyy Detroit’s natural hair meetup — a group hug for hair dreamed up by the Thomas sisters, who are co-owners, with their parents, of the west-side bakery Sweet Potato Sensations.
It’s time to start educating our queens from a young age, I say that because I watched Chris Rock’s “Good Hair” and girls were getting perms at four years of age. Those same girls think other young girls should have perms too. It’s never too late and I like the idea of going natural but remember you have to be comfortable in your own skin.
I love the initiative and we will look out and support the cause.
