Natural Hair

Recently, more and more African American women have been “going natural,” a term used to describe the growing out of natural hair instead of continuing to use the harsh chemicals in a relaxer to straighten it. The Boston Globe reported that “In less than a year, the Boston Naturals Hair Meet Up Group has grown from 200 to 800 active members”  and that “the consumer research group Mintel reported that hair relaxer sales dropped from $206 million in 2008 to $152 million in 2013, while sales of products to maintain natural hair are on the rise.” Although it is a long and difficult process, more and more women are finding it in some way beneficial to them.

One predicted reason for the rapid growth of “naturals” is that the chemicals in relaxers breaks and destroys their hair. Most women who have used a relaxer have reported that they have experienced breakage, scalp damage and even balding due to chemical relaxers. However, with natural hair and a proper hair care routine, one will experience very little of this.

Another reason why there has been an increase in women sporting their natural hair is because it is generally costs less for a woman to keep up with her natural hair versus relaxed hair. Patrice Rosser, a local at Princess Hair Salon, reported that she “would spend close to $100 every few weeks at the salon, just for a touch up and press, which isn’t much.” Beyond that, spending money on weaves, hot combs, blow dryers and flat irons to make the afro texture match the straight hair, will run up anyones bank account.

Also, along with more products being made to help maintain natural hair, there has been a rise in “vlogs” and tutorials on how to manage, take care of and style natural hair. Because most naturals are “newly natural” and have to go through the process of transitioning and sometimes cutting off their hair, they do not know how to immediately deal with the dramatic change in texture. Tressa Rosser stated that she “hadn’t seen her natural hair texture in over 20 years, so having to learn about this new hair was incredibly difficult. However the number of YouTube videos and products specifically made for afro textured hair made it a lot easier.”

With all of these newly combined resources, more and more women are finding it easier and increasingly more beneficial to ditch the relaxer and endless trips to the salon, and instead, rock the hair that comes out of their head. Although it may be hard at first, the rewards outweigh the risks, and many see the numbers of naturals continuing to rise.