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In a live Instagram video, hip hop recording artist and social media personality Cardi B. with nearly 15 million followers, used expletives that explain why America’s Next Natural Model, a pageant to promote natural hair, is very needed.
In her words, Cardi.B’s kids won’t have hair as nice as her little niece with long straight hair because her mom’s side of the family has f’—ed up hair. Although the hip hop artist said it in a so called funny way with a bright smile, the prejudice and violence expressed against natural hair is very real.
Bad Hair
The notion that natural African strands are bad and any other hair type from curly to wavy is good hair, has been damaging to Black follicles for centuries. In our quest to meet society’s standards of what hair should look like, a shocking 73% of African American women suffer from relaxer induced alopecia.
African American baby girls often born with more hair than their peers of other ethnic groups, are the first to deal with hair breakage and often start wearing weaves in their teens.
Not only do African American women suffer disproportionately from hair loss, a recent study completed in February of this year by the Perception Institute and Shea Moisture found that a majority of people, regardless of race and gender, hold some bias toward women of color based on their hair.
America’ Next Natural Model
More than just to challenge the biases, America’ Next Natural Model, an online pageant to promote natural hair and Black businesses, was created with the ultimate goal of changing the perception of natural hair.
In this pageant candidates compete by shooting photos or videos for sponsoring companies for seven consecutive weeks. The model with the most likes, comments and shares wins the title of America’s Next Natural Model, free products and a photo and video shoot in New York.
Since its start in 2008, all candidates shooting ads for companies like Iman cosmetics, Gruvi Juice and Jamaica Mango & Lime rocked beautiful natural hairstyles.
In season 7 which starts on February 1st of 2018, founder of the competition MSC. Mireille Liong and author of Bad Hair Uprooted, the untold story of Black Follicles plans to also take on the controversies we read about in the media. The how is still a secret but the theme will be Black Follicles matter. Stay connected and you won’t be disappointed.
For more information about sponsoring or to participate as a model visit AmericasNextNaturalModel.com.
