Picture 1: Gift of Life Before we were uprooted from our beloved motherland, we valued the strength and fullness of our hair in its natural state.  It signified who we were and where we came from.  We may have worn scarves and decorated our beautiful tresses with crowries, but it was never because we needed to conceal our hair. It was only to compliment our attire.

Picture 2: Depravity A black woman’s hair needs to be nurtured.  Plantation life deprived our hair of the care and nourishment it needed to flourish.  Instead of wearing scarves to compliment our attire, we hid our deprived tresses under scarves.  Slavery not only oppressed us under forced labor, but stripped away a key piece of our identity.  

Picture 3: Boldly beautiful After a wearisome era of being manipulated and oppressed, the beautiful tresses of the black woman rise once again.  The afro, worn as a bold statement by leaders such as Angela Davis, made a bold statement. It said “I am bold AND I am beautiful in my natural form.”  

Picture 4: Envy The fullness and beauty of our natural tresses was no longer just a statement of boldness–it was something to be envied.  Full, thick, and foxy–people tried to copy it but our full natural tresses cannot be duped.  

Picture 5: Fierce Some opt for weaves, some opt for wigs.  But nothing says fierce like the natural beauty queen.  She doesn’t need weaves or wigs to conform to what society says it pretty.  She knows the beauty of her natural hair and isn’t afraid to show it.

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