We are excited about the growing buzz for Coils to Locs!

Co-Founder Dianne Austin was chosen as the “Everyday Amazing Health Professional of the Game” as part of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center’s partnership with the New England Patriots Radio network.

The spot aired during the January 20, 2019 Patriots game against the Kansas City Chiefs on 98.5 The Sports Hub!

Listen to the Audio:

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural.

We are excited to share an update on the Wichita Natural Hair Meetup led by Veronica Parnell.

Since we last connected, our club has grown in leaps and bounds and the girls have been working diligently to give back to our community. The group engages young girls in giving back to the community as well as self love!

Keep up the good work!

~Natural Haircare News

Last year, in April 2017, we held our first Natural Hair Meetup at our school hosting 160 visitors and 12 vendors. A portion of the funds raised were used to provide scholarships to two deserving seniors in the hair club. Those young ladies are now attending Butler Community College and Paul Mitchell ‘the school’ and doing extremely well in their chosen post high school education fields.

Not only are the girls raising money for scholarships, they are also finding time in their busy schedules to pay it forward by giving back to their community. These young ladies made time to help serve food to the less fortunate at a local church guaranteeing those in need did not feel left out during the Thanksgiving season. They also worked tirelessly at a holiday Turkey Drive to hand out meals to disadvantaged families in our school district. As if that wasn’t enough, the girls also undertook the task of assisting at a Veteran’s Homeless Stand Down event to give out food and toiletry supplies to the homeless and displaced veterans in or community.

I am extremely proud of what we are doing and wanted to highlight these remarkable young women. Shining a light of their selfless actions is heartwarming and reminds me that our youth still have a heart to serve others. It also helps me to keep this group of teenagers motivated to continue to work hard in school, strive towards their goals and give back generously to those in need.

Thank you for recognizing what we do and for allowing us to share our beautiful story to your faithful readers.

Warm regards,

Veronica Parnell, Capt, USAF (Retired)
Senior Aerospace Science Instructor
AFJROTC KS-961
Wichita Heights High School

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural.

As a natural woman, we tend to get uncomfortable questions about our hair regularly. There are many people that don’t understand the art of natural hair or wearing weaves, wigs, braids and other protective hairstyles. Often, these individuals will allow ignorance on the subject to compel them to ask inappropriate and uncomfortable questions.

When these situations arise, don’t blush or stammer your way through an answer. Don’t even allow yourself to get upset by the audacity of them to ask the question. Instead, completely reroute the conversation. Here’s an example that shows how to segue the conversation to suit your purposes.

Question: Is that your real hair? Answer: I think we have better things to discuss than my hair, don’t you think? Then, reroute the conversation to something more relevant to your scenario or to them. For example, if it were someone you work with, you could point out a project that you’re actively working on that is important to the company. Or you could point out something they need to do. (A little shade sometimes is necessary).

Any great salesman or leader in business knows the art of dominating a conversation and that’s the key in any of these scenarios. Another option to not answer the question and move the conversation along- or end it- is to flip it and ask them a question in response. Consider this type of scenario:

Question: Can I touch your hair? Answer: Would you be comfortable if I touched your face? No, right? That’s exactly how I feel about people touching my hair. What I can tell you though, is that it’s super soft because I use extra virgin coconut oil in it. Did you know there are so many different things you can use coconut oil for? It’s even a natural tooth whitener!

Don’t allow people to make you feel uncomfortable with their silly questions and statements. Keep your confidence and vibrations high and make the conversation go your way. 

Author: Qiana Williams

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural. Not sure of which products are right for your hair type?

As a natural woman, having a community of support from like-minded people is a powerful resource. If you haven’t attended a natural hair event before, you may want to consider it. There are many held around the nation each year. Below are some that may be of interest to you.

The 3^rd Annual New Jersey Natural Hair and Beauty Expo

September 28^th and 29^th 2019

Edison, NJ

Tickets

For the third year, NJNHBE provides NJ and its nearby states and cities with an event centered on natural hair and beauty education, promotion of confidence, self-love and mental health. The two-day event includes shopping with over 70 different vendors, workshops, panels, Q & A sessions, surprise speakers, swag bags, and much more!

Taliah Waajid World Natural Hair & Healthy Lifestyle Event

April 27^th and 29^th, 2019

College Park, GA

Tickets

Known as the largest and most prominent hair event in the world, this event occurs for the 22^nd year in a row. The focus is on joining professionals and their customer base together for a natural exchange of information. This engagement includes hair care and styling techniques, health and wellness, new products, samples and more. This massive event includes a new professional hairstyling workshop for attendees. Over 200 vendors will be on site to shop with. There will also be live entertainment, a spa zone and even a man cave. All ages welcome!

2019 Naturals in the City Hair and Wellness Expo

July 13, 2019

Memphis, TN

Tickets

For the Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas areas, the Naturals in the City Hair and Wellness Expo takes place for the 8 ^th year in a row. The platform offers promotion of natural beauty, health and wellness, and education on entrepreneurship. Natural health and beauty companies connect and engage one-on-one with their customers. There will be a surprise celebrity guest, workshops, panels, vendors, a main stage, and a man cave.

Author: Qiana Williams

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural.

Image from Lupita’s official Instagram page (@lupitanyongo)

Lupita Nyong’o is a talented and beautiful actress that continues to wow us on screen with her thespian skills. However, this young woman brings much more to the table than glowing beauty and talent. Ms. Nyong’o oozes confidence in her heritage, her hair, and her velvety chocolate skin tone, epitomizing black girl magic. We see her on red carpets, award shows and on magazines, beautifully coiffed and dressed. Most often, Lupita chooses to wear her hair naturally.

There’s a method to why Lupita chooses to wear her hair naturally and advocate for self-love and confidence. As she shared with the Fall 2018 issue of Porter magazine, she’s tired of natural hair being painted in a poor light. Says the Oscar winner, “How often do you hear, ‘You can’t get a job with hair like that?’”

You wouldn’t think a woman of her stature would experience the same discriminations as the average natural woman. However, in 2017, Lupita graced the cover of UK’s Grazia magazine and the magazine opted to photoshop her hair into a smooth version of her look. Lupita struck back, posting both the original and the edited versions of the photos on Instagram and airing the magazine out.

Her frustration went further than just having her pictures altered by the magazine. Lupita didn’t want to be part of something that took away from the pride she feels in wearing her hair naturally. Understanding her role as an icon to many young girls and women, she wants her fans to always feel that they can be comfortable, strong and beautiful in their own skin.

Lupita realizes that a woman of color sporting her natural hair is often shunned in mainstream society. Thus, she opts to always go against the grain of their beauty standards. Kinky, curly texture is often perceived as less than, unkempt or uncivilized. Ms. Nyong’o doesn’t believe that though. As she told Allure magazine “loving your texture is important.” What a beautiful message for our natural sisters around the world to receive.

Author: Qiana Williams

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural.

Several young black girls in the United States grow up having a love-hate relationship with their natural hair. That’s because they are subjected to subliminal messaging that teach them to envy their white counterparts with their silky straight locks. As a result, black girls are accustomed to having their thick locks straightened at a young age. The emergence of the Natural Hair Movement in the 2000s steered a transition in the black community.

Hair Discrimination at Work

The Natural Hair Movement encourages women of the African decent to wear natural hair, but the movement is all about the freedom of choice. A lot of black women started to don their hair naturally as a sign of identity. As a result, many black women are constantly finding themselves in trouble with employers and school administrators who believe that natural black hair is unappealing, inappropriate, and unprofessional.

How to Avoid Natural Hair Discrimination

Wearing natural hair is a growing phenomenon for black women, and it’s exciting. But sometimes our employers and co-workers don’t share the excitement. Perhaps one of the best ways to deal with employers who discriminate against natural hair at the workplace is to call them out, but that doesn’t always work. If it comes down to a situation where you have to make a choice and you have to make a living, there can be a compromise.

There are several temporary solutions to consider. For instance, you can wear a wig at work and embracing your natural hair when you get out of the office. If you are not comfortable wearing a wig or simply don’t want to, you can straighten your hair with heat. That way, you can go back and forth between straightened and natural kinky hair. Too much heat can permanently straighten your hair – use low-heat temperatures.

Alternatively, a low bun or ponytail could work if you have short hair or if you want to wear it in a more conservative style. It’s sad that disdain for black hair persists in today’s workplace. Black people shouldn’t be penalized for how they wear their hair. It’s not fair, no and one should have to cut their hair to be accepted in the corporate boardroom, football field, schoolhouse, or even the white house.

Author: Erica Barton

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural.

Self-love as a woman is a difficult mindset to master. All around us, we are bombarded with what society’s portrayal of beauty standards are. With the onset of social media, the sexualization of our women- especially our brown women- is at an all-time high. Women and young girls are consistently seen wearing less, adding enhancements to their bodies to be more voluptuous and posing in sexually explicit ways.

Whereas tall, thin and Caucasian used to be the body standard for fashion- and remains for much of the couture and high-fashion world- an enhanced and overtly sensual body type has become the new norm. Famedom is frequently achieved through popularity vs. talent these days, so being erotically appealing for likes and shares to increase admiration from an online audience is constant. The pressures on women to look beautiful, “beat their face” daily and have long, luxurious hair is mounting. Confidence is waning, while insecurities are rising.

Teaching our daughters to love themselves- every nook, cranny and curl on their head- is essential to them being able to maintain confidence as a child, teenager and then extend into womanhood. Unfortunately, self-confidence and love aren’t commonly referenced in school and kids can be downright mean. Young girls often battle regularly against bullying and mean comments from other kids. Enter the constant exposure to media’s definition of beauty, and these visuals paired with hurtful words can make a young girl feel less than pretty or accepted by her peers.

A natural woman that is comfortable enough in her own skin to define beauty on her own terms is one-of-a-kind. You’re deciding to go against the grain as to what the public tries to dictate as beautiful. You’re happy to show your freckles, instead of covering them up. You’re likely to let your coarse curls live freely in a bouncy fro, and then wow onlookers with a straight style that shows how real shrinkage can get.

So, don’t be afraid to embrace and celebrate your natural beauty. In the world of Stepford wives- break the mold and show them how badass natural sisters really are!

Author: Qiana Williams

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural.

From Tyra Bank’s Official Instagram Account (tyrabanks)

For years, there has been an outrage concerning the way women of color are sidelined in the beauty industry. The beauty market still continues to ignore a huge section of its market, for instance, many hair stylists don’t know how to work with natural hair and they rarely produce foundations with a wide enough color range. For a model, this can be damaging as it affects your ability to work as Tyra Banks narrates.

Fired Because of Natural Hair

Tyra Banks’ eight-year-long career at Victoria Secrets has been iconic. In a recent interview, Tyra Banks revealed that her iconic role as Victoria Secret’s Angel almost never came to reality for this very reason. Tyra is one of the most memorable models in Victoria Secret’s four-decade existence but she didn’t have the easiest time breaking into the industry, all because of her African-American textured hair.

Tyra Banks was the first black woman to feature on the cover of the Victoria Secrets catalog and land the coveted spot as the Angel. That’s how her early career found her making history with the modeling agency. But it was a challenging journey and all of that almost didn’t happen because the hairdresser didn’t know what to do with her hair, so she was sent home.

Still a Long Way to Go

A year later, Banks tried out the Victoria Secrets again. However, this time it was different because she hired her own hair stylist instead of relying on the agency’s stylists. In an interview with W Magazine, Tyra Banks says that she had to figure out how to make sure that she looked good at work to avoid losing her once in a lifetime opportunity to be a Victoria Secrets model.

Tyra Banks would soon rise to become one of the most popular models on Victoria Secrets at which point she used her influence to make the brand hire a hairstylist who knew how to work her hair. She went on to work with the brand for several years. Tyra Banks was happy to see the brand step up to accommodate her but says that the industry still has a long way to go when it comes to diversity.

Author: Erica Barton

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural.

When you’ve become accustomed to relaxing your hair for most of your existence, going natural is a strong jolt of reality in how much your life alters. As with any major lifestyle change, if you are unprepared for what’s in front of you, you may become deterred- and that deterrence may make you consider quitting this positive step toward self-improvement.

Be Mentally Prepared for the Big Chop- or Transition into Natural Hair

The ‘big chop’ is the most blatantly visual change in going natural. It’s also the quickest way to pull off the bandage and dive into the natural world. You can also experience that beautiful freedom of no longer being a slave to your hair and open your mind into trying new styles as you become comfortable with your texture.

While popular, the big chop isn’t the only way to go natural. Transitioning is the act of cutting your hair little by little until only your new growth remains in its natural state. You can cut your hair as often as you like, cutting your hair a couple inches at a time- and the timeframe in which you transition is totally up to you. However, do bear in mind that dealing with two completely different textures at once can become extremely challenging in the long run.

Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate

Coarse hair is inherently dry, so especially in its natural state, your hair will require extra moisture. Use water-based instead of petroleum-based products- and watch out for parabens and other carcinogens in your hair products. Instead, opt for those that have natural, from the earth ingredients. Some great hydrating ingredients to look for are avocado, carrot oil, tea tree oil, aloe, lavender, and shea butter. Deep conditioning will be a must!

Find a Support System

Big changes are the most successfully adhered to with a support system in place. Whether it’s finding a group on social media to join and share with or following the experiences on Natural Haircare News, your sisters will uplift you and offer encouragement and recommendations. These support systems will add ease to your journey toward natural hair.

Author: Qiana Williams

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural. Not sure of which products are right for your hair type?

Cultural appropriation has — sort of — become a household term in western societies in recent years. From festival fashion choices to burrito bars, critics are casting doubt on the legitimacy of everything on the grounds of ‘cultural appropriation’. The term was first coined by sociologists in the early 1990s and most people don’t understand the outrage especially when it comes to black hairstyle.

By definition, cultural appropriation refers to the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of the ideas, practices, customs, etc. of one group of people by individuals of another, typically more dominant group. The natural hair movement is an organization focused on encouraging women of African ancestry to keep their natural afro-textured hair and combat cultural appropriation.

Understanding the History of the Natural Hair Movement

When it comes to the cultural appropriation of black hairstyles, some have gone as far as saying ‘it’s just hair’ which shows ignorance on the history of black women and natural hair. Let’s take a trip down the memory lane and try to understand where the natural hair movement is coming from. See, in early African societies, hair had a heavy social significance. Hair was at the centre of the African culture until Europeans showed up and changed the perspective.

When Europeans came to Africa in the 15th century, they were impressed by how Africans used hair to indicate a combination of gender and social ranks. When the slave trade began, captured Africans had their heads shaved as a way of humiliating them and depriving them of their identity. Shaving slaves was the first step toward erasing the culture and identity of black people. Hundreds of years later, slavery was abolished and straighter hair was seen as a sign of beauty, freedom, and prosperity.

Recapturing Black Beauty

For years, black women have been inundated with tonics, creams, and gadgets to ‘cure’ the coils and kinks. In 2007, cultural anthropologists started to notice a natural hair movement transition in the black community. The black hair movement is about freedom and choice when it comes to black hairstyles and shunning Eurocentric beliefs and beauty standards in the black community. Like the black power movement before it, the natural hair movement is about recapturing the black beauty and ending discrimination against black women wearing natural hair in the workplace.

Author: Erica Barton

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural.