The Creation of the Curly Community

Curly hair has always been a controversial topic; whether you have loose 3A curls or tight 4C coils, textured hair has always been a hot topic of conversation mainly revolving around women of color. For some reason, textured hair has always been something that was sort of frowned upon, even going as far as workplaces deeming it “unprofessional”; schools would punish students who wore their natural hair, stating it was “distracting” to the other students. Sometimes even your own family does or says things that make you feel like there’s something wrong with your natural hair. As unfortunate as it is that people run into so many obstacles due to their textured hair in real life, something beautiful has come from it: the natural/curly community online. As the internet and social media grow every day, more people turn to the internet to share their stories, advice, and more. This is how the curly community was created. People sharing curly hair tips, how to take care of curly hair, how to style it, what products are good/bad for curly hair, everything! The curly community has become a supportive space, serving as a well of knowledge, support, and celebration for natural hair of all textures.

It is not a unique narrative that a Black person gets discriminated against because of their hair. I think it’s something that every curly person, unfortunately, goes through, to varying degrees. Some people hear it from the people closest to them: their friends and family. I’ve had my own father tell me my hair “looks like a mop”, when he was the one who gave me curly hair in the first place! My mother’s side of the family has straight hair. Some people hear it when they go to work or school. Being told that their hair is “too distracting” or not professional. A story I read about a Black woman named Chasity Jones comes to mind. Jones had been interviewing for a job as a customer service representative for the company Catastrophe Management Solutions (CMS). The position was not a customer-facing position; all Jones would have to do was answer phone calls. Jones showed up to her interview with locs, a common hairstyle in the Black community. After her interview, she was told she got the job, and during her onboarding with HR, the manager told Jones that "CMS could not hire her 'with the dreadlocks.' " (Mays 2024). The manager goes on to talk about CMS’ “race-neutral” policy; this policy states, 

“All personnel are expected to be dressed and groomed in a manner that projects a professional and businesslike image while adhering to company and industry standards and/or guidelines . . . [H]airstyle should reflect a business/professional image. No excessive hairstyles or unusual colors are acceptable[.]” (Mays 2024)

Obviously, Jones refused to cut her locs, and thus CMS refused to hire her. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ended up suing CMS, which led to a whole debate regarding Black, racially/culturally associated hair. This situation was so unfortunate for Chasity Jones, but not unique to her. This stigma against natural hair is a common one, and the fact that Jones’ locs were deemed unprofessional and unbusinesslike is not only disrespectful, but also completely disregards their significance. Locs take years to grow, and they carry so much historical, spiritual, and cultural significance. To ask someone to cut them is asking them to strip themselves of a major part of their identity! 

Kate Bally, Adam Fidler, Daniel Furshpan, and Roscoe Mutz wrote an article elaborating on this more. They found, “Black women are 1.5 times more likely to be sent home from work because of their hair, 3.4 times as likely to be perceived as unprofessional, and were consistently rated as less ready for job performance. In recent years, there have been countless news stories of Black children being required to cut their dreadlocks to participate in school activities, and Black adults being denied employment because of their hairstyles,” (Bally et al., 2023). This is again horrible treatment for someone to face, especially for something as sensitive and personal as your hair. This reminds me of a scene from the show Dance Moms, where the dance instructor Abby Lee Miller yelled at 11 year-old Nia and her mom Dr. Holly– the only Black members of the dance team– because Nia had box braids in her hair. In the clip, Abby tells Holly, “fix this hair, ‘cause it’s horrible,” while gesturing to Nia’s hair. Abby Miller is a complicated person, and she has said/done her fair share of problematic things, but to target a child and call her hair horrible is completely out of line and tone deaf. Box braids are a protective style of hair and are one of the most, if not the most, popular hairstyles in the Black community. Thankfully, Dr. Holly defended Nia’s hair, but I wouldn’t be surprised if experiencing this discrimination firsthand took a toll on Nia’s confidence. These negative experiences that Black people have revolving around their hair is not something easy to move on from. Your hair is such an integral part of your identity, so to have someone disrespect it and prohibit you from participating in things in your daily life must feel so dehumanizing and definitely takes a hit on your confidence. 

It’s understandable why Black people’s confidence may take a hit after having such disheartening experiences from this. It’s even come to a point where some people advise others not to wear their natural hair to job interviews or other important events. All of my life, I was never allowed or encouraged to wear my natural hair for my important events. My mom would straighten my hair for every school picture day, dance, graduation, you name it. I wore my hair straight so much that people I went to school with thought my hair was naturally straight. This definitely hurt my self-esteem; it made me believe that my natural curly hair was not nice enough for these special events, and I carried that with me for a while. This feeling was not unique to me, unfortunately. Tammy White-Jolviette touches on this in a dissertation of hers. She states, “[African American Women] have felt dissatisfied, insecure, or uncomfortable with wearing their natural textured hair. In a survey by Johnson and Bankhead (2014), 78% of [African American Women] respondents said they commonly experienced discrimination with taunting, teasing, or ridicule for wearing their natural textured hair,” (White-Jolviette, 2025). No person should ever feel insecure or uncomfortable about something they cannot control, especially something so prominent in their appearance like their hair. Thankfully, I’ve grown to love my hair now, and so has my family, but those years when I felt my hair was not “presentable” or “good” enough were some of the toughest.

 This topic is a complicated one because it’s an amalgamation of non-Black people hating Black hair, Black people perpetuating the same messages that those non-Black people share, and Black people who are none the wiser. No one is born hating anything; all hate is learned. So to see people– especially people in power like managers at companies– perpetuate these stigmas and taint the minds of so many people is frustrating. For example, I read this book called Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and there was this exchange between two characters that stood out to me. Ifemelu, a Nigerian immigrant in the US, landed a job interview with a company that could sponsor her green card. When Ifemelu talked to her Aunty Uju, Aunty Uju passed on some advice that her friend Kemi told her: 

“[You] have to take [your] braids out for [your] interviews and relax [your] hair. Kemi told me that [you] shouldn’t wear braids to the interview. If you have braids, they will think you are unprofessional.”

“So there are no doctors with braided hair in America?” Ifemelu asked.

“I have told you what they told me. You are in a country that is not your own. You do what you have to do if you want to succeed.” (Adichie 2013)

I don’t think Aunty Uju or her friend Kemi hated natural hair, but they acknowledged that their hair is not welcomed or appreciated in professional spaces in the US. This advice that they’re giving to Ifemelu might be with good intentions– they want Ifemelu to get the job; however, it’s actually promoting such a harmful message. But can you blame them? This ideology that natural Black hair is not professional has been building up for centuries, and it has created a complicated problem. Stuart Hall worded it really nicely in his text The Whites of their Eyes. He said, “The transformation of ideologies is thus a collective process and practice, not an individual one. Largely, the processes work unconsciously, rather than by conscious intention. Ideologies produce different forms of social consciousness, rather than being produced by them,” (Hall pg. 19). This ideology about natural Black hair has been created by some hateful people. In turn it has not only created more hateful people, but it has poisoned the victims of this ideology to believe it as well. Meaning, non-Black people who hate Black hair have made some Black people hate their hair and have made other Black people who don’t hate their hair act like they hate their hair. It's complicated, I know. So now, this whole ideology that Black hair is “not good enough” or “not professional” and should be cut/chemically altered has not only become the norm for professional spaces like schools and workspaces, but has snuck its way into homes and is becoming the foundation for some Black people’s perception of themselves.

That was a lot, trust me, I know. However, some good did come out of this. In 2019, the CROWN Act was created to help combat this issue. CROWN stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” and this law prohibits race-based hair discrimination, which includes the denial of employment and educational opportunities because of hair texture or protective hairstyles, including braids, locs, twists, or bantu knots. This was a huge turning point for Black people and the natural hair movement, and thus, the curly/natural community was born.

The natural community today is one of the most supportive, informative, and impactful communities you can find online. You have people from all sorts of backgrounds not only talking about their experience, but sharing tips and tricks for taking care of your beautiful curls. Chante-Marie Young wrote a blog post about the natural hair movement, its history, and how it became what it is today. She also included some personal stories; Young mentions how she grew up relaxing her hair which was common in Black households. Young wrote, “In the 90s, black icons like Aaliyah, Janet Jackson and Nia Long all wore their hair bone straight. This contributed to the trend that told women that straight hair was possible to achieve on textured hair. Straight hair in the black community became, to many, a status symbol signifier,” (Young 2020). Due to the constant relaxers, her hair had a lot of breakage as an adult. When Young decided to embrace her natural hair, there was a lot she had to change and learn. She had to change the products she was using and get guidance from others on how to navigate taking care of her hair. “During this time, videos on natural hair and how to start your natural hair journey were beginning to thrive on YouTube. Ordinary people would share the techniques that best worked for their natural hair in videos,” said Young. Fortunately, since this was a time when natural hair videos started circling social media, Young had some people she could follow for advice. “Some of the black women who pioneered this movement cultivated their own natural haircare brands. And others became ambassador of these brands, liaising with the company and their audiences on an intimate and direct basis. Soon, these new natural haircare alternatives began to reach store shelves,” (Young 2020).

Now in 2025, curls are being embraced everywhere, and haircare knowledge is at your fingertips. Similar to Young, I grew up constantly having my hair straightened. My mom told me she straightened it, not because she didn’t like my curly hair, but because she didn’t know how to take care of it. As I mentioned, her whole side of the family has straight hair, so she never had to learn. At 14, I decided to take charge and start my curly journey, but this was no easy feat. My hair was extremely heat-damaged, and I didn’t know anything about taking care of my hair. Thankfully, this was around the time when people were posting about their techniques and favorite products on YouTube, so I was able to use that as a resource. It’s been 8 years, and I’m still learning every day. Now that I have the money to buy curly products and to get curly cuts, I take a lot of pride and put a lot of effort into my hair care. TikTok has become a huge resource for me, as everyone is on it, and I have an overwhelming number of people I can turn to for advice. Not only can I find people who have a hair texture like mine, but they can show me in real time how products work for them. Pinterest has also improved its algorithm immensely! When I used to search “curly hairstyles,” it would show me white people who gave themselves curls with a curling iron; I’d end up having to search “natural curly hairstyles black girl”. Now, I can search “curly hairstyles” and I get inspiration that actually matches my hair. 

We still have a long way to go, as the CROWN Act has only been passed in 28 of the 50 United States. However, I will say the growth that has now resulted in the online natural curly community has become something I am so happy to be a part of. It is incredibly heartwarming to see videos of non-curly moms learning to care for their curly kids’ hair; or seeing videos of adolescent girls taking pride in their curly hair. It’s gotten to the point where I’m looking to them for advice! I couldn’t be prouder, though. I grew up with girls like me; we all had beautiful curly hair, and we all had it straightened constantly because of the ideologies that were prominent at the time. I am so happy to see the narratives changing. Hopefully, one day, not only will The CROWN Act be passed in all 50 states, but there won’t be a need for the law to be enforced anymore because everyone will love and embrace natural curly hair.