#naturalhair

“It was a question of convenience. I like swimming and working out, so I wanted hair that looks good but is easy to manage on a day to day basis,” Wahu Kagwi explains in an article in Healthy Woman three weeks ago titled Natural Suits me. Walking through Nairobi streets today one notices that Wahu is not the only one who has made the move to natural hair with dreadlocked manes and bouncy afros walking by every few minutes.

This shift from weaves and chemicals to #teamnatural is significant because it coincides with other palpable shifts currently taking place in Nairobi that mark a rise in pride, appreciation and significance of our past, our culture and our heritage.

To appear acceptable and well maintained for a long time meant using chemical relaxers, hot combs and straighteners to tame the unruly locks of natural Kenyan hair. Kinky or curly hair was looked at with disdain in Nairobi and society judged those who bore dreadlocks or afros as ruffians, hooligans, druggies and hippies. Parents and relatives worked hard and spent money to ensure that their daughters and sons grew up knowing that unless it was short natural hair was never acceptable.

This perspective is arguably related to a mentality imposed by and during colonialism that uncompromisingly said anything African was backward and everything English was good. So the inheritors of these biases used braids and perm and treatment to hide the natural locks, all in the name of an inherited notion of acceptability necessary for survival in turbulent and terrifying times.

Now however #teamnatural and #naturalhair have been trending on twitter as the aptly named Natural hair Movement hits the Nairobi streets. Celebrities, businessmen and women as well as hippies and journalists are embracing their natural hair for many reasons, most of which have nothing to do with the past and everything to do with the present.

By Ondi Madete