Among the many
beautiful photos that I post on the Instagram page something started to jump out at
me. It seemed like the photos with longer, straightened or curlier natural hair
were getting more likes than those with shorter, kinkier and less defined hair.
I couldn't help but think: is there separation in the natural hair community?
I decided to do a bit
of a social experiment. Using the IG page, I posted a photo with a woman
sporting medium length locs. Directly after, I posted a photo of a girl with
waist length, curly locs. It seemed like more people favored the long locs.
Within 40 minutes the long locs received 88 likes and the other was stuck at 23
for days. Besides hair, there was something else that jumped out at me.
It seemed like the
girls with lighter skin complexions received more likes than those with darker
skin. I posted a photo of a girl with long, curly hair and a fair complexion.
Instagram notifications blew up with 150 likes within 20 minutes. Afterwards, I
posted a photo of a girl with the same hair length but a darker skin tone; that
photo received 50 less likes. Both had beautiful long and curly hair but
different skin colors. Could it be that women with lighter skin are still seen
as being more beautiful? Even in the hair community?
I feel like there is
in fact a separation in the hair community. The longer or the curlier the hair
is equivalents to the attractiveness. Women tend to admire beautiful long hair
sported by Naptural85 and HeyFranHey rather than the short hair they are
starting with. Unknowingly, ladies compare and yearn for the beautiful mane
that will validate their beauty. My number one hair rule is to not compare your
hair. By comparing yourself to someone else you are self-speculating.
Self-speculation can lead to a decrease in confidence and I do not want that
for anyone. It's fine to like someone's hair or even have hair crushes but it
becomes a problem when you begin to love your hair less.
At this point it is
no secret that most people are unknowingly more attracted to someone with
longer hair or lighter skin. Trends like #TeamNatural or #TeamRelaxed prove
that we separate ourselves from one another. A contradiction is what I call it.
We start wearing our hair in it's natural state to be closer to who we are and
not what society wants us to be yet we break ourselves down even further
