About three to four times a year, I sit down and straighten my hair.
And. Every. Single. Time. People. Get. Weird.
Hear me out, it’s a different kind of weird. For context, my Dominican dad’s side is full of curly hair and my Honduran mom’s side has completely straight hair. So naturally, my hair just decided to embrace both. I’m literally saying that my inner hair is wavy and making its best attempt to be straight, while my outer hair is super cute curls. If we were to throw my hair somewhere on the hair chart, I’d say I’m a 2B/2C depending on the humidity.
Anyways, back to the story. Every single time I straighten my hair, it gets a lot of attention. My coworkers will compliment how pretty I am with my straight hair; if I have a good performance at work or school, people will comment “It’s the good luck your straight hair gives you,” and I often get more attention from guys when my hair is straight. The thing is, I only ever straighten my hair because my natural hair requires an extensive routine to maintain every day. So some days, I straighten my curls solely because I know I have a long week ahead of me.
Despite these facts, I actually think I look best with my natural hair. I’ve gone on a LONG hair journey, the beginning of which consisted of me straightening my hair every week in middle school because my predominantly white school made me believe curly or wavy hair was not attractive. As an early teen, I envied girls who woke up in the morning with naturally straight hair. 10 years later, and I take care of my hair as much as possible to give myself the healthiest of curls.
As an adult, I don’t think the people around me are trying to be rude about my natural hair, but I do think there’s still a strong stigma that only straight hair is beautiful. I know many women in my life with gorgeous hair who live their lives trying to fit into society’s Euro-centric definition of good hair. It’s so odd going most of the year with my natural hair, and only when my hair is straight, my accomplishments that week are attributed to how great my straight hair is.
And this happens all the time in pop culture and social media. One of my biggest bones to pick with the Harry Potter movies is how even though Hermione is supposed to have big, wavy hair, her mane becomes tamed over the years to these curls that were done with a curling iron. It was so cool to see a lead character have hair that somewhat resembled mine, but that was quickly stripped away from me. But at least TV now is starting to embrace natural hair as well.
My hair isn’t pretty only when it’s straight, and it does not make or break my beauty, so embrace those damn curls and show off your natural hair.