Let me introduce myself: I’m Whitney a daydreamer from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. My passions are blogging, photography and shopping. In November 2013 I started blogging for a Dutch website focused on women, www.vrouwen.nl. One month later I decided to start my fashion blog, WhitneyFromTheBlogue. In May my friend, Caressa, and I decided to share our passion for hair with the world on CurlsnLashes.
At the age of five I remember a white gunk-like substance appearing on my hair – probably from product build-up. It affected the texture of my hair immediately. My mother, who was tired of me hiding in the garden whenever I had to wash my hair, decided to find a permanent “solution”. She relaxed my hair. When moving from Curacao to Rotterdam I was surrounded by people with straight hair. None of them had curls like me. Nevertheless, I noticed a few people who were wearing their hair curly and I remember me thinking their hair was beautiful.
As a child I developed the belief that my natural hair was ugly. When growing up I saw people being bullied because of their hair texture and that all stayed with me. I knew what caused my insecurity, so it was time for me to work on it!
As maturity started kicking in (around 18) I decided I was sick and tired of applying relaxer to my hair. I started developing strong views and beliefs around hair care. One of them was that I want others to accept me for the real me, the natural me. Around that time, an increasing amount of people decided to transition right here in Rotterdam. My immediate family and friends were not happy with my decision; my mother told me that I would really damage my hair. “Mom, I may not know my hair, but I will learn from scratch,” I responded. My mom and I were basically throwing arguments to each other until I decided to stop. I knew she would learn from my experience as well.
Last year I noticed that my curls were becoming smaller and my hair shorter. I started becoming unhappy with my curls. This resulted in a lack of self confidence. Then I started thinking: Why was this happening to me? Where did this insecurity come from?
I decided to really analyze what was going on with me and realized that my self confidence regarding my hair was affected at that very moment I started getting my hair relaxed. As a child I developed the belief that my natural hair was ugly. When growing up I saw people being bullied because of their hair texture and that all stayed with me. I knew what caused my insecurity, so it was time for me to work on it!
I usually wear my hair in a bun because of the weather here in the Netherlands… Frizz is always guaranteed. However, I decided to learn about and embrace my hair by wearing my curls down more. Guess what? This was the best idea ever! I’m now walking around proudly with my curly fro. To summarize, Texture does not define the beauty of your hair, but its health does.
TIPS FOR ACCEPTING YOUR NATURAL HAIR TEXTURE
- Follow vloggers and bloggers with hair textures similar to yours. Curls Understood™ created a series of vloggers that you should follow based on texture and volume.
- Understand your hair’s attributes and what that means for you. Don’t try and replicate what others are doing and expect the same results. Sometimes those with hair that looks like yours behaves differently.
- Remind yourself what makes your hair unique. Everyone’s texture does something the next person’s can’t! Does your hair have the ability to shrink thus giving you a new length to rock? Can you sport a big ass afro (BAA)? Can you create an amazing wash ‘n’ go in minutes? Everyone’s texture does something special – OWN IT!
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MY NATURAL HAIR
Photo Credit: Tribal Gem / V. Opoku
