For a lot of women, especially African women, curling, perming, relaxing and heat styling are slowly going out as we are starting to embrace more natural hairstyles. This has started a kind of natural hair movement.
I also joined the bandwagon when I decided to go all natural and stay away from harsh chemicals. Such harsh chemicals damage the hair although they help women achieve styles associated to Western hairstyles.
More women are returning to their roots
One day, I followed a friend to the hairdressers and noticed how the place was not as busy as I remembered it to be. Turns out, I wasn’t the only one who went all out with being natural. There were so many other women!
It was not difficult to deduce that the swift shift to go all natural with twists, braids and locks was killing business. Women have caught on to the advantages of keeping their natural hair. For most women staying natural keeps their hair healthy.
Chemicals can lead to irreparable damage often taking years before the hair can go back to its healthy self. Staying natural gives women the opportunity to let their hair grow longer and fuller. Even though one of the downsides is the difficulty in maintaining the hair, especially if you have kinky hair like mine.
Personally I find maintaining my natural hair a lot much cheaper than spending money on products that will only damage my hair, not to talk about paying the hairdresser who will apply the products that will do the damage.
The convenience of taking care of my hair right from the comfort of my home is priceless. The same goes for several other women. Thanks to the numerous tutorials on YouTube on managing and styling the natural hair, there is information everywhere.
This is a revolution threatening hundreds of hairdressers and those in the beauty industry right now. What is the future of the beauty hair industry if more and more women decide to transition to natural hairstyles? From what I see, that future is seriously threatened.
YouTube videos showing women just how to maintain natural hair and hair blogs recommending the exact products to help provide the needed treatment for your hair are pushing hairdressers to the sidelines. As more people are picking up on the trend, all the focus is on natural hair products and natural hairstyles.
The way forward
I believe the beauty hair industry needs to catch up on the natural hair trend and invest more of their time and expertise on promoting natural hair and how to make the most of it. Our hair is our crown and should be treated as such, not buried under weaves permanently.
The natural hair movement is here to stay. So hairdressers better catch up.
What are your thoughts on this article?
