Real Housewives of Atlanta reality star Kandi Burruss has begun her natural hair journey and we are here for it!
On a recent Instagram reel, the Xscape singer showed off her stylish heatless do, and said she notices a “difference” since going natural.
“I’ve been dedicated to these natural styles for the last few months thanks to @darealbbjudy & @kaleidoscopehairproducts! I haven’t used a flat iron at all. Clipping off these dead ends & trying to let my hair get healthy again! I’m seeing a difference! It’s cyber Monday! Y’all should stock up on #MiracleDrops,” she captioned the post.
She further went on to explain that while going on her natural hair journey, she loves a nice protective style, including adding extensions to her hair. When she does add extensions, she likes to keep her hair moisturized with Kaleidoscope Hair Product’s Miracle Drops to maintain her crown’s health.
“The hair and scalp oil is filled with essential oils to combat dry scalp, aid in hair growth, and offer a lightweight shine to hair,” reads a statement on the hair oil’s website.
“The drops [are] the truth,” Kandi fervently stated. She went on to challenge her followers to go heatless. “Get you some! And try it with me, honey. We going without the heat.”
Before the natural hair phenomenon arose during the beginning of social media days, the movement gained traction in the 1960s and 1970s after leading women in Hollywood began wearing their hair in Afros on movie sets and red carpets. Famed actresses like Pam Grier were one of the first women to embrace the natural style, and helped to cement an iconic look that would be remembered for decades to come.
“In the 1970s, natural hair was essentially like a resistance to Eurocentric standards of beauty, kind of in line with the social and racial justice movements that were happening at that time,” said Quani Burnett, an inclusion strategist and creator of beauty4brownskin.
There are parallels between then and now. With the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, more women have begun to embrace their natural hair as a symbol to represent Blackness and Black identity.
But there was resistance from some, including one naturalista, who admitted that the natural hair movement came at an impressionable time in her life. She was in college and wasn’t sure if she was ready to make the transition at the time, she recalled.
“I think once the natural hair movement started, I was in college and I kind of felt a little pressure to go natural,” The Cut journalist Asia Ware told Yahoo Life. “I was at an HBCU, you know? I would get to see a lot of women who wore their natural curls and all the things and I wanted to, but I was like, ‘college doesn’t feel like a good time to transition.’” When she graduated, she says, “I was like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna go natural.’”
Of course, there are some women who have decided to continue relaxing their hair. The reasons vary, including the time and upkeep that comes with managing natural hair. For others, they simply prefer how looser curl patterns and straight hair frame their faces.
“The past year, I was just like, I do not like being natural. I work out every day. I also have work events every day where I have to have my hair done and all the things, and it just stopped making sense for me,” said Ware, who went back and forth between natural and relaxed throughout her hair journey.
Whether you are on the natural or relaxed side, “Black women are allowed to have a choice,” she said. “And also, we don’t all want to look alike. I think that the narrative is certainly changing into ‘just give Black women grace.’”
