ALLURE MAGAZINE GIVES NON-AFRICANS TIPS ON HOW TO KEEP AN AFRO HAIR

Who would have thought that having African hair would one day become a trend among the non-black community? Do you remember the Rachael Dolezal case of just a few months ago? For those who don’t know her, she was the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People but people didn’t know she was actually fully Caucasian but pretended for years to be white including rocking Afro hair and becoming president of a black society. It’s even more shocking because only a few years ago, almost every young girl wanted the straight Brazilian, Moroccan, Peruvian hair and till date, majority of black girls still pay 100s of pounds for it.

Well its official, Afro hair is not just a trend which a lot of black girls have in the last few years been rocking, Caucasians can now turn their straight hair into Afro hair, thanks to tips published in Allure magazines last edition.

According to Chris McMillan, the hairstylist interviewed for the article said
“An Afro style is not an introvert’s hairstyle. It’s ballsy and powerful ”Chris McMillan.

But, how is the Afro community taking this? One social media user wrote:
“We did not borrow European standards it was imposed onto us. Now they want to use the very thing they made us dislike about ourselves for fashion trends… cultural appropriation”

Another said
“There have been numerous situations where black women are not even allowed to wear their natural hair due to the job demands. There have been young girls threatened to be suspended or expelled from school for wearing their natural hair in braids, neat locs or afros. The reality is that eurocentric beauty ideals have indeed been forced on black women and young girls and they have been threatened with losing their jobs or being kicked out of school for not conforming …especially in the USA.”

For me it is a bit of a difficult one, on one hand it is flattering that they are copying our style especially as we have over time straightened our hair, purchased Morrocan, Peruvian hair etc but at the same time, when you think of the hassle a lot of Africans have had to face for rocking their natural hair including Rhonda Lee, a TV presenter who was sacked last year because she refused to get rid of her afro hair, it then becomes questionable why all of a sudden it should become a trend amongst a community that has taunted it for a while.
What do you think? Is it cultural appropriation or are you flattered by this new development?

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