My Reaction to the POPSUGAR “Natural Hair” Article

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LaToya Harris

LaToya Harris is a natural hair blogger and journalist from NJ, but she currently lives in MS. She is also the creator of 1BlessedNatural Mag, a blog magazine that recognizes natural hair and empowers Black women. Ms. Harris has been natural for 6 years.

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My Reaction to the POPSUGAR “Natural Hair” Article

Image collaged from POPSUGAR

On June 18th, POPSUGAR posted an article about natural hair but did not feature one Black woman. This has a lot of people’s blood boiling! So, what is wrong with this picture? First, we had to read about folks calling Bantu Knots, mini buns . Then, we watched Shea Moisture do a commercial about natural hair and leave out coiled textured hair. The problem with these pictures is the same as Egyptian movies that only contain white actors. Whitewashing.

The article originally titled “These 3 Women are Making a Serious Case for Rocking Your Natural Hair”, featured 3 white women talking about how they came to embrace their “natural hair.” Each woman’s hair was in the category of thick, frizzy, or “textured”. After POPSUGAR received backlash, they changed the title to “These 3 Women are Making a Serious Case for Not Processing Their Hair.” Good job.

The thing I’m trying to understand is how did the publication do this. I know I shouldn’t even be surprised. Surely, they know that the natural hair movement refers to women of color not perming their hair. Also, along with it comes the weight of being discriminated against because you don’t fit a European standard of beauty. This has occurred throughout history. That struggle is missing from the article. Women of color are missing from the article.

When you go on the “Natural Hair” section of the site, it contains several articles about Black women and natural hair. This brings us to the following questions: What is the reason for excluding Black women from the very thing they’ve lead?

My 19-year-old niece’s first reaction to the article was to laugh! She asked me was it from a satirical site. When I told her it wasn’t her eyes widened. “Well, it looks like a joke. They specifically had a photo shoot for it too!” she laughed.

By now, I guess we should never be shocked that we’re excluded. If you look at history, you would see the pattern. This makes sites like the Natural Haircare News even more necessary! Take note, POPSUGAR!

Author: LaToya Harris

“Changing attitudes about natural hair” is what we do at Natural Haircare News. Through informative articles, podcasts and videos, we go beyond just sharing the latest advice and tips on kinky, curly, wavy haircare – We shake things up and focus on the realities of wearing our hair natural.