They Told Me Not All Black Girls Could Wear Natural Hair

“Not all Black girls can wear natural hair” is a line I have heard one too many times -- or another line, “Aww, natural hair looks soo good on you, but nah it doesn’t suit me.” And if I’m honest, I completely understand the thought mentality behind it, because I was once like this too, but as I started to dig into black history and saw the part “hair” played on black females' self-esteem, I couldn’t help but get passionate about it and decide this will not be the same mentality I will instill onto my own child.

And this gave me the inspiration to write "The Crown" -- have a listen.

"The Crown"

It’s amazing to see how much the natural hair movement has grown over time

But you still get people saying ignorant lines like

Not all black girls can wear natural hair

That saying had me replaying

The memory when I first told my aunt

I was going to stop using relaxer

She looked at me with a confused face

To say

“Why the change, I don’t understand

Afros are hard to maintain,

or even attract a man”

I guess you can call me a rebel child

Because that gave me more ammunition

To go against a system

That had ingrained her brain

With a false proclaim

That natural hair was a problem

Something to resist

I had to insist it was for myself and my health

So when I say, when young black girls say “we are fearfully and wonderfully made”

It will be played and replayed in our minds so much

You will never feel inclined to conformity

It scorns me to know

We still show, self hatred in places we are not ready to admittedly face yet

Hair is just one of them

But in this one I won’t back down

I wear my hair fitted like a crown on purpose

Unapologetic of our status we are Queens

See I had to change my way of thinking for my unborn child

So she can look in the mirror and see her afro as ordinary

No shame

Not the stigmatized afrocentric extraordinary experiment to explore

Mothers remember your face will be the first face your daughter comes to adore

So please be an example

And open the doors to her mind

Because we are in a mental war

When I say we are in a mental war

It is with the ideology that has been stored in our minds and attacked us since birth

Time to be re-born and challenge the concept of beauty on this earth

I pray my child will not have to use her hair as a shield in the battlefield

Her heritage surpasses the chains that contains poison

She Links to kingdoms and queendoms that built empires dressed in rubies and sapphires

So she’ll never need to wear the lies of a western disguise,

to be seen as that precious ruby in my eyes

She won’t cling to idea that hair needs to be european, malaysian or asian

For society’s acceptance

she won’t be blinded by this deception

Why are we so obsessed with this perception

And you may talk about loving your black skin your in

But if you discard the hair it brings you are not an exception

Natural hair gets a positive reception from people outside our own race

But some of us still carry its rejection, Why?

For so long we have been attracted to images in media

Displayed all around us

Hairstyles that’s laid flat surrounds us

To manage our kinks and naps

We damage it with chemicals and glued in weave tracks

Causing receding hairlines

As we mentally recede back in time of inferiority

When we had no authority

Trying to blend in because you believe you are the minority?

Longing for the approval of the supposed majority

Just remember to love yourself and your own is your main priority

It is a thorn in me

Seeing how perms links to fibroids, thinning hair, balding spots and all sorts

Making black girls emotionally and physically sick  

But yet we still stick with it

I do not want to use this platform to preach or push

Emotional blackmail

But when that black male tells me

When my own friend who is black resales me false tales that

“natural hair looks good on you, but it is not for everybody”

Just think x3

there is a possibility that you will reproduce one day

May it not be the same lie you play to your offspring

Because you know that they cannot run away from their skin

Thinking if they straighten their hair to fit in, they can win

But it will bring a string of more self-deprecation

“Natural hair does not suit everybody” - that doesn’t even make sense

How can what is on you, not be for you!

No other race has had to put their hair through this tireless case

That we still place ourselves … in

In that one line you question God’s design

You have power to redefine beauty for the next generation

But instead you assist with our own decline

See when I finally took sometime to retrace our history

The mystery of our race

That we still found it difficult to embrace

Our God given position in this place

Did the willie lynch syndrome really do a number on us that strong,

Because they tried to destroy us before

But our ancestors came through with a mighty raw

So why do we still feel that your natural self is wrong

We still strut along

Covering our head with weaves and extensions

Rejecting how our own hair is an extension of ourselves

And don’t get me confused or misunderstood

I love being creative and different with our hair

So please continue to rock all the different hairstyles out there with good care

But if you can’t stand the stare when you hair is laid bare it will be you that tears us down

Hair is a black womans trade

We were creative with our hair

Before being colonised or made into slaves

Black people Introduced braids, locs, straighteners and weaves

Madame C J Walker - A black hair business woman

A beautiful legacy she leaves

Black woman paved the way

Black woman Came and changed the game

So when the white washed world try and claim -  boxer braids as their own

Remember black girl with african hairstyles, we own that throne

Never let it be shame that’s shown, or disown our history that is in the hearts of our homes

Don’t sit there and moan about cultural appropriation

You take back what can only ever be OURS

Hold your head high showing no humiliation

Afro hair no other race can ever replicate

You demonstrate your not afraid to do you

When you showcase your afro hair do

No more can they ignore

The lionesses roar

But simply adore her crown and beauty

For all of the nations to see

It was a Black woman that birthed all humanity  

So loving your crown and all its glory

Is something this humanity needs

Instead it feeds of a negative portray

And we stay in it

And we use our tongues to say

“not all black girls can wear natural hair”