Helping Your Daughter Feel Proud To Have Natural Hair
As parents and mothers one of the things we strive to do is to encourage confidence and self-love into our children, especially our daughters.
Growing daughters up to love themselves from their head to their feet with or without blemishes, birthmarks, freckles, long hair or short and whatever shade on the colour spectrum, allowing our daughters to blossom and see the real them is a serious task. But we must also teach them to love and respect others without judging, by looking at the inner beauty rather than the outer shell.
So you’re fussing with your hair before rushing to work, are you worried your natural hair is not corporate enough while your daughter looks on, seeing and hearing your doubt? Another common scenario is the scolding of an older matriarch while combing your hair as a child of hair ‘too tough, or too coarse’ – the good hair, bad hair syndrome. Are we passing on this same trait to our daughters?
Well you can start by introducing a range of children’s books to your daughter on natural hair such as, Big Hair, Don't Care by Crystal Swain-Bates, Emi's Curly Coily, Cotton Candy Hair
by Tina Olijade and Daddy Do My Hair?: Beth's Twists
by Tola Okogwu just to name a few.
Do you remember when your daughter was at the toddler age and you added rainbow coloured clips
to intricately braided cornrows while she slept? Or that feeling of artistic contentment when you found the perfect ribbons to put in her two little afro puffs to match that cute outfit? But that feeling starts to pass as the transition of tween to teen approaches. We run out of patience to do all those styles and our daughters who are now coming into their own and being influenced by pop culture now want to flip their hair like their pop idols Little Mix
and Fifth Harmony
. Nothing is wrong with that. We’ve all had a hairbrush
mike and towel half-wrapped flipping and whipping around our heads moment singing in front of the mirror
. But are our daughters self-assured young girls who can admire the girl groups and yet confidently appreciate and wear a flat twist when going to school and a cute funky frohawk when going out with friends.
We can encourage our daughters to wear natural styles by first being confident ourselves when wearing natural hairstyles. Be experimental with how you do your hair, no matter the texture, loose or tight curls our natural hair is so very versatile and very much admired. Yes, wear it loud and proud! When trawling through the internet looking at the entertainment pages show your daughter the latest natural hair trends on the famous and not so famous entertainers – Beyonce
rocking an afro, Solange wearing a twist-out or maybe Etana showing a sophisticated natural updo. Help your daughter do easy natural hairstyles and if you’re not the creative type get a hairdresser friend, yes we all have that one hairdresser friend to help you out at a natural hair slumber party. This will make it fun rather than a chore and what could make it even more fun could be the diversity and ethnicity of her friends. They too can take part and appreciate the beauty and versatility of natural hair and the many styles that can be created. YouTube tutorials are another fantastic aid. So go on, go practice some natural hairstyles on each other.
Happy Styling!
Embrace Your Inner AfroDeity
Zunammie K.
1 comment
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