Natural hair had a serious and fabulous elevation this year! This was a year full of creativity, inclusivity and natural beauty overall. According to PopSugar, “Above all the glam (and not so glam) moments of the year, one thing is for sure: 2017’s cup was overflowing with #blackgirlmagic,” and we can’t help but to agree!
This year, Black women showed the the entire world that our hair is more beautiful than how it was previously perceived, and our pride is growing more widely Every.Single.Day. Despite society’s angst to suppress our natural beauty and change the way we’re viewed for wearing our curls straight from our scalps, we have managed to educate and defend our beauty way more often than not in 2017. Our no-nonsense policy about our hair (Hey, Solange!) has trickled over into social media down to quite a few publications, and we are relishing these moments blissfully and proudly.
We’ve selected a few celebs (it was so hard to choose just ten!) who shone brightly and showed the world how its done, naturally. Taraji P. Henson gave us powerful vibes with ALL the Proud Mary promo (still patiently waiting!), and Zendaya, despite the mixed feelings of fans on social media, continued to give us LOOKS again, and again, and again. We saw Yara Shahidi blossom into a beautiful, woke, young queen, and witnessed Gabrielle Union’s testimony about transitioning to her natural hair despite her (literal) addiction to relaxing her hair and demand to fit ‘beauty standards’ in previous years.
We do have one question, however: How does Janelle Monae never fall off this list? Also, how did Sanaa Lathan convince all of us to shave our heads in one post? The communal sense of natural hair on social media has been welcoming and encouraging in many aspects, and these women are examples of that. Kerry Washington spoke out about sentiments we all experience (and eventually exude) by wearing our tresses the natural way, describing them as acts of “unconditional self-love.” Teyonah Pharris from Empire gave us much life and Issa Rae broke Twitter a couple times with her honesty and outlooks on her Insecure character, all the while donned in natural curls, goldenly highlighted.
A round of applause to these ladies for having the strength and dignity we need to continue and our youth needs to see as they grow, too! They ROCKED 2017!
