Natural Hair, Do Care

Chris Rock was prompted to direct his documentary “Good Hair” (2009), he has said, after his young daughter asked him, “Why don’t I have good hair?”

In the documentary, he talks about the lengths that many black women go to in order to straighten their hair, including using harsh chemicals or enduring the pain of getting weaves. And then there’s the issue of natural black hair discrimination in many American boardrooms and schools.

So it makes sense that a new magazine, CRWN, is coming out that celebrates natural black hair — if that’s how black women want to wear it. And from there, CRWN hopes to inspire conversation about “the black woman in her totality,” according to Lindsey Day, the editor-in-chief of CRWN.

Afros and black hair worn naturally were part of the Black Power movement of the late ’60s and ’70s, a way of telling white America that “Black is beautiful.”

CRWN is an example of a couple trends we’re following, including Refreshed Classics, in that this neo-natural hair movement is a return to natural black hair as a political statement; as well as Unapologetic beauty, or boldly owning one’s choices and behaviors without concern for judgment.