Black Hairstyles Gallery

i read an article in essence magazine about the way black women are portrayed negatively in hip hop and had this whole eloquent blog entry prepared, affirming the piece. but as i sat down to write, i was just too tired to talk about it. one more blog entry about black women and hip hop is not going to help. we've said all we can say. but maybe putting up pictures of beautiful natural haired black women will. i'm hoping it will. beauty is politics. hair is politics. and i hope this site paints a picture of black women that is virtually absent from the media: women who are naturally beautiful, not ascribing to the media's representation of black femininity, and proud of who they are.

THURSDAY NIGHT Norman's Mom says goodbye to the locs. The cutting begins (that's me in the green.) FRIDAY MORNING After a looong shower and plenty of scalp scrubbing.... a head full of shiny black curls emerged. Here Norman is, on his way to the barber shop at 8 am to get it lined up. LATER THAT WEEK Okay: DRASTIC CHANGE. From neo-soul looking dude to pretty boy. THE CONCLUSION This whole experience taught me a lot. I definitely like being the long-haired one in the relationship again. But I respect Norman's "it's just hair" attitude. I always complain about how hard my natural hair is to deal with. Norman loves my hair. I would NEVER EVER cut off 9 inches of hair. Norman did. He has a far healthier relationship with hair than I do. But, I often suspect that my relationship with hair would be healthier... or at least more 'normal', if I hadn't ingested so many lies about my hair over the years. I am still learning the basics: natural hair is equiva...

rachel: NC artist... dope natural hair So I started profiling Rachel in the previous post. She's a North Carolina based artist whose work is really powerful. She's worn her hair in a TON of different ways over the past 17 years — from backlength locs to a bald head. I asked her to share her photos and her philosophy.

Jaybaby's box braid style as featured on Nov. 14, 2008 So, one day, I am hanging out with a friend of mine, and her college friend. “Did you know that L blogs about natural hair?,” my friend says. “Really?” her college friend replies. “I’m natural.” “Yeh,” I say, looking sideways at college friend’s hair. “I do. It’s interesting.” College friend's hair is straight, maybe 3 or 4 inches long, with straw-like texture. College friend asks for hair advice. Says she wants to stop flat ironing it every morning, but doesn't know which other styles to try. “Oh man," I think to myself. ”She should definitely check out the Monday Style Icon section, there are tons of ide--" “Except that I don’t like how twists look on me. Or box braids. Or cornrows. Really, I don't like anything except a fro,” says college friend. [insert L's blank stare] "Oh okay," says L. "Just make sure it's well-moisturized."