“Mixed Women Have Completely Hijacked The Natural Hair Movement!” Woman Accuses Natural Hair Movement of Texture Discrimination

This social media post has been floating around the internet for the last week, and I think it’s worth discussion.  A woman who goes by the name Tiffany Buttafly posted the following message on social media last week, and it’s got folks pretty divided:

19059563 1243711175750836 6814813999936631653 n

As an influencer with tight type 4 curls, I know for a fact that girls who look like me have far less opportunity for growth in the online natural hair game. There are probably 4-5 girls with 4b-4c hair who routinely collaborate with major brands, meanwhile, there are hundreds of girls with looser curls who routinely have access to those opportunities.

While I still continue to do my reviews and tutorials (Watch this one HERE), I know what time it is when it comes to the online natural hair world, and I don’t expect that it will ever be the market where I am embraced.

aunt jackies stretch review

 

Just take a look at the engagement on the pictures of ladies with tighter curls on this popular natural hair page:

This:

Screen Shot 2017 06 19 at 2.29.39 PM
@chelliscurls

Versus:

Screen Shot 2017 06 19 at 2.29.30 PM
@journeytowaistlength

This

Screen Shot 2017 06 19 at 2.29.53 PM
@jenniferbarimah

Versus this:

Screen Shot 2017 06 19 at 2.29.58 PM
@naturalgyal21

This:

Screen Shot 2017 06 19 at 2.28.40 PM
@markele.dejanae

Versus:

Screen Shot 2017 06 19 at 2.28.36 PM
@jahnimarie

This:

Screen Shot 2017 06 19 at 2.28.27 PM
@dayelasoul

Versus:

Screen Shot 2017 06 19 at 2.28.23 PM
@1lexishair

 

I would argue that the original poster’s argument is flawed in that the issue isn’t so much about the racial identify of the women in the community, but more so about the texture of their hair. I also don’t think it’s the fault of  bi-racial women. I wouldn’t say they’ve high-jacked the movement, but I would say that the beauty industry favors light skin and looser/shiny curls. They also seem to like dark skin women with super long and thick hair. And this isn’t exactly news. I still see women with hair like me going natural and loving it, so I don’t know that biracial women are somehow preventing other naturals from loving themselves. Is texture discrimination frustrating at times? Sure, but I think there is room for all textures. Folks who look like me just have to push harder to break down the barriers and shift the thinking of the masses. We’re here and we’re not going anywhere!

What say you? Sound off below!

Similar Posts

18 Comments

  1. Hi,
    I have 4c hair and I also have a biracial daughter, who’s hair is just as thick and just as right of curls. She struggles with her hair and being natural as much as us girls with 4c hair. The reason I went natural is to teach her that her hair is beautiful. My son embraces his blonde type 4 hair. Who’s to say these girls are biracial. I know some girls with hair like both of those women in the pic and they have black parents. This world is so judgemental and hateful. We need to love each other no matter the skintone and hair type. The fact that this natural movement is being shown everywhere is great. Little girls in commercial or on kids tv shows are natural. More brown women on tv are natural. I love it!

  2. Lydia Sadler says:

    Hijacked is too strong a word; aren’t we all women of color? Hijacked is when a white woman is wearing cornrows and folks act like she is the next IT girl. I have been natural for three years and I have thick, short, kinky hair, with caramel toned skin. So what? I can’t hate on my sisters with “good” hair. At the end of the day, we can rock a style like no other.

  3. Lydia Sadler says:

    Hijacked? Nah. Hijacked is when a white woman wears cornrows and folks act like she is the new IT girl.
    There has always been drama between sisters with “good” hair and sisters like me with short, thick, kinky hair. I say, LET IT GO. No matter the loose or tightness of the curl, a sister can ROCK and style her tresses with class and uniqueness that no one can match.

  4. It will be a happy day indeed when we stop dividing and allowing ourselves to be conquered. Black women come in a million different hues and hair textures. AND it is ALL beautiful. Focus on you and your individual beauty, inside and out. That should keep you occupied and not eyeballing what you think other folks are getting that you are not. #CollassalWasteOfTime #ISupportAllMySistahs

  5. Carolyn Frazier says:

    I feel what you’re saying and you make a good point!

  6. Stop Dividing Us says:

    Mental illness. That poster is the example many have of angry natural hair blacks women. They are mad at relaxed hair, mad at texturized hair, mad at white women or non black women wearing cornrows etc., and now…they are tripping on the mixed girls. For her information, in a world straight hair or hair than can be finger blown straight are THE THING…those mixed chicks hair is made to make them feel nappy. They are embarrassed. Theur hair was a mop, brillo, etc. HOW DARE THAT MENTALLY ILL WOMAN even begin to sound like a damn slave. On the pics, perhaps people don’t like the styles or the color. Bottomline…leave people alone and JUST LOVE YOUR DAMN SELF. Simple.

  7. This absolutely caught me off guard. The girl on the right is Zimbabwean (African) and English, I’ve been following her for a minute now. Truth be told, we are all mixed chicks, no one is exclusively black, brown or white especially if you’re black in America. We love saying that if you’re mixed with black then you’re black until it comes to something like this. I’m just completely disappointed in our young people and the way they think about our culture. Thank you for this post. It’s refreshing.

  8. Rhyvette6 says:

    Being a mixed woman and working with all types of hair, in my experience not everyone’s happy with what they are born with. Going natural isnt a color or a race “thing” its a woman thing, an acceptance thing, and a love for self thing.
    We (mixed girls) arent hijacking anything. We are Just embracing our own hair and the beauty in it like every other woman.
    Our curls may be main stream pretty
    but in this industry alot of women want whats greener on the otherside.
    I wish i had tighter curls and coils. The next lady may wish she had my curls.
    In the end, i can do what i want with it! Briads! Weave! Locs! My hair is as beautiful as i see it ???

  9. Colorism, texture discrimination, and coveting whiteness are all horrendous, hurtful, and impact women far more than men. This means that a dark skinned, 4c sporting woman is the most minimized and criticized example of blackness, even though she is the mother of all humanity.

    That said, phenotypes are not synonymous with genotypes. People need to stop equating “mixed” with a standardized look. I have friends with two black parents, from Africa, with looser curls than mine. There are light skinned women with 4c hair, and darker skinned women with 3b hair. The genes that determine hair texture are not the same set of genes that determine skin tone.

    There is an increasing understandable rage at the erasure of dark skinned women, but it seems to sometimes be channeled in supremely illogical ways. Tying a valid grievance about hair texture discrimination to skin tone weakens the message because it is not a reflection of reality.

    Also, mulatto is a slur and needs to die.

    Mahagony Curls hair vlogger has two black parents, Esperanza Spalding jazz musician does not. Google them to get the idea. One has dark skin and 3c curls, the other is mixed with 4b hair.

  10. Ashley Noel says:

    I’m a multiracial teen who has shoulder length type 3a/3b hair and this is complete bullshit, first of all race has nothing to do with hair texture I’ve seen black women who have looser curls then mixed or white women. I have actually been bullied because I have curly hair the white children in my school didn’t like me because of it and neither did the black children because I was different from everyone in school I was called names and was actually pushed off of the bleachers in my school by a girl for this reason. I went through all of elementary and middle hating myself and my hair and I was mad that I was born with curly hair, when I was in 6th grade I started straightening my hair by the time I got to 8th grade I had to cut off a lot of my hair because I had damaged my hair so much; even then I didn’t started loving my hair until the middle of my freshman year of high school I’ve started taking care of my hair more and now that I’m about to be a junior I’m realizing that all curly hair is beautiful. On the note that you’re saying that it’s about “two black parent sisters and putting down the relaxers” I feel like girls that weren’t able to get relaxers were picked on more because most of the girls in school at that time either had straight hair or permed hair and that made girls who were natural more different and again race has nothing to do with hair texture, and no mixed girls weren’t always told they have “good hair” that was in an era where all curly hair was discriminated. That post is discriminating against mixed girls and throwing them out of the natural hair community even though it was started to help all natural hair girls feel beautiful in their own hair no matter what. we need to stop bashing other women down and instead empower each other. Thank you

  11. Lisa –

    I’ve seen a few stories of influencers like yourself who have filled niches in the beauty industry… You should sell your own products for 4b/4c hair! You know natural tight curls as well as anyone, because you live that life. Plus I know you wouldn’t fall into the “lighter=better” trap…Just a thought, but I’d throw in on a kickstarter.

    1. Thank you!! If I were to start a line it would definitely be a lipstick line. Makeup is way more my lane, and where my heart lies!

  12. Hey everyone! Let me preface this by saying that I have a strange mix of 3B and 3C hair. I completely understand where the argument from the original post is coming from. “Why can’t black women have their hair movement?” Here’s my issue with this argument: I am a very mixed girl with very mixed hair. But I can tell you that I had just about as much trouble liking my hair as anyone else. I was bullied for it. I wished I could have shiny, straight hair like my mom’s, but I couldn’t, and for YEARS this devastated me. It hurts me that not only does this argument invalidate the struggles I faced accepting my own hair, it also indirectly invalidates that, despite being mixed, I’m black, too. My skin is dark. No one would ever call me white. And I’ve struggled with accepting that fact. But their comment doesn’t help that. Anyways, back to hair. Women of all curly hair types have struggled accepting themselves, we may not have had to use relaxer, but I can say that we’ve picked up that God-forsaken flat iron more times than we can count. And that has nothing to do with the color of our skin. Olive Benson, a curly-hair stylist and innovator once said, “Hair is a texture, not an ethnicity.” Simply put, my Puerto Rican-Dominican 3B/C hair looks the same as my friend Lori McIntosh’s 3B hair, despite the fact that she’s Irish and as pale as the moon.

  13. I COMPLETELY understand and agree with what you’re saying. I also believed the natural hair movement was about embracing natural hairtypes that aren’t generally accepted as mainstream. Although there are some black women that have “mixed” textured hair, it’s more common amongst black women to have a corser hair texture. Whether people choose to accept it or not, it does seem like a loser curl pattern is considered “hair goals” verses a kinkier curl pattern. With that said, mixed women OR black women with a looser curl pattern tend to have more admiration on Social Media. Let’s not be ignorant and completely forget about how back in the day, the Stacey Dash and Jasmine Guy hair types with naturally curly hair were considered to have “good hair”. Nowadays the Stacey Dash and Jasmine Guy hair types are acting like going natural for them and embracing their hair is a big deal. Okaaay (sarcasm). So I get what you’re saying. Putting down that perm box and/or flat iron, doing a big chop and rocking our kinky and coily hair is a big deal for black women. Especially since the kinkier, Celie from the Color Purple hair types, have not always been considered “good hair” in mainstream American culture.

  14. Jasmine Jones says:

    Well In @l honesty she is correct. Bi racial is not black. You are bi racial. You can’t be 50% black and 50% white and claim to be a full black women. Everyone is entitled to their own belief. I respect her. A homogeneous Black women hair may be different from a biracial womans hair. But to some black women who have literally fought for their hair as an expression of choice, a biracial woman representing natural hair is an complete insult.

    In Britain Homogeneous Black Women are fired because of their hair.

  15. Ashley James says:

    Hi,
    I’m sorry, but i hate this. I’m a mixed kid with 4c hair who has gotten talked down to my whole life. I never got the to make the decision on whether or not i wanted to go natural because i had Black people come up to my mother and tell her i’m not good enough the way i am. So despite the fact this was written a year ago i take offense for all of the mixed children just like me who are being told by Both races that isn’t okay to wear our own hair or stand up for ourselves. While not all mixed kids have hair like mine, it isn’t fair to keep them from sticking up for themselves. you don’t know what their lives have looked like, and you don’t know how much Crap we get for being mixed. Most of us have to wear weaves until we’re old enough to have the freedom to do our own thing. Sorry, I just think it’s rude to exclude us.

  16. I am mixed German /Nigerian and i have 4b/4c hair.

  17. I think it’s true some.I try to find light skinned women with coily/curly hair and all I seem to get is majority mixed or biracial women wearing there loose curled hair and complaining about what struggles they had.Some might think I’m mixed but I’m not and my hair would look “nappy” if no relaxer or coily when wet with gel.It’s weird that it does seem like biracial women took over the natural hair movement but I’m glad more people are wearing their natural hair.I just hope more light skinned women that have coily hair and not biracial but two black parents and not one white and one black get more attention with brands than biracial females.I want us all to love ourselves too but since being natural since about 2011 I noticed that as the years went by it does look that way some and so I agree with some of what the female said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *