Styling natural hair can take hours at a time thanks to the kinky texture that gives the illusion of being thick and coarse while a lot of afro hair is fine and sensitive to manipulation and heat. This misconception can cause black people to be overly harsh with their hair, causing breakage and other problems with the texture and maintenance. That being said, black people, especially black women, are expected to have their hair done and look put together in public at all times lest they face discrimination.
Having your natural hair “done” is synonymous with using product, manipulating it into a style somehow or using heat. Sometimes, it’s all three and then some, because natural hair can look like anything with proper styling, but just because it can look like anything, doesn’t mean it should have to look like anything other than natural hair to be acceptable. The natural kinkiness is treated like something to tame and change instead of something to embrace and is so engrained in society that if a black person doesn’t want to add any straightening or taming chemicals to their hair it’s called “natural” hair specifically instead of just hair.
Plain afro-textured hair doesn’t look unkempt or out of place in any scenario, and it doesn’t take any styling for natural hair to look like much. Especially since afro hair grows up and out, sometimes all it takes is a few pulls on the curls and a good shake for the natural rounded shape to form on its own, perfect for work, school, going out and anything else a natural person would want to do, natural hair is perfectly fine the way it grows.
