As a little girl growing up in a predominantly white community, I quickly became ashamed of my curls.
Most of my classmates had this gorgeous straight hair, and the ones who did have naturally wavy hair straightened it with ease, every single morning. I didn't get that luxury. Not only is my hair ridiculously thick, but it was long so it took me about an hour an a half each time I wanted to straighten it. So for 13 years, Kindergarten - 12th grade, I wore my hair slicked back into a bun. It wasn't that other girls hated it, it was that I hated it.
I remember one day running late for a choir concert and rushing into the school so fast that my wet hair fell out of its bun, I was so preoccupied with not being late that I didn't even realize it was down until I came bursting through the auditorium doors and heard a collective gasp, followed by multiple classmates telling me to wear it down. They liked it, hell...they loved it, but for some reason I never did. I honestly can't pin point if it was the curliness I hated or the voluminousness of it all. I mean, even with the right product it gets pretty dang big, so I wore it up every.....single.....day.
It wasn't until college that I started getting 100% comfortable in my own skin. I went to a private art school right after graduation that taught me a lot in the year that I attended. Although I ended up eventually leaving that school, the overwhelming support of embracing your true self that I fed off of on a daily basis really stuck with me. The students I was surrounded by had piercings from head to toe, tattoos, multi-colored hair and some of the most epic personal style I've ever seen in such a concentrated area. Now that I think about it, honestly, I was one of the most mainstream students there....my curly hair was probably one of the least impressive things they saw on a day to day basis. It was that lack of individuality, weirdly enough, that got me comfortable enough with wearing my hair down in the first place. It was like I wasn't being noticed for my hair for the first time in my life. By the time I left that school, the comfort in wearing my hair down and in it's natural state turned into like...and pretty soon like turned into love.
Now, at 23 years old, I can't stop embracing that natural beauty of the lion's mane worth of black curls I have atop my head. I realize after almost 2 decades of hiding it, that this is what women pay for. The volume, the curls, the buoyancy....it all costs money to someone, so why spend the time straightening it out?
When dove released this #loveyourcurls campaign I could relate to a T. I remember being the same age as the very first little girl they show, and thinking the exact same thing she thought. But you know what, it's time to change that. Its time to embrace what we have and show those little curly haired girls that they are just as beautiful as the one's who have straight hair. Let's lead by example and let it all down! Its time to stop focusing our time and money on relaxers and flat irons and buy product that defines our curls and keeps them in tact all day!
I love what I was born with, I love my hair, I love my curls. And you should too.
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In honor of the Dove #loveyourcurls campaign.....some of my greatest hair moments :-)
Shop Smart. Look Chic. Stay Stylish.....
Love Your Curls.
XoXO
-Viktoria
