How God helped me to embrace my natural hair

Writer Maxine Harrison shares her journey of embracing her natural hair in a world shaped by European beauty standards. Through faith and self-acceptance, she discovers the beauty and worth in how God uniquely created her.

In the Black community, embracing your natural hair is often a complex journey. Living in a Western world that platforms European beauty standards, embracing natural hair and all its kinks and coils often becomes a journey of self-discovery — one that reveals how God has uniquely made us. From “nappy” ’a derogative term used to describe afro hair textures as untamed and hard to manage to “unkempt,” these are some of the negative adjectives used to describe Afro hair textures in comparison to European beauty standards. And I was guilty of falling into this trap, too.