Whats the Natural Scene Like Where You Live?

[likewtr4chklit]

I live in NYC it's pretty heavy here. I see the coolest hairstlyes.

 

[ChristmasCarol]

Atlanta: Everyone and their grandma is going natural. Its like a fad here.Especially women who considered themselves "elite" and in the know. If you are natural you are part of the click. But, of course everyone who is natural looks like they have a relaxer. And, they never bother to tell you they are natural until after they have at least shoulder length hair.

Exactly, that's why it's impossible to know if someone is natural w/o asking them.

 

[BlackMasterPiece]

I live in NYC it's pretty heavy here. I see the coolest hairstlyes.

Soooo true, I get inspiration just walking down the street here....some of the fiercest styles.

*sidenote* I'm changing my facebook status to your siggy quote....Lupe is what hip-hop should be about

 

[so1913]

Soooo true, I get inspiration just walking down the street here....some of the fiercest styles.

*sidenote* I'm changing my facebook status to your siggy quote....Lupe is what hip-hop should be about

And it's almost spring time! I love going out to like brooklyn to shop and to street festivals...always see some awesome natural hairstyles and get some great inspiration!

 

[msdeevee]

I'm in NY too and I have the same observation as BMP.

It is quite common to see naturals everywhere, rocking all kinds of beautiful natural styles. Twists, braids, cornrow updos, big bushy fro's and TWA's and locks down to there.

I find it amazing on this board when I see a thread about natural hair not being acceptable in the corporate world because I have worked with non-profit organizations and law offices where the female lawyers and officers in charge wear their natural hair proudly and with no drama .

I also observe as BMP and sipp that it is more common in more mature or more affluent women.

Seems that in the hood it is very important to have a slick relaxer or even more so all kinds of Rainbow Bright weave.

 

[so1913]

I'm in NY too and I have the same observation as BMP.

It is quite common to see naturals everywhere, rocking all kinds of beautiful natural styles. Twists, braids, cornrow updos, big bushy fro's and TWA's and locks down to there.

I find it amazing on this board when I see a thread about natural hair not being acceptable in the corporate world because I have worked with non-profit organizations and law offices where the female lawyers and officers in charge wear their natural hair proudly and with no drama .

I also observe as BMP and sipp that it is more common in more mature or more affluent women.

Seems that in the hood it is very important to have a slick relaxer or even more so all kinds of Rainbow Bright weave.

I'm also in a corporate environment (Corporate Finance Department). I feel the same way when I see those threads as well. I just think "Dang...I guess I'm fortunate to be where I am". It makes me sad that so many have to struggle with this...I fortunately haven't had to (yet) and hope my hair never becomes an issue when it comes to my employment.

 

[30something]

I live in NYC, natural? Where at!
Where I'm at its relax or weave city. The college girls who got a little money usually got weave down to their backs.. change it ever so often, same for a lot of other college age women. Others who are not in a weaves are in wigs, those are usually older women. Wigs stores are so popular, I went to a wig store with my mom just outside NYC and there were like 6 ladies in there waiting to get helped. Every time I go to a BSS I can't get help because the ladies who work in the store are too busy tending to the women who want the weave hair or to try on a wig. Its all cool, i love my area.. and I really couldn't care less what they got on their hands.

 

[peachykeen]

20something,
That is hilarious! I know its true though. College age black women stay weaved up. When I was in school girls would use their refund check for fusion. Or, use their job money for weave and parents money for school.

 

[RockCreak]

I'm from Maryland (The DMV, DC...MD...VA) I'm starting to see more naturals around here now then ever before.

I agree! I am starting to see a lot more naturals. I also work in corporate and their are a few of us with natural hair. That's the one thing that I do like about my job. They embrace who and what you are. Encourage you to be you, but will not tolerate you being unkept.

I've even been complimented by upper level managers on my new look!

 

[30something]

@ the bolded VERY similar here in NY as well...relaxers are still big in the hoods of NY but in the yuppie upwardly mobile, neighborhoods natural is the way to be.

This must be a Brooklyn thing, I live a "good" (real lack of a better word.....trying to get the point across) section of the Bronx, and naturals are hard to come by. In fact, which I kind of stated in my last post that if they got a little money they spend more on fake hair. You ladies got to tell me where you guys are at in NYC!

 

[Lola Laughs]

I agree! I'm in Atlanta, too and whatever you want to do with your hair...you can find your place

I'm starting to notice "natural" weaves a lot more around these parts too

 

[MonPetite]

Non-existent, essentially. Its few fragments are hotly persecuted.

 

[KrystalClear]

In TX, I see it scattered here and there. In the work place (I work in an office for bank of america), I see some here and there as well. But surprisingly to me at first, women WITH weaves and relaxed type hair, liked my hair when I was 100% natural.

I see a lot of women rocking fades, and I know some of them are because of the Amber Rose fad.

 

[DarkVictory]

side comment- I thought alot of the black women in LA didn't have relaxers. EVERY girl I know from LA doesn't wear relaxers but they keep their hair straightened or wear weaves so you would never know.

That's just it, it's hard to tell because so many ladies wear weaves. Revealed natural hair I don't think is that common.

 

[BlackMasterPiece]

This must be a Brooklyn thing, I live a "good" (real lack of a better word.....trying to get the point across) section of the Bronx, and naturals are hard to come by. In fact, which I kind of stated in my last post that if they got a little money they spend more on fake hair. You ladies got to tell me where you guys are at in NYC!

I hang out in either Brooklyn or Manhattan. In Brooklyn I hang out in: Downtown Brooklyn (ie court street or cobble hill), Williamsburg, DumBo (excellent art exhibits every thursday night). In Manhattan: Union sq, Upper West Side, East Villiage, West Vill, Chealsea, LES. if I go over my gramma's house in the hood where I grew up before we left....thats when I start so see the rainbow weaves and relaxed heads.....otherwise the circles I run in its naturals coming from every direction.

I don't know a thing about the Bronx....thats like another world to me.....too far no offense. Haven't been there in years.

 

[vainღ♥♡jane]

almost none existant. i live in the south and i have only seen maybe 2 natural heads here. alot of chicks have relaxed neck length- shoulder length hair. ♥

 

[30something]

I hang out in either Brooklyn or Manhattan. In Brooklyn I hang out in: Downtown Brooklyn (ie court street or cobble hill), Williamsburg, DumBo (excellent art exhibits every thursday night). In Manhattan: Union sq, Upper West Side, East Villiage, West Vill, Chealsea, LES. if I go over my gramma's house in the hood where I grew up before we left....thats when I start so see the rainbow weaves and relaxed heads.....otherwise the circles I run in its naturals coming from every direction.

I don't know a thing about the Bronx....thats like another world to me.....too far no offense. Haven't been there in years.

HAHA! I don't even remember ever actually being in Brooklyn! Maybe I should check it out, tons of gorgeous natural ladies on here but I really want to see how the average every day women in an area im familiar/can relate to rock their natural hair. A city with almost 9 million I guess you can't expect for it to be homogeneous.

 

[rabs77]

I live in Orange County, CA with very few black peoplem but suprisingly enough I am seeing more and more natural heads. It wouldnt be a stretch for me to say 1 out of 5 of the women I come across are natural. They may not all wear it curly, but you can still tell that they are natural but pressed.

 

[Allandra]

I see a lot of natural heads in my area (work and home).

 

[CurliDiva]

I hate to admit this but many of local naturals I see here look rough! erplexed

They just don't have a feminine "style" (clothes-wise, make-up, body, etc....) so the natural hair look like a neglected, after-thoguht rather than a conscious "I take pride in myself" kind of way, if you know what I mean.

IMO - NYC has the best, fierce-looking (pulled-together) naturals of all shades and lengths on the east coast that I've seen!

 

[tocktick]

Sadly, I don't see a whole lot of naturals. The ones I do see tend to be early-mid teens yet I rarely see younger girls with natural hair these days. Outside of those groups, natural women seem a bit thin on the ground. The ones who are natural tend to have looser textures than me and anyone I would identify as "type 4 a/b".

As far as black hair goes around here, I mainly see weaved up women/wigs (no telling if they're natural but experience tells me they typically aren't - jmho), relaxed women - many of whom have great hair, braids and of course, badly processed hair.

 

[BostonMaria]

Love this thread, BMP!

I live in Massachusetts and I see many naturals in the Boston area. I see everything from TWA's, long curls, locs, twists, etc... Everything from the Bohemian neo-soul lovin types *LOL* down to the female executives here at my job.

I noticed years ago that almost all of my DD's Latina friends did not have perms and rocked their long natural hair. Growing up all of my Dominican friends relaxed their hair though. So its nice to see that at some point we stopped the cycle of relaxing "just cuz" its what you do to your daughters. After I noticed this trend that's when I started to wonder why on earth I was still relaxing my hair. So glad I stopped!

 

[sharifeh]

I live in NY, white area, when I do see blacks, I do see some with "natural" hair lol.

Here in NY, when I was growing up it was never odd for me to see a healthy bsl relaxed head either for example. So, I'm always shocked when I hear some of the stories here.

In Manhattan, I see so many with "natural" hair, and now it's something I look for so I'm sure I notice it even more. And many relaxed heads look pretty good too.

I'm hardly ever in brooklyn anymore, it's soo far. I used to live there too. When I do go there, it's in the hippy areas so yeah I'll see a lot of dreadlocks and twas and stuff.

*sidenote* I'm changing my facebook status to your siggy quote....Lupe is what hip-hop should be about

OT: I love Lupe. He's so underrated.

 

[Miss AJ]

Non existent lol. I'm in New Mexico and so far I've only seen 3 other natural women and all of them are military like me.

 

[sweetpeadee]

Well I around here in Hampton Roads (va beach, norfolk area) I see quite a few naturals but i think it iis because I am now and I just started noticing. But we definitely DO NOT have majority or even half the consensus. And we still get thos"comments". But it is becoming more common, slowly but surely

I just moved from the Hampton Roads area (Virginia Beach) and I didn't see a lot of naturals there! I now live in Greenville, SC (Upstate area of SC) and there are even less naturals! There are plenty of relaxers and weaves...but not many of the women I have spoken with are even thinking about being natural--they have said flat out that they wouldn't want to deal with their natural hair!

 

[Jewell]

Well, ya'll can see where I live from my location. Around here there is a little bit of er'thang, but the most is natural-but-pressed, or relaxed and very healthy-looking at a local, contemporary, largely African-American church here. Depends on what area/suburb. Sometimes I see lots of naturals, other times not. At the nicer, more upscale area mall, I mostly see what appear to be natural-but-pressed heads or relaxed, bouncy, doobie-wrap lookin' heads still. That's good I guess, at least the relaxed heads aren't mainly ate up. There are also a lot of lace-front/FLW around here, and they mostly look good!

Lots of braids around here, if you consider that a "natural style." There is a braid shop literally every 3-4 blocks within the downtown city limits. There is a HUGE population of Africans here, as well as Latinos and East Indians (from India).

I like it, because this place is a large melting pot because of the great colleges/universities, jobs, and the technical/engineering/medical research industries. Plus, we have access to a variety of hair styling salons which have the latest treatments and styles, considering this is a Southern state.

 

[Eritreladiee]

Women in the 3's I'll see sometimes, but women in the 4's Occasionally I'll see a gorgeous head of locs, but beyond that Toronto's not saying much Sometimes I'll be downtown, on campus, wherever and start looking around at black women's hair, all the short eaten up relaxed heads and weaves and depending on my mood I'll get disappointed, angry, or just plain heartbroke and almost wanna approach people like "look, it doesn't have to be like this-- just gimme your email address plz"

There are quite few people on my fotki/youtube mailing list One of my girlies even transitioned for 8 months, but when I went away for a month, I returned to see her relaxed and bleached an off orange colour-- done by her hair dresser mom who supposedly knows so much about hair

Anyway, I wanna come to NYC for some hair porn

 

[Hair2Here]

I live in Philly and it's pretty balanced with naturals, weaves, relaxers and the just don't care hair people.

 

[tyboogie]

Well, ya'll can see where I live from my location. Around here there is a little bit of er'thang, but the most is natural-but-pressed, or relaxed and very healthy-looking at a local, contemporary, largely African-American church here. Depends on what area/suburb. Sometimes I see lots of naturals, other times not. At the nicer, more upscale area mall, I mostly see what appear to be natural-but-pressed heads or relaxed, bouncy, doobie-wrap lookin' heads still. That's good I guess, at least the relaxed heads aren't mainly ate up. There are also a lot of lace-front/FLW around here, and they mostly look good!

Lots of braids around here, if you consider that a "natural style." There is a braid shop literally every 3-4 blocks within the downtown city limits. There is a HUGE population of Africans here, as well as Latinos and East Indians (from India).

I like it, because this place is a large melting pot because of the great colleges/universities, jobs, and the technical/engineering/medical research industries. Plus, we have access to a variety of hair styling salons which have the latest treatments and styles, considering this is a Southern state.

I'm in the same area, I see a lot of locs though. Could be the areas I frequent. I don't see a lot of type 4 naturals (unless they are homosexual as someone stated earlier, no offense to anyone). Yeah, you are right we do have a little bit of erythang lol. But mostly women are in weave, braids, relaxers and wigs. I'm transitioning by the way. I wear my hair straight mostly. But the last two weeks I have been rocking twist outs and I'm loving it.

 

[UrbainChic]

Anyway, I wanna come to NYC for some hair porn

NYC is hair porn central. Just walk around, its great.

I don't have anything to add that hasn't been said by the other NYers, but one of my friends was commenting on weave use in LA-- and how its so much more commonplace for all ethnicities-- to the point that natural hair on anyone of any ethnicity is uncommon.

I've only been there once and I was working with a hippie-dippie crowd during the entire stay, so there was not even a plastic bottle in my sight, do you LAers find my friend's description to be true?