What do you consider natural hair (in response to another thread)

B

Brownie

Well-Known Member
What do you consider natural hair? What is still considered natural to you?

1). Lightly texturized hair?

2). Hair with no relaxer/texturizer. Color and presses/flat iron okay

3). Hair with no relaxer and no color. Presses/flat iron okay

4). Hair that does not get pressed/flat ironed, colored, or relaxed



As for me, I would consider #2 still natural hair.
 
Hair that is 100% chemical free.

I don't consider temporary styling techniques, such as pressing or roller sets, as taking away from being natural because you are not using a chemical to alter the texture of the hair.
 
I'm going with number 4. Up until a few months ago I taught that naturals with permanent color in their hair were considered natural, but I found out not necessarily so. #4 because hair is free from ALL chemicals.
 
I love texlaxed ladies and texturizers - but we need to quit kidding ourselves.

Natural - means NATURAL - means no chemicals. If you put something that says RELAXER on the box, on your head for even 3.14159 seconds it's a damn CHEMICAL. If the only way to revert back to what you had before, is to let the hair grow out and CUT IT OFF - ITS A DAMN CHEMICAL.

LOL - that's like asking people who smoke and they say "nah I don't smoke...except when I"m drinking wine". "I'm a vegetarian but I eat chicken". "I don't eat red meat....but I like steak".

It's a CHEMICAL. Nothing wrong with like chemicals/relaxers/texturizers/phytospecific (haha)...but call a spade a spade. As for the flat irons and pressings - that's temporary. I'm a natural. I wear my hair naturally 99% of the time. I had to go to a wedding last weekend and I was in the wedding so I flat ironed my hair. Now I'm not natural?!?!? Please. Tell that to my hair two hours later when I was sweating on the dance floor - no evidence of a flat iron in sight.
 
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mkh_77 said:
Hair that is 100% chemical free.

I don't consider temporary styling techniques, such as pressing or roller sets, as taking away from being natural because you are not using a chemical to alter the texture of the hair.
Click to expand...

Bingo. You worded this perfectly.
 
mkh_77 said:
Hair that is 100% chemical free.
I don't consider temporary styling techniques, such as pressing or roller sets, as taking away from being natural because you are not using a chemical to alter the texture of the hair.
Click to expand...

You summed it up, and IA. :yep:
 
I consider natural hair to be free of any chemicals or dyes.

Up until recently, I thought that dying your hair and getting silkner/texturizer was still considered natural but I was wrong. :ohwell:
 
Candiss said:
#4. Once it is altered it is no longer natural. Once the press reverts back, its natural again.
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So, what is it when it's pressed if it's not still natural? It's not relaxed. I'm just curious, what is the term used to describe it? When I hear someone say their hair is pressed, I know more likely than not that it's natural, and the person wanted a temporary straight style. Also, since braid-outs and twist-outs "alter" the natural texture, do those styles exempt someone from claiming to have natural hair?
 
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So if I dyed my hair i'm not natural, so what am I? Cause my hair didnt change one bit. And what about rinses or henna that fades?
 
#3, unless the press has permanently straightened the hair. For my own hair, however, I'm sticking with #4. :)
 
Hmmm - I'd say 2 AND 4.

2 is natural - because there is no change to the TEXTURE of the hair.
4 is natural AND chemical-free - what I prefer to call virgin.

So - I have NATURAL hair, but *LOL* there ain't nothing virgin about it.
 
nappywomyn said:
Hmmm - I'd say 2 AND 4.

2 is natural - because there is no change to the TEXTURE of the hair.
4 is natural AND chemical-free - what I prefer to call virgin.

So - I have NATURAL hair, but *LOL* there ain't nothing virgin about it.
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I agree with this.
 
I think natural=chemical free.

I went back and forth between #3 and #4 and then I thought about my mother. She has dreads. Her natural texture is very soft, fine 3b/c. the first time she locked it took her years before she had a real dread because as soon as she would step under the shower all her progress would be gone. The second time she locked it was much easier because her hair was, for lack of better term, trained to lock. This is similar to hair that is straightened so much that the natural texture becomes looser (not a one to one correlation I know but you get my drift).

My mom’s hair looks radically different in locks than it would if she did not have locks, but she is still natural and very few people if any would debate that. I figure the same principle should apply to people who flat iron/press their hair or who wear twist/braid outs on a regular basis.
 
My definition of natural is number 4. Anything that alters your hair from it's natural appearance, (which is the hair you were born with, texture and color), to me is not 100% natural. :)
 
1). Lightly texturized hair?

No way, that's relaxed

2). Hair with no relaxer/texturizer. Color and presses/flat iron okay

No way, that's still chemically treated.

3). Hair with no relaxer and no color. Presses/flat iron okay

That's natural.

4). Hair that does not get pressed/flat ironed, colored, or relaxed

That's natural too.

As for me, I would consider #2 still natural hair.
 
I think natural is relaxer/perm/texturizer free, anything that alters the texture of the hair. Color is okay with me.
 
Hair that has not been chemically altered.

BUT, it gets a little iffy when we start talking about hair dye. Cant people be naturally textured but color dyed?
 
Brownie said:
What do you consider natural hair? What is still considered natural to you?

1). Lightly texturized hair? No.

2). Hair with no relaxer/texturizer. Color and presses/flat iron okay.
Color is chemically altered, but I consider it napptural. Occasional presses still equal natural because it is not chemically altered. However, it is not a natural style.

3). Hair with no relaxer and no color. Presses/flat iron okay
Yes, although the style is not natural.

4). Hair that does not get pressed/flat ironed, colored, or relaxed
Of course

Additionally, I still believe hidden hair is not natural. Someone sporting braid extensions is not wearing their natural hair. Unless of course like presses, it is very temporary. Way back when, a co-worker would harass the black women continuously about going natural. In the 3 years I knew her, she never came out of very long micro braids. Most of the hair was unbraided).:lol:
Click to expand...
 
nappywomyn said:
Hmmm - I'd say 2 AND 4.

2 is natural - because there is no change to the TEXTURE of the hair.
4 is natural AND chemical-free - what I prefer to call virgin.

So - I have NATURAL hair, but *LOL* there ain't nothing virgin about it.
Click to expand...


Although I have never used permanent color, I agree with this also. Like with Jill Scott, her hair appears colored, but I would consider her hair still very much natural.

Now, to play devil's advocate here, I have heard that permanent color can change the texture somewhat of natural hair, but some people have said the same of presses.
 
Brownie said:
What do you consider natural hair? What is still considered natural to you?

1). Lightly texturized hair?

2). Hair with no relaxer/texturizer. Color and presses/flat iron okay

3). Hair with no relaxer and no color. Presses/flat iron okay

4). Hair that does not get pressed/flat ironed, colored, or relaxed



As for me, I would consider #2 still natural hair.
Click to expand...

Hair that has has not been texturized at all, 100% natural, and that includes no color, either. I do agree that if a woman is natural, but presses her hair, she is still a natural, she's just wearing her hair straight.

In a nutshell, #3.
 
Color-treated natural hair is still natural, in my opinion. Pressing does not make it any less natural either. Texturized hair is not natural hair.
 
Natural hair is hair exactly how it grows out of your head with nothing in it to permanently alter it's texture.
 
I would say hair that is 100% chemical free, like virgin hair. Pressing is ok as well as rollersetting, plaiting, etc., the hair is still natural. I always thought adding color to natural hair means the hair is still natural, just a different color. I haven't used hair color yet but I think there are natural haircolors that wouldn't be hair altering, like henna.
 
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