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Celena Eccleston

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What are you doing with your hair now?

Right now my hair is in flat twists. I was going to do a twist-out, but the pollen count is high. The pollen would fall in my hair, and I can’t wash my hair everyday. So, long story short, my hair is in a headscarf. I usually wear headscarves if the style didn’t come out alright or if I don’t feel like doing my hair. For the most part, I wear my hair in a puff. First I use the tension method so that my hair isn’t so shrunken. Sometimes I’ll do a twist out.

 

Tell me about your Big Chop

My hair has been relaxed since I was four because my mom and everyone else believed that straight hair is better. I don’t fault my mother or grandmother for that because that's how they grew up. When I first came to Milton, I saw a lot of black girls with unrelaxed hair, and they could actually comb it! My mother and grandmother also did the big chop. There hair is still short, but it's now natural--they never went back to relaxer. I did the big chop because there is nothing you can do with transitioning hair, and I’m impatient.

 

Why did you have your hair straightened in the first place?

Well elementary through middle school I liked having straight hair. The school I went to was majority black, but all our hair was damaged from silk presses or relaxed. None of us were actually natural. Only the type 3 girls were natural, but they still had heat damage from straightening their hair so often. Most of the girls I went to middle school with actually transitioned. I don’t know how they had the patience for that, but all of us are natural now.

 

Why do you think hopped onto the natural trend at the same time?

I think it was a generational difference. We grew up and finally realized that we could do our own hair. My mother can’t really do that because she’s never had natural hair. Now my sister and I can comb our own hair and can comb our little sister’s hair. The generations before us think that straight hair is the way to look, and now we can embrace that more.

 

Hair Icon:

@naptural85 ! She has such long and gorgeous hair! Jackie Aina is great--she takes care of her natural hair. Viola Davis is also amazing!

Catch her on YouTube and Instagram:

@naptural85

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