In a fabulous article for Style.com, Janelle Okwodu recounts a brief history of black hair in the modelling industry and why the new wave of natural-haired models is so refreshing.<\/p>\n
Here are our highlights:<\/p>\n
Relaxed hair, often enhanced with extensions, has become the norm, and the majority of models from supers like Naomi Campbell and Joan Smalls onward wear some variation of the look. \u201cIt\u2019s very unusual to see a girl with a natural Afro texture these days,\u201d says Redken creative director and the hairstylist behind Prada and C\u00e9line, Guido Palau. \u201cMost girls have their hair relaxed or a lot of hair extensions or it has to be blown out to \u2018fit in\u2019 with the look of the other girls.\u201d
\nThe popularity of weaves and straightened styles is a fraught issue, with complex sociopolitical implications […]. For a model, however, the choice between natural and relaxed often has a lot to do with image. Agencies frequently give new models makeovers, shaping diamonds in the rough with career-altering haircuts. \u201cI always brushed my hair in a ponytail,\u201d says Montero. \u201cThe president of my mother agency, Sandro Guzman, told me that he wanted to cut it and do a natural Afro. When I saw it in the mirror, I loved it. This was all done before the final night of the Ossygeno Models Competition, where I ended up being one of the winners.\u201d
\nFor Montero, the switch to a short \u2019fro has resulted in choice bookings and an elevated profile, but fashion\u2019s acceptance of natural hair has been a long time coming. \u201c[…] Hair extensions weren\u2019t about wanting to look white, they were about wanting to stay in the game,\u201d says activist and Diversity Coalition founder Bethann Hardison. \u201cThe extensions really started in the \u201990s. There were a lot of girls whose hair was damaged because the hairstylists didn\u2019t have the training to understand black hair. As a model, you\u2019re asked to switch your look back and forth and deal with chemicals or heat that do a number on your hair. Back then, if they couldn\u2019t figure out how to style a girl\u2019s hair properly, it was the model who was considered difficult, not the hairstylist.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a fabulous article for Style.com, Janelle Okwodu recounts a brief history of black hair in the modelling industry and why the new wave of natural-haired models is so refreshing. Here are our highlights: Relaxed hair, often enhanced with extensions, has become the norm, and the majority of models from supers like Naomi Campbell and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1752,1751,1756,1761,1755,1757,703,1162,1753,601,1760,1442,508,1660,1759,819,575,1754,1392,1462,1758,701],"class_list":["post-11017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-african-american-models","tag-african-models","tag-afro","tag-celine","tag-extensions","tag-guido-palau","tag-history","tag-image","tag-janelle-okwodu","tag-joan-smalls","tag-karly-loyce","tag-lineisy-montero","tag-models-of-colour","tag-naomi-campbell","tag-ossygeno-models","tag-politics","tag-race","tag-relaxed-hair","tag-sociology","tag-style-com","tag-weaves","tag-women-of-colour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11019,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11017\/revisions\/11019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}