Our #LoveYourCurls Hair-story: My Journey

Having daughters in a world that seems to judge everyone by their appearance isn’t easy. But being comfortable with your appearance is a lifestyle and can be taught. Growing up, appearance really wasn’t a big deal to me, but others often made it a big deal when they compared me to others. Kids can sometimes be cruel with their comparisons, but being comfortable with who you are and appreciating the differences in others is ideal. I want my daughters to embrace their differences and feel happy about themselves.

I am giving you insight into my journey of how I teach my girls to embrace their curls.

Hair, is such a complex topic in the black community. It’s a topic that I sometimes feel is over thought about. In my mind, I think, “It’s just hair.” But even I was taught that your hair is your glory. On the contrary, our glory is not our hair, but it is instead our intelligence, our innovative thoughts, our ability to dream and achieve.

While I raise my girls, I want them to know that there is so much more to them than their hair, but at the same time, it’s okay to love their hair too. My goal for them is to just be comfortable and confident and life will be easier to navigate through.

During my journey to teach my girls to embrace their hair: one with kinky coily hair, and the other whose curls are more loose, I encourage them to know that their hair is beautiful curly or not, their hair is natural, strong, thick, and manageable. 

The lesson begins with me. I embrace my kinky hair . I like my hair; in fact, I love my hair. Yes, I #lovemycurls! It’s apart of me, but it isn’t all of me, I am more complex that the tresses on top of my head.

I my journey to raise confident girls, I have to be confident. I have to let go of fears and misinformation I have been taught in the past about natural hair and I have to free myself to define beauty within my home. 

I can’t let media tell my girls whether they measure up to the world’s standard of beauty. In my home, beauty is:

  • taking care of yourself
  • looking others in the eye
  • standing up straight
  • creatively expressing how you feel
  • living your self-love and embodying beauty 
  • Beautiful is mom
  • Beautiful is dad
  • Beautiful is my twins
  • Beautiful is listening
  • Beautiful is learning
  • Beautiful is life long journey.

This mom teaches her girls to embrace their curls. #loveyourcurls

Here’s a personal message to my girls:

Dear Daughters,

When I see you girls, I see two girls who are beautiful!

You are perfect just as God made you.

You are more precious than diamonds.

Your hair is like a luscious thick lion’s mane.

Your eyes are shaped like the blossoms of almonds.

Your nose like a cute small inclined plane.

Your smile is pretty and mysterious as a large crescent moon.

You both are reflections of us: mom and dad. When we see you, we see the best part of who we are. Remember to: embrace you! Love you! Value you! Accept you! And always believe in you, because we do!

I love Dove’s #LoveYourCurls movement and what they are doing to help young girls with curly hair, embrace their curls. 

I love using Dove’s new product line to maintain and add moisture to my thirsty curly girls’ hair and so far, the Quench Absolute Collection line is fantastic for them.

  • Quench Absolute Collection:
    • Quench Absolute Ultra Nourishing Shampoo
    • Quench Absolute Ultra Nourishing Conditioner
    • Quench Absolute Intensive Restoration Mask
    • Quench Absolute Supreme Crème Serum

I love that you can personalize the “Why I Love My Curls” Book by Taiye Selasi and illustrated by Annick Poirier.

How I'm teaching my Girls to Love their Curls #loveyourcurls

 

Women and girls with curly hair tend to feel less confident.

  • Only 4 in 10 little girls with curly hair think their hair is beautiful.1
  • Only 10% of women in the U.S. with curly hair feel proud of their hair.
  • Dove Hair wants all women and girls to love their curls.
  • Dove Hair launched the “Love Your Curls” campaign to encourage women to celebrate their curls and inspire future generations to do the same.
  • Girls are more likely to feel beautiful and proud of their hair if people around them do. 

 

The NEW Love Your Curls book is a poetic tribute to curly hair.

  • Dove Hair was inspired by the thousands of stories from women with curly hair.
  • The real stories from real women inspired the poems in the book.
  • Written by best-selling author, Taiye Selasi and illustrated by Annick Poirier.
  • It is intended to represent and inspire curly girls of all ages.

 

Download [and share] the book to inspire the curly girls in your life.

  • Visit Dove.com/LoveYourCurls (http://clvr.li/cgdovelyc1).
  • Download the free e-book.
  • Create a personalized e-book with a custom dedication and illustration for a curly girl in your life.
  • Share your personalized e-book on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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