Post by anansi on Mar 13, 2021 2:22:10 GMT -5
The Freedom of Natural Curls: Egypt’s Quiet Rebellion
www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/world/middleeast/egypt-hair-curls-natural.html
The above is not the full article so make use of the link pls.
I find it interesting the push back to be happy to be nappy, is taking form in Egypt, but as Western Blacks know , especially females, it a hard struggle to keep up against a multi billion dollars hair products industry, good luck to them and to the sistas stateside in their struggle for agancty in self defined beauty.
For decades, many Egyptians have been straightening their hair to fit a conservative, Western-influenced beauty standard. Many younger Egyptians are rejecting all that.
.CAIRO — There’s a TV commercial from the 1980s that some Egyptians remember well: Two women stand at a mirror, one with thick, dark curls, the other draped in sleek, glossy tresses.
“My hair is curly,” says the first, pouting slightly as she struggles with a comb. “I would love to style it nicely for this wedding.”
“Curly hair — not a problem,” the other woman reassures her. “Come, we still have time.”
One application of Glatt Schwarzkopf straightening cream later, the first woman is back at the mirror, the comb gliding easily through her smoothed-out hair. “My hair,” she coos, “is lovely.”
For decades, many Egyptian women received the message and diligently straightened their curls while men cropped theirs short, suppressing their natural texture because it was considered slovenly and unclean.
“My hair is curly,” says the first, pouting slightly as she struggles with a comb. “I would love to style it nicely for this wedding.”
“Curly hair — not a problem,” the other woman reassures her. “Come, we still have time.”
One application of Glatt Schwarzkopf straightening cream later, the first woman is back at the mirror, the comb gliding easily through her smoothed-out hair. “My hair,” she coos, “is lovely.”
For decades, many Egyptian women received the message and diligently straightened their curls while men cropped theirs short, suppressing their natural texture because it was considered slovenly and unclean.
Beneath such attitudes lay deep, longstanding class and racial prejudice. If Western passports, products and beauty standards are prized in Egypt, the opposite goes for anything too “baladi,” or “country,” as Egyptians say — or anything that they believe smacks of sub-Saharan Africans, like naturally curly hair.
In recent years, however, curls have sprouted again around Egypt, a visible reminder of the subtle shifts in Egyptian society that many young Egyptians trace back to the heady days of the 2011 revolution, when mass protests brought down a dictator. While the government has clamped down on free expression in recent years, young Egyptians have rejected some of the conservative norms of the past, even if only in the way they look.
Given the intense pressure on young Egyptian women in particular to conform — enforced by family, friends and random people hissing on the street — curly hair can constitute a form of defiance.
In recent years, however, curls have sprouted again around Egypt, a visible reminder of the subtle shifts in Egyptian society that many young Egyptians trace back to the heady days of the 2011 revolution, when mass protests brought down a dictator. While the government has clamped down on free expression in recent years, young Egyptians have rejected some of the conservative norms of the past, even if only in the way they look.
Given the intense pressure on young Egyptian women in particular to conform — enforced by family, friends and random people hissing on the street — curly hair can constitute a form of defiance.
. “I hadn’t questioned all of that,” said Doaa Gawish, the founder of the Hair Addict, an online forum and hair-care company with about 500,000 social media followers across Egypt and the Persian Gulf. “Then when I did, I got so mad at myself and society. Now when I look at natural hair, I see the amount of character it reflects and the amount of independence.”
There are also more Egyptians openly displaying tattoos or flaunting dramatic haircuts these days. But mostly, you notice the curls.
Curly heads no longer draw so many jeers in the streets of Cairo. Curly-haired social media influencers have gained tens of thousands of followers and fostered a mini-industry of salons and locally made hair care products.
Curly heads no longer draw so many jeers in the streets of Cairo. Curly-haired social media influencers have gained tens of thousands of followers and fostered a mini-industry of salons and locally made hair care products.
Visibly curly hair, which in Egypt ranges from wavy to tightly coiled, remains in the minority here. Egyptian women who openly sport curls tend to be young and affluent, while visible curls remain rare in middle- and working-class Cairo neighborhoods as well as in rural areas, where many women cover their hair in public and men and women alike face catcalls and insults for unusual dress, tattoos or so-called unruly hair.
And even as natural styles become more accepted, the prejudices around class and race remain pervasive.
Yet the billboards hulking over the city’s highways and flyovers now feature models crowned with bouncy corkscrews, kinks and Afros, a tectonic shift from the old Glatt commercial.
“That ad used to drive me crazy,” said Soraya Hashem, 38, the manager of G Curls, a salon specializing in curls. “There was a kind of societal pressure where curly hair, the natural look, wasn’t welcomed. It would be, ‘Your hair is so curly, try to go to the hairdresser, try to look elegant.’”
And even as natural styles become more accepted, the prejudices around class and race remain pervasive.
Yet the billboards hulking over the city’s highways and flyovers now feature models crowned with bouncy corkscrews, kinks and Afros, a tectonic shift from the old Glatt commercial.
“That ad used to drive me crazy,” said Soraya Hashem, 38, the manager of G Curls, a salon specializing in curls. “There was a kind of societal pressure where curly hair, the natural look, wasn’t welcomed. It would be, ‘Your hair is so curly, try to go to the hairdresser, try to look elegant.’”
That shift has taken years.
In the early 2000s, a famous Lebanese singer, Myriam Fares, made a lasting impression in the region with her cascade of golden curls. Natural hair underwent a resurgence among Black women in the United States around the same time, giving rise to curl-specific products and stylists. Social media brought that shift to Egypt and helped nurture movements toward all-natural beauty products, wellness and self-acceptance.
The soccer star Mohamed Salah and his Afro have become national icons in Egypt, and curly hairstyles now appear regularly on the red carpet at El Gouna Film Festival, an annual extravaganza on the Red Sea.
For many, the most important factor was practicality. Whether by heat or by chemicals, repeated straightening can weaken and harm hair, causing it to break and fall out.
After Ms. Gawish started posting about treatments made of natural ingredients in 2016, her Facebook following leapt from 5,000 users to 80,000 in just a few months, she said. As she and her followers began growing their curls out, they traded tips and sympathy.
In the early 2000s, a famous Lebanese singer, Myriam Fares, made a lasting impression in the region with her cascade of golden curls. Natural hair underwent a resurgence among Black women in the United States around the same time, giving rise to curl-specific products and stylists. Social media brought that shift to Egypt and helped nurture movements toward all-natural beauty products, wellness and self-acceptance.
The soccer star Mohamed Salah and his Afro have become national icons in Egypt, and curly hairstyles now appear regularly on the red carpet at El Gouna Film Festival, an annual extravaganza on the Red Sea.
For many, the most important factor was practicality. Whether by heat or by chemicals, repeated straightening can weaken and harm hair, causing it to break and fall out.
After Ms. Gawish started posting about treatments made of natural ingredients in 2016, her Facebook following leapt from 5,000 users to 80,000 in just a few months, she said. As she and her followers began growing their curls out, they traded tips and sympathy.
www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/world/middleeast/egypt-hair-curls-natural.html
The above is not the full article so make use of the link pls.
I find it interesting the push back to be happy to be nappy, is taking form in Egypt, but as Western Blacks know , especially females, it a hard struggle to keep up against a multi billion dollars hair products industry, good luck to them and to the sistas stateside in their struggle for agancty in self defined beauty.