Why No Barbie Dolls with Natural Hair? A Woman Helps Break the Mold
Are you natural? If so, how long have you been natural? What made you decide to rock your natural hair?
I am very proud to say that I do have natural hair. I have long loc’s that I love and adore. I have been natural for about quite a while and loving every moment of it. I used to perm my hair religiously and wear weaves. None of that ever made me happy. I always felt like I was lying to myself. The cost of maintaining perms and weaves is crazy. Not to mention all the damage I was doing to my scalp and hair. It got to be too much for me, to the point where I was asking myself – who am I doing this for? Because I no longer enjoyed (I don’t think I ever did) using chemicals and fake hair to try and make myself look like someone else’s version of beauty. So I finally said enough is enough! I had always loved how women and men looked with loc’s – so I just decide one day it was time to loc my hair. And I never looked back.
Chime Edwards is a native of West Point, MS and attended Rust College in Holly Springs, MS where she majored in Mass Communications. In her spare time, Chime enjoys posting videos about natural hair care on her YouTube channel for over 26,000 subscribers.
When the black Barbie line was added to Mattel toys I wondered about absence of a non-natural Barbie,as well. It is of course because of a loathing of black natural hair, not only by society at large, but also by black society. And that mind set won’t change unless we black people learn to love our whole and complete natural selves. I have to say it is very ironic, because I see so many white people trying to rock ‘fro’s and locs.
I love the look of those dolls. They are beautiful.
I am 55 years old today, however, when I was a child all of my Barbie dolls had afros.
I wish there were this kind when I was a little girl.