Black Panther star, Lupita Nyong’o has forever been natural hair goals for many black women. She has gone from the baldest of bald cuts to gorgeous natural hair styles that have redefined beauty looks on the red carpet. While we absolutely have to thank God for blessing Lupita with such gorgeous mane, we cannot ignore her celebrity hairstylist, Vernon François who ensures Lupita’s hair bows in obedience to every style he experiments with.
In a newly released interview with Allure Magazine, Lupita talks extensively on growing up with hair she didn’t particularly love, cutting it all off and finally embracing it. While we read through the interview, we found 5 facts every woman who grows her hair can totally relate to:
- We all grew up loving and envying relaxed hair
“In my tween years, I started begging my mother to have my hair relaxed. She wouldn’t allow it, though her hair was relaxed. She felt that that was a decision I could come to when I was maybe 18. Around 13 or 14, I had such a rough time with being teased and feeling really unpretty. My dad intervened and spoke to my mom about my hair, and she finally agreed. She took me to the salon in the middle of the school day, and I got my hair relaxed. I felt so much better because it was easier to tame. All the girls in my class had their hair relaxed. Very few had natural kink, so I felt a lot more acceptable.”
2. Keeping relaxed hair is just as much a struggle as keeping natural hair
“The upkeep of relaxed hair is a commitment. It took styling it once a week and then having it retouched once a month. I remember doing crazy things, like sleeping with my head above the headboard so that my curls wouldn’t get messed up for the next day. I’d have these terrible neck aches because I was determined to keep my hair as pristine as possible.”
3. Let’s not even lie; relaxed hair is more expensive to maintain
“… it was super expensive. When I was about 18 or 19, I didn’t have a job or anything, so it was really my parents paying for my hair.”
4. Most of us have attempted to or have actually shaved off all our hair at some point in our lives
“…a few months later, I thought to myself, Why don’t I? I went into the hair salon, and I said, “Let’s cut it off.” It was almost a dare to myself: Can I live without hair? He shaved it right off. It was so scary but so liberating because I went completely bald.”
5. That feeling when you find the perfect hairdresser, it’s like a match made in heaven
“My hair is the longest it’s been in over a decade. A lot of that is because I have an amazing hairstylist in Vernon François. He’s been so helpful, helping me learn how to maintain my natural hair texture. Also giving me regimens that are streamlined because part of the challenge is all the steps. You go on YouTube, and there are just so many different ways of upkeep of one’s natural hair. It’s honey and rosemary water and avocado-paste conditioning and whatnot. I’ve tried it all. Now I love my hair. I love it because I’ve also been able to really embrace the stuff it can do. It’s like clay in the right hands. Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands”
Lupita is really all of us!