It basically goes without saying that natural hair is here to stay. What many thought was a passing trend has turned into a full movement that is alive and well today. I mean, these days you can’t walk down the street or scroll Instagram (same thing in 2016 right?) without seeing a natural girl rocking her curly, coily, kinky hair with pride. The natural hair movement was kinda of a big deal and brought natural hair mainstream in a way we hadn’t seen in the past. That being said, we can’t forget the curlies that were wearing their natural hair on a mainstream level before it was even a thing. Our favorite curly girls that graced the TV screen each week and let us know that natural girls rock.
Big hair don’t care. We couldn’t talk about the original curlies without mentioning Joan from girlfriends. Her curly fro was and still is one of the best out there. Not only was Joan on one of the most influential sitcoms for African American women but doing so with her natural hair will always make her one of my faves, hands down.
Mo to the, E to the. Full transparency here when I say Moesha made me feel like my braids were cool. I remember wishing I could have my hair pressed or blown out as a kid but my mother insisted that braids for me it was. Seeing Moesha rock her braids in every style you could think of not only gave me style inspo but also made me feel good to see a girl like me wearing her braids with confidence.
Curly in Bel-Air. I think one curly girl that slips under the radar is none other than our favorite bougie (or should we say bourgeois?) natural Hilary Banks. To this day, I can’t be sure if she was a master wand curler or if her curls just fell in that perfect style, but there’s not denying that she rocked the best accessorized curls of the 90’s. I still can’t find a hat that fits and looks that nice over these kinks of mine but a girl can dream.
In a 90’s kinda World. I think Maxine had one of the most memorable natural hair styles of the 90’s and to this day, I’m not sure if anyone could rock a braided bob the way she could. But other than her most well known style, I loved Maxine for wearing her hair in a professional setting. I still hear today, yes in 2016, that some women feel they can’t wear natural hair styles in corporate America, but Maxine Shaw? She was wearing those braids as a lawyer and people just had to deal. Yaasss.
Sister Sister. To finish off this natural girl tribute it wouldn’t be right if I left out my all time favorite curlies Tia and Tamera. And I don’t mean the years after that fateful episode where Tia got her hair pressed out and we never saw the curls again. I’m talking the original sister sister style, the epic wash n go that every curly girl tries to achieve at one point or another in their journey. I have to say I get lowkey excited when one of them showcases their curls these days, brings back Sister Sister memories for real.
