By Briana Whiteside
This project was inspired by a conversation that I had with Alleah Moore, a first-year black woman student at SIUE, who expressed frustration with her natural hair journey. She told me about the lack of support for her experiences as a new natural and how it was stressful without an internal community to help her.
I started thinking of the impact that my sister circle — Danielle Hall, Cindy Lyles, and Jessica Harris — had on my journey. I probably would not have made it this far without them. April 17th made my 11 month anniversary of being natural, and looking back, even with my sistahs, I still experienced a lot of frustration. However, I had the privilege to have a safe space to be vulnerable about my hair insecurities.
Too often, natural hair women encourage younger girls to embark upon the journey to healthy hair without helping them through the process. We believe that their walk would be a bit smoother than ours because of the online hair care sites. Yet, these sites are not enough.
This natural hair series will feature black women who are at various stages in their journeys. Alleah Moore will also be featured during the week. I want to let the younger sisters know that they have support, we hear their concerns, and are beginning to address them.
The chronicle interviews:
• Aiesha Pettis
• Danielle Hall
• Lakeisha Hall
• Yemi Adeyanju
• Alleah Moore
• Jessica Harris
• Cindy Lyles
• Shewanee Howard-Baptiste
• Evetty Satterfield
Briana Whiteside is a graduate student in English at SIUE and a contributing writer for the Cultural Front.
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