Natural Hair and College

[MsSanz92]

So as I am finishing up my first year of undergrad, I have noticed that more and more Black girls on my campus are doing BCs, transitioning, and sporting their natural hair. Many of these girls have hair to DIE for (I am enviousI might be a creeper and get some shots of their hair LOL) On my campus in particular we have various kinds of natural haired women; girls who have never relaxed their hair, girls who just did BCs, girls with locks, girls who had locks and combed them out, colored naturals, pressed naturals, braided naturals, long haired naturals, short haired naturals, type 3a-4zz, pretty much EVERY KIND OF NATURAL HAIR! It makes me smile inside I feel like we're our own community. To be honest I think there are more naturals than relaxed heads at my school.

Now I go to school in a predominately Black city (even though my school is in the Whitest section of the city) so access to Black hair salons/products isn't difficult but basically do other women on here who are in undergrad see this phenomenon on their campuses or is this something that is case by case?

 

[qchelle]

I go to a predom. white college so there aren't alot of black women to begin with. And the 10 that are there (lol), most are relaxed.

Now, my friends who go to HBCU's talk about the increasing number of naturals on their campuses. Schools like NC A&T, Hampton, Howard, and Spellman. They say they see lots of naturals here. They see them so much that they complain about them to me (I'm transitioning) They complain about how many there are!

 

[chelseatiara]

I see at lot of *GORGEOUS* natural hair, nice relaxed hair, and weaves (i dont like talking about the busted ones lol) but ive havent ever seen this many natural hair rockin sistas *and long-haired brothas* in my life!! I go to Southern University in Baton Rouge Louisiana, an HBCU.

 

[corpFROcentric]

Southern where is that at?? I haven't even heard of that school. I heard they show up to play a Bayou Classic every now and then but other than that.... CorpFroCentric is a PROUD GRAMBLINITE! GS GS GS U U U I THOUGHT YOU KNEW!!
Okay, now back to hair.

 

[femmedusiecle]

I went to UCONN (Huskiessssss) and I remember seeing one girl with natural hair.

One.

 

[MsSanz92]

That is so interesting because I go to a small private predominately WHITE (think Lands End and country club) school and at the HBCU in the same city as me, most of the girls there are relaxed or weaved up (some very bad weaves SMH). There is also a large flagship university downtown so you'll see a little bit of everything there. In the city of Richmond, there aren't many naturals walking the streets so maybe it's just something exclusive to my school (There are plenty of women down here walking around with quickweaves/colorful box braids). I thought coming from NYC and going to school in the South, yet alone a predominately white school, most of the black girls would be relaxed or weaved up because I assumed in the South, natural hair would not be as common or accepted. Boy was I wrong! Granted, the majority of my school consists of out of state students from the North, but most of the black people ironically are from Virginia/other places in the South.

 

[blondemane]

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I go to University of Virginia and there are a lot of natural ladies and I absolutely love it. And the relaxed girls that go there have some bangin' hurrrrr almost made me want to relax again lol. The school is predominately white but when I bc'd and wore my hair out I was pretty well accepted by all racial communities, which was a surprise to me personally but a very pleasant surprise

 

[blondemane]

MsSanz92 I'm pretty sure I know what schools you are talking about, Im from Richmond lol

 

[AmyRose92]

There aren't too many black girls in undergrad (and at my university in general, since NSU is a predominantly Caucasian school) but most of the ones that I see look relaxed. I'm not really surprised though.

 

[davisbr88]

I just graduated from a PWI last May (there was a 3% black population). Of the few BW there, there were maybe a handful of naturals however, I did notice that quite a few people were transitioning the same time I was during my senior year, so I assume there are a lot more naturals there now.

ETA: We did have a large Ethiopian population and almost all of them were natural. But as far as AA women... not so much.

 

[MsSanz92]

@MsSanz92 I'm pretty sure I know what schools you are talking about, Im from Richmond lol

Spider nation! But yes you're from UVA so I have to hate you by association Coach thief!! :gunner7:

 

[blondemane]

Spider nation! But yes you're from UVA so I have to hate you by association Coach thief!! :gunner7:

LOL yea yea yea. I know a lot of people at your school though and when I went I did notice quite a few naturals;;

 

[OsnapCnapp!]

Southern where is that at?? I haven't even heard of that school. I heard they show up to play a Bayou Classic every now and then but other than that.... CorpFroCentric is a PROUD GRAMBLINITE! GS GS GS U U U I THOUGHT YOU KNEW!!
Okay, now back to hair.

Awww come on now, you know you gotta give Southern their props, lol!

 

[mischka]

i think it depends on the school. i didnt see much of it when i was in undergrad, but natural hair is the norm where i am doing grad school.

 

[Aviah]

Most of the hair at my school is weave. Not sure how many are natural or relaxed, but the weaves aren't hot on a general scale.

 

[naturalTAN]

I got my last perm two weeks before I got to my uni in '08. I met a senior with the most gorgeous puff (found out later it was fake, but still...) that told me about hair forums and how bad sulfates and stuff were. I was hesistant but checked it out for myself. After seeing all of the long-haired naturals on BHM and LHCF, I told myself I would go natural. I haven't looked back at the crack since.


There are a LOT of transitioners on my campus (I'm trying to help them all in some way ) and a few recent bcs. But to answer the question, when I first got here, there were probably 3 or 4 naturals, now there about 15 and a lot of long-term transitioners.

 

[NaeChail]

Southern where is that at?? I haven't even heard of that school. I heard they show up to play a Bayou Classic every now and then but other than that.... CorpFroCentric is a PROUD GRAMBLINITE! GS GS GS U U U I THOUGHT YOU KNEW!!
Okay, now back to hair.

Rotfl....that's funny. I wanted to go to SU and didn't. All my friends that went to EITHER Southern or Gambling pick on me. Maybe I can go for grad.....

I live in a Louisiana town that has a PWI that share the same mascot as a Dallas pro team (lol) and while they are outnumbered by white and relaxed ppl, there's a lil bit of a natural movement going on there as well. When I actually went there, I was like....one of 3. And I always got this face walking in my dorm building... O_0 lol. I'm transferring back there though, so I will see if its really "what's in" to be a curlie on campus.

 

[danigurl18]

I go to Howard and tons of people are going natural and cutting their hair. I did it when it wasn't cool lol

 

[silenttullip]

When I started college it was in a white small town in NC BUT 70 percent of the students were black... It may have been 5 naturals out of 2000 students on the campus. So it wasn't popular BUT the fellas LOVED IT! this one guy white guy turned around in the cafe area and yelled out "I love yo hair can u do mine" everyone turned around I was like "really uh sure blush blush" I was so shy but I should have gotten his number and done his twists lol

 

[lettieg27]

Well I go to school in DC at Howard University, HBCU and there are alot of naturals and people in transition. I think some girls do it because they are inspired by the other girls on campus and others are feeding into a "fad" just like last year with the half shaved head thing inspired by cassie.

 

[itsjusthair88]

Where I went, an HBCU, there was a mix of girls: natural, relaxed, loc'd, weaved, wigs...they had it all what most of us had in common was that it was fly...natural, relaxed or weaved

 

[HollyGolightly]

I went to an HBCU and there were a ton of pressed naturals. Now myself and all of my alumni friends are natural.

Relaxers are old school now. I only have one friend who still has one.

 

[qchelle]

I went to an HBCU and there were a ton of pressed naturals. Now myself and all of my alumni friends are natural.

Relaxers are old school now. I only have one friend who still has one.

Yea, of my 2 groups of close friends, in 1 of the groups, there's only 1 person (out of 5 of us) who's still relaxed. And the other group (5 total), 2 of them are natural and 1 is transitioning. It shouldn't be long before the rest of them go natural too

 

[corpFROcentric]

Awww come on now, you know you gotta give Southern their props, lol!

I give all HBCU's their props! Just a friendly GSU/SU rivalry!

 

[sylver2]

yeh my daughter who's in college said most of the girls have gone natural. she transitioned for 2 years. i cut her relaxed ends last week.
my relaxer is fine with me.. im old school anyway so

 

[CandyCurls]

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[kcolbert]

Are you talking about McNeese (?) State in LC? I was just looking at their summer basketball camps for my DD.

Rotfl....that's funny. I wanted to go to SU and didn't. All my friends that went to EITHER Southern or Gambling pick on me. Maybe I can go for grad.....

I live in a Louisiana town that has a PWI that share the same mascot as a Dallas pro team (lol) and while they are outnumbered by white and relaxed ppl, there's a lil bit of a natural movement going on there as well. When I actually went there, I was like....one of 3. And I always got this face walking in my dorm building... O_0 lol. I'm transferring back there though, so I will see if its really "what's in" to be a curlie on campus.

 

[NaeChail]

Yes ma'am! I'm probably going to a summer session too.

MSU is a good school, very active, the entire LC community is involved in the school and its programs. The Banner Series thing they do is awesome. Idk if it was just bad timing for me the first time I went or....what, but I plan to go back and make the most of it and the experience it gives.

 

[lilsparkle825]

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I go to University of Virginia and there are a lot of natural ladies and I absolutely love it. And the relaxed girls that go there have some bangin' hurrrrr almost made me want to relax again lol. The school is predominately white but when I bc'd and wore my hair out I was pretty well accepted by all racial communities, which was a surprise to me personally but a very pleasant surprise

Hey, I went to UVa as well. Just came out not too long ago, actually....but when I was there everyone was just starting to go natural. As a matter of fact, I wore sew-ins my 2nd year and I was getting tips from the girls in my classes as far as who they went to in C'ville and where they bought their hair.

In the beginning, most of my friends who were natural were so because a) they had been natural their whole life, and were a loose type 3 or b) they were straightened naturals. I knew a couple girls with locs as well -- one girl who was heavy into theater and my BFF, who started growing hers right before we entered our 1st year. After I BC'd over the summer before my 4th year and came back in August, I noticed a lot of other girls had too.....so I guess we were all secretly transitioning together! I absolutely loved the support though. I can't wait to go back for Black Alumni Weekend at the end of the month to see even MORE natural heads.

 

[Napp]

its about 50:50 at my college.i see alot of relaxers and brightly colored weaves as much as i do natural which is cool because in highschool i was pretty much the only person who didnt have relaxed hair and had type 4 hair.