Black Girl Magic: VOGUE Shines A Light On Naturalistas In The Military
(Photos by Mayan Toledano)
VOGUE Magazine Highlights The Surge In Natural Hair Styles For Black Military Women
We’ve covered the plight of black servicemen and women who wear natural hairstyles in the military quite a bit over the last few years so we are enthralled to learn that there has been a surge in the numbers of black women in the Army and Air Force who are exploring natural hair options since regulations have eased up in January of this year.
VOGUE did an incredible feature on 17 trailblazing military naturalistas, noting that in recent years, “the Army and Air Force have approved for female soldiers braids of increased size as well as twists, and removed words such as unkempt from their grooming guidelines.”
Peep some of their stories below:
HIt the flip for more
(Photos by Mayan Toledano)
First Lieutenant Whennah Andrews of the Army National Guard can actually take credit for some of the regulatory changes. Andrews, a medical service officer, helped create a video on locks in collaboration with Nikky Nwamokobia of Green Beauty, a popular natural hair channel on YouTube:
“We wanted to dispel the myth surrounding them, this idea that the style is somehow unhygienic,” says Andrews, who submitted the clip to the uniform advisory board at the Pentagon last year. “We literally put the hair under a microscope to show that’s not the case, to show that locks can belong in any place of business and certainly in the military.”
Andrews’ video helped create policy changes that were made within a year and had her own Sisterlocks installed this May. She’s now in the process of making a second video to push change in the Navy, where bans on dreadlocks remain in effect.
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- (Photos by Mayan Toledano)
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- (Photos by Mayan Toledano)
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- (Photos by Mayan Toledano)
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- (Photos by Mayan Toledano)
