Crystal Henry

Aryele Bradford

Creole, biracial, mixed. All three share one thing in common.

Curls.

But while some people embrace them, others fight them.

University student Aryele Bradford uses a relaxer to straighten her kinky curled hair.

“I have to straighten it,” says Bradford. “It’s hard for me to do things with it if I don’t.
“I don’t like that. My hair is way too thick, I wouldn’t be able to do anything with it,” she added.
Her mother and grandfather have a finer, wavier type of hair and they don’t use a relaxer to straighten their hair.

“I think all women with curly hair would prefer to have their hair straight!” Bradford exclaimed.

Not necessarily, Aryele.

Allee Bennett, a biracial student with looser curls, says “Curly hair is different and sometimes easier to manage. It’s easier to just put water on it and go.”

Allee Bennett

Bennett likes products that hydrate her hair and moisturize her curls. Her family, however, does not have the same hair as she does.

“My younger brother’s hair is curly but short, coarse and dry,” she says. “My younger sister’s hair is long and wavy.”

She said her dad is part Indian so his hair is really dark, coarse and wavy.

Brother Mouton, a man of Creole decent, sums it up. Hair preference, he says, depends on the individual.

“My sister has a straight hair type because she brushes it constantly and she heard that if you brush your hair a 100 times a day it will get straight,” Mouton says. “It did!”

Mouton also believes that hairstyle preference also is influenced by the times.

“When I was young, I wore a curly ‘fro,” Mouton says. “Then in the ’70s and ’80s, people were wearing the Jheri Curl. And now I see a lot of people wearing their hair straight.”

“Curly hair is not better than straight hair, or vice versa,” he says. “It’s all a matter of personal preference.”

Crystal Henry is a 20-year-old sophomore journalism major in the College of Communications at the University of Texas. She is an intern for NaturallyCurly.