Toccara Ross is a professional basketball player who is a strong advocate of natural hair and an overall healthy lifestyle.
Shortly after graduating and playing at Iowa State University, she played abroad in France, Puerto Rico, Australia, Taiwan, Ecuador, & Colombia. On the court she is currently playing in Espoo, Finland and off the court she edits and generates content as the the co-founder of the blog Curly Deviants.
NaturallyCurly: Tell us about your curly hair journey. When did you go natural and what inspired you?
Toccara: I should have gone natural a long time ago, back in college when I was sweating out my Mizani relaxers during two-a-days workouts. The fall of 2010, I decided now was the time and I was scared to death. I had never been too confident about my appearance, so cutting my hair was going to be a challenge. Before natural hair became this huge “trend” as some people may see it is, and before there was such a strong, supportive community, I was hairless with no idea how to take care of my coils. I wanted to grow it back immediately, but life happened and my decision to embark on a natural hair journey took on a whole new meaning. I made the decision to make one final cut and start fresh on Dec. 10, 2010, which was the day I buried my mother. This marked the start of not only my true natural hair journey but also the rebirth of my spirit; the metaphoric phoenix, rising from her ashes revealing something new, something stronger. My mother was my inspiration, not because she had natural (because she didn’t”>, but because her passing made me plant my feet firmer on the ground and re-evaluate everything I thought I already knew. Cutting my crown was only step one.
