Hi my name is Graham, I live in Germany and I would like to talk about my personal experience of the natural Hair Community in my Country.
First of all let me give you some Informations about my ethnicity, my mom is German and my Dad is Puerto Rican African American. I remember growing up in germany as a mixed curly Boy wasn’t very easy. I lived near an army base so I also had some African American or multiracial friends but I went to a German school where there were not many kids like me. I got teased a lot for my skin color and curly hair even though I am very light skinned.
I was the only mixed boy in my Class which was very hard for me
I was the only mixed boy in my Class which was very hard for me, but it got a little bit better when I moved to another school. Over the years, a few things have changed but not a lot when it comes to acceptance, marketing and availability of curly hair products.
650×400″ src=”https://diana-cdn.naturallycurly.com/Articles/2Q_Graham-GrahamsNaturalCurls-650×400.jpg”>I live in a small city–it is not super small but also not very big. I know a few mixed ladies and gents and I’ve also introduced them to my Youtube channel to show them that they can rock their curly hair no matter what other people say. Some ladies really stopped relaxing their hair, too!
I notice some people staring at me whenever I am walking through the shopping mall… but I guess it’s only because they’re not used to see someone rocking big, fluffy hair outside the Internet. I can see that it get’s better but curly hair is still not fully accepted where i’m from, it is not ignored because there are some curly guys and ladies but it needs a bigger change.
Another BIG problem is finding curly hair products.
It is impossible for me to find what I need in my city. Regular beauty supply stores doesn’t carry curly hair products. I can’t just go into a store a buy something from Lottabody, Carol’s Daughter, or Creme Of Nature. The nearest big city that carries some of my favorite products is about an hour away, but they also do not carry everything I like–so most of the time I have to buy online.
8 650×400″ src=”https://diana-cdn.naturallycurly.com/Articles/AM_Graham-GrahamsNaturalCurls-8-650×400.jpg”>I can see a difference when it comes to marketing on billboards, magazine advertisements and television commercials. However, every now and then I see African-American male and female models on billboards in stores like H&M and Zara and the same with magazines and TV Commercials. It’s great to see that because little girls and boys who walk into a store and see that or watch a commercial might feel accepted because the model looks like them.
I do know a few Cities with a bigger amount of Mixed and Puerto-Rican or African-American People and i believe it would be great to do some meet-ups over there because that’s something I really miss. I always hear about the curly meetups and events but it seems they are all in the US and England, even France. But what about Germany? I’m sure a lot of curlies like myself would join a curly event in a German City like Mannheim or Frankfurt, those are cities with a lot of curly guys and ladies. Who knows, maybe I can host it!
There should be a huge change soon because I can see that the natural community grows each day more and more and i think that’s something that should have happened already many years ago– but, better late than never.
Until next time, stay curly! Follow me on my YouTube channel and Instagram.
