Staring in the mirror, trying to tame her hair, Fatma Yasser wondered if her natural curls were, in fact, “too wild,” as her aunt told her. The 26-year-old marketing specialist straightened her hair for years before she felt confident enough to embrace her natural hair. “When I first stopped straightening it [hair], my own relatives told me I looked unkempt and asked why I wasn’t making an effort to look presentable,” Yasser told Egyptian Streets. For years, straight hair was held up as the ideal, pressuring women to use heat and chemical treatments to conform. Curly and kinky textures were often viewed as unprofessional or undesirable, long-standing at the center of racialized beauty standards, a perception reinforced by social expectations. However, in recent years, a growing number of beauty salons and curly hair care brands, such as Curlit, Jovialty’s Curl Wonder, and The Hair Addict, a natural hair advocate, have helped women embrace their natural curls by offering guidance and products. Social media has also helped by creating communities that support hair care and fight discrimination, such as Curled by M, Curld by Sabrina, and Curly Talks, by showcasing confident…
