Lupita Nyong’o Talks About Embracing Her Natural Hair: “I’ve Tried It All”

Like many black women I’ve been through a lot with my hurr!

If it’s not the struggle of relaxers, it’s balancing my natural haircare in the cold weather.

Growing up I suffered a lot of insecurities, but I’ve got to a point now where I’ve embraced my hair and the incredible things it can do.

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Hollywood star Lupita Nyong’o can also attest to this.

Speaking to Allure magazine’s Culture of Hair issue, Nyong’o remembers having a hard time embracing her natural hair growing up

She recalls begging her parents to have her hair straightened.

‘I was really kind of envious of girls with thicker, longer, more lush hair. In my tween years, I started begging my mother to have my hair relaxed.’

‘She wouldn’t allow it, though her hair was relaxed.’

‘She felt that that was a decision I could come to when I was maybe 18. Around 13 or 14, I had such a rough time with being teased and feeling really unpretty.’

‘My dad intervened and spoke to my mom about my hair, and she finally agreed.’

Nyong’o says she decided to stop getting relaxers she felt liberated.

Her dad jokingly suggested she shave all her hair off.

‘It was almost a dare to myself: Can I live without hair?” she says, adding that her mother was “horrified” upon seeing her without hair.’

Nyong’o, who gets done up by her hairstylist Vernon François, says she’s still learning herself.

“You go on YouTube, and there are just so many different ways of upkeep of one’s natural hair. It’s honey and rosemary water and avocado-paste conditioning and whatnot. I’ve tried it all,” she says.

‘Now I love my hair. I love it because I’ve also been able to really embrace the stuff it can do.’

‘It’s like clay in the right hands. Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands.’