NaturallyCurly’s ‘Texture on the Runway’ Laid My Edges

I went natural before going natural was cool, back in 2000, 17 years ago, when curly-hair products for black hair were garbage.

Armed with some stuff called “CurlUp” (which was clearly made for white hair), a tub of clear hair gel, the only book on natural hair I could find in 2000 and some hot-oil treatments, I blazed my own hair trail without the help of YouTube tutorials or supportive sisters also doing the “big chop.” I’m amazed all my hair didn’t break off just from the struggle, because the struggle, my friend, was real. And no one—I repeat, no one—was supportive of me cutting off my permed hair—not my first college boyfriend (who called me “Mustafa” whenever my long hair wasn’t pressed straight), nor my proto-Hotep second college boyfriend, who complained that encouraging me to go natural “was a mistake.”

Seventeen years later, New York City has a whole fashion week runway show dedicated to bouncy, black-girl curls, with a plethora of products to choose from for every curl, every hair type and every texture. And unlike in 2000, when people balked at my Afro, now it is embraced and celebrated, along with everyone else’s gorgeous manes. Long, short, curly, flat-ironed straight, hair technology has advanced, and NaturallyCurly’s“Texture on the Runway” event Thursday at Gotham Hall in New York City demonstrated that fully.

Welcome to Antisocial, The Root’s events-society column, where I, Danielle Belton, someone who used to be a social butterfly but now is a ball of anxiety and weirdness, talk about getting back out there and going to thangs. Interesting thangs. Sexy thangs. Fun thangs. Or just thangs! I’m going to them! Have this adventure with me! (Check out the first post here, where I struggled through the incredible, but rainy, Harlem’s Fashion Row event Wednesday.)

I fared better at “Texture on the Runway,” where, upon learning my lessons from Harlem’s Fashion Row, I showed up early, wore one of my fav African print dresses from D’iyanu and generally was in a better mood about my entire situation.

I was fun Danielle. Chatty Danielle. Confident Danielle. I like it when this Danielle shows up. She’s a rare treat. When you’re bipolar, sometimes you’re a mystery even to yourself, so even when you’re in a “good” mood, you still don’t know which version of you might show up at an event.

Will you attempt to talk to people or just drink wine and stare? Will you meet new people or find a …

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