Hollywood star Thandie Newton, as well as her gorgeous, natural hair, is taking a new kind of role: a positive role model for her daughters.
The British-born actress, 39, revealed she decided to stop straightening her hair in a bid to discourage her daughters, Ripley and Nico, from feeling insecure about their natural curls.
Earlier this month, Newton told longtime friend and make-up artist Kay Montano, “I didn’t want my daughters to judge their beautiful curls.”
She added: “The stigma with some black women seems to be that ‘nappy hair’ (natural afro hair) is almost as bad as a loo roll trailing from your shoe. I’ve always let my daughter’s hair be wild and scruffy…in the States, I had remarks about how I don’t take care of their hair. The truth is I choose to keep it that way.”
Newton went on to say, “When I see hair that’s been pulled, stretched, brushed till bullet smooth I just think ‘ouch’. I have my limits, sometimes I have to beg Nico to let me tidy it up for fear of her looking like she’s been neglected!”
MUST READ: What No One Tells You About Going Natural
The Londoner also said her own mother suffered at the hands of prejudice when Thandie’s convent school refused to allow her in a group snapshot.
The nuns were said to be “appalled” at the braided cornrows, leaving Thandie “embarrassed” and “ashamed”.
Thandie said, “I read this year a piece in The Independent about a student who appealed against not being able to wear his hair in (what the school felt was a hoodlum style) braids, and he won. That’s 30 years since the nuns dissed me… This s**t keeps going round.”
The inspiring, Academy Award-nominated actress Viola Davis of “The Help”, drew glances as she sported her natural hair at the Oscars on Sunday evening, looking jaw-dropping in a green gown.
Viola added, “If you want to wear wigs for your career, that’s fine, but in your life wear your hair. Step into who you are.”
Thandie Newton agrees.
Newton says her decision to go natural is a small attempt to change the perception of natural hair as something undesirable, and we applaud her efforts and her candor — and her ability to get right to the heart of this issue.
Ultimately, the goal is to be free to do whatever you want with your hair. But what we ‘want’ is influenced by so many factors. When I was little I insisted my parents stopped calling me Thandie because it was so ‘different,’ my desire was influenced by a community where the way I looked was not celebrated, where my uniqueness was seen as suspect. Whatever we are repelled by, or don’t want — right there is the bud to a root we need to dig up and investigate.
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