The Natural Hair Movement Failed | @Jouelzy
- Posted on 26 July, 2022
- Pixie
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The natural community failed if we came out of the natural hair community having to still work on learning to love our natural hair textures. Are we going to sit here and claim that the outside other populations, black men and otherwise all loved our hair? When we didn't hey guys, it's jouelzy and we are back for another video you're, getting kind of a special treat. Is this two for one in one month, girl don't get used to it, but shout out to audible for sponsoring this video. As you know, if you're a long time person here audible is the true one and i'm a personal big fan of audible, you know i run the sbg book club. We are reading books every month, all the time and this month, i'm actually listening to all the boys are in blue, our july general track read on audible and it's a really easy, great, listen and such such such a good book. So, thank you to audible for response to this video. You can sign up and get your first month free, audible.com, slash, jouelzy or text using the 500 500 and get your first month free on audible and there's so many great selections. I listen to so many good podcasts on audible. I get so many great books. You know, as i said before, it helps with my grad school reading, so definitely be sure to use my link and if you haven't already sign up for the svg book club, we're doing tons of great reads. Tons of community involvement come on over and sign up for your free membership. Svgbookclub.Org, we take it back. We gon na have a good old conversation going back to how many of you first came to know me when i first started on youtube all the way back. In the early 2010s, i was a natural hair youtuber and specifically i was a 4c natural hair youtuber and i left in 2013 doing a video calling out the natural hair industry for texture discrimination. I find the natural hair community to be full of swindles, largely because they continue to promote the idea that healthy, natural hair is curly. It'S shiny, it's laid for the baby hairs and then that's the pinnacle for what healthy natural hair should look like. That leaves such a large audience of women out who are natural and who might be thinking that they're doing something wrong with their hair, because their hair doesn't look like what's being represented in the natural community and fast forward. Almost 10 years later. I do not at all feel wrong for the things that i said in this video. I feel very reaffirmed with the way the natural hair community has gone and what his current iteration looks like in the social media landscape. I largely have the belief that, for most of us, the natural hair community within the 21st century and specifically within the 2010s, failed us. Now, when i did my original video on textual discrimination, i was mostly calling out the corporations for their reliance on silkier hair textures. For you heavily utilizing black adjacent creators holding their product as a means for a particular type of hair, texture, often being marketed to women with 4c and beyond, really what we look we're growing. Now we could colloquially it's nappy highly textured tightly. Coiled hair was often being marketed to as if you use my product and you can get a looser curl texture, and i took big issue with that. Also, i was watching as a content creator in this space doing a lot of work, seeing my branding and messaging being co-opted, but not getting any of the equity that was being provided at the time of the space. I was not being sponsored, though i would be getting sent copious amounts of product. I was not being invited to hair events. I was just not. I was not really included in the natural hair community. Now people have plenty of opinions about why that was honestly. A lot of y'all could eat it because i still been eating, but um girl. We survived i'm still alive. I did have a lot of fallout from doing that, video and calling out brands, and i did that videos, knowing that i was ending my career as a natural hair, guru or influencer, and i thought i would kind of slow down and pace myself out of doing Natural hair content and slowly transition into what would be become cultural commentary, but there was such fallout from brands who just were so disrespectful to me like talia, waggied and curls, and particularly curls and event producers. So individual players in within the natural hair community who wanted to co-opt and use the conversation. I started around texture discrimination without paying me or including me in the conversation they wanted to use the discourse i started, but keep me out of it and it was a whole bunch of fallout that pretty much signified. It was the end of my time in the natural hair community. You know it was no going back and i moved forward and i flourished greatly. To be honest, i'm very happy. I did that it was so disheartening because also a lot of these people - and these brands in particular then went on to pivot into the black woman empowerment space, where they went from hawking products to selling courses. Look get your passive income. I guess, if it works. For you, but to watch these people pivot and to supposedly be these courses are about uplifting black women. Okay, this video honestly is not about me, i'm just having a little fun a little reminiscent you know what i mean saying what i want to say, but when i think about what happened in that realm and that era of the natural hair community, i think the Failure is largely default of the thing that i always like to blame. Most things on capitalism, any pushback that happened within the natural hair community. So similarly, when i did my texture, discrimination, video or the way plenty of us in the natural hair community were very vocal about the under representation or the misrepresentation of 4c and tightly coiled, hair textures and more visibly black women with various types of hair. Whether it was thin whether it was shorter, whether it was in between lengths being represented within the natural hair community being very vocal and that kind of pushback and discourse happening, it was always quickly commodified, as the next selling point. The support from the companies that want to utilize me and utilize my audience to capitalize financially off of it still don't support in the same way that they support other people with curly bouncy baby hairs, i'm like so stuck on this baby hairs thing largely because what I find interesting is that i could do the same style like one of my most popular natural hair. Videos is flat twist for 14 natural hair curly flat twist. It'S like the first like pharaoh tutorial that i ever did it's like. Almost at 200k, a young girl put up a video shiny, baby hairs, curly, hair naturally, and her video did the same numbers. My video did in a year and a half in two weeks. Why? Because it was shared all over facebook, it was all over instagram. It was like everybody's, whatever social media accounts, reposted her content, because her hair just looks pretty start to finish. As i alluded to in my textual discrimination video, there was an over representation of shiny, highly defined curl textures of biracial multiracial black adjacent women being centered in the campaign, oftentimes hawking products that they would not show using on their own hair, but claiming this is how They got their hair to look the way it did when simply it was often just jeanette and then again the products that we have marketed to highly textured tightly coiled hair types being told you can get looser curls. You can get this look that this person naturally has on their hair by buying this set of products. We have these products specially modified for your hair, texture, okay girl. What'S in it, some new kind of oil, marshmallow oil, avocado oil, all the new kind of oil and honestly, what is now transverse in the natural hair community and it's been wild to see the pivot towards baby hair products, products for laying your edges, we moved away Slowly, away from this highly defined shiny, hair, textures, constantly being centered and i'm very very slightly move away, i mean: wasn't a significant shift to well as long as you had baby hairs. That hair was desirable. So you look at my hair and you see i have a little fizz ball around the edges. We ain't there, ain't no baby hair lay baby. We kinky all the way around all right. If i was to do two french braids with my natural hair, texture and left my edges, as is it would not be promoted as a desirable hairstyle. Now i could do two french braids and if i had it swoop my edges in swooped in very meticulously. Suddenly this becomes a new trend, a new hairstyle and it's like fascinating to watch no jada waited is not necessarily a natural hair influencer. I don't believe she has natural hair. Maybe she do who know, but you know it's like the jada waiter effect, five big chunky braids, but the baby hairs is laid and suddenly that becomes a desirable style. It suddenly becomes really cute and everybody wants it. Oh okay, you know what i do consider like. The height of like the natural hair movement for, like the mid 2010 cycle between 2014 and 2017, the natural hair movement really took off. We got a lot of natural hair events. We had several black women-owned natural hair companies come to get great prominence, but then they sell out to these larger corporate oligarchies like the unilever, the l'oreal and then they pivot to selling courses just the way that this movement always becomes about what can be commodified. And what black women can be sold about seoul too, and i do think that maybe we can acknowledge that as one of the successes of the natural hair movement is really defining black women as a very solid consumer base, though that was quickly manipulated and rather than Truly servicing our needs quickly changing the messaging to tell us what we need to buy in order to achieve this, aesthetic that is not naturally attainable. I don't necessarily have a time period from when this movement became popular, but at least on tick tock. In my time on there, i've noticed the no oil movement become very popular, which is kind of wagging its finger at the era of youtube influencers and telling the youtube influencers that we done. We were the ones that well not me, because i got out early, but y'all was the ones that what that manipulated and lied to your consumer base for them to have to go, buy all these products and you created all these product junkies. I think that's! That'S real fascinating claim because, as i do remember it, the event. Producers and the natural hair companies were pumping a lot of money into marketing and creating cruises and natural hair retreats, and it was all about going to an event being able to get a gift bag. With product in it i mean i did my own natural hair event in 2013 during delta centennial, and it was largely it wasn't a big financial game for me because events are expensive to put on but um. It was a big success for me to be able to put together an event and have almost 30 000 people come through my natural hair event, and i think influencers, because so little equity exists within the creator economy. For specifically black influencers. They took the opportunities they can get, but i honestly don't even think beyond some of the like kitchen at-home trends of like rice, water, onion, water, that type stuff. I don't really think that influencers can take the blame for curating the product junkie, because that was that was the brands were always gon na find a way to make that happen with the pandemic kicking off in 2020 itself. You know the self-reflection the lack of access. I think some people had to grapple with their natural hair, and this no oil, no grease movement, which i started talking about for full disclosure, is currently the closest thing that i participate in currently, in that it it promotes this idea of using higher quality salon level Products in your wash and condition and using minimal products in your styling routine, and i did the detox and i participated in this journey and i'm not really using any style products, but i think for me, taking on this journey, i had shaved my head at the End of right in mid 2019 because i got a pixie cut, got a relaxer loved it 20 out of 10 was such a fan, but that was such an expensive hairstyle to keep up, and i was like i, i can't be spending all this money, i'm like. I got a little bit of money, but i ain't got that much money, so i'm not gon na keep up with this hair. So i'm gon na shave my head and go back natural, and then i decided that i was going to invest in going to a stylist regularly. And so i decided to try the no oil method and i think for me in taking that on and rather than getting into what i think, a lot more people have gotten into which is visiting the ig stylist, the tape ins, the silk presses, the natural, but Highly stylized hair um, i think i maybe got a little bit earlier onset of dealing with rethinking what i define as done hair, because what isn't as heavily discussed then there's no oil ideal for natural hair is that you have to step away from these products that We were often using to make our hair look gloss, not anything glossy but have a sheen. Somehow, we've absorbed this ideal that moisturized hair has to reflect some sort of shine now, depending on the various factors of your hair. But if you have a hair texture, that's anything similar to mine. My hair colors dull, my hair texture, is very tightly coiled, so it's not going to reflect a lot of light and i would have to use products that kind of sat on top of my cuticle and created that shine appeal and now that i'm doing the no Oils those products are very oil, very butter. Heavy i've had to learn to become okay, with my hair texture being moisturized, but still just looking like it's natural state of dry, and i'm saying this because of the recent response to lip glosses. Tick-Tock now lip gloss is a young black woman. She is very popular on tik-tok and she has a burgeoning youtube channel here. I have been following both for quite some time and i really just appreciated the very matter-of-fact self-aware, critical dialogue that she engages with on both platforms and recently she's been talking about coming to accept her hair, as is in which she doesn't do anything to it. She moisturizes it. She wakes up, fluffs it and learning to love its hair, as is which i think, really does kind of represent. Why, i would say the natural hair community at its height, was a failure, because most of us did not come out of that movement. Learning to love our natural hair, we loved buying product, we loved, getting gift bags, we loved going to natural hair events. We love the sort of experience of camaraderie of kinship that the natural hair movement created, but very few of us, came into that movement truly loving. Our natural hair, and so i think, lip glosses, tik tok, is actually very present for her as a young woman to discuss very frankly coming to terms with her natural hair learning to accept it and love it and how difficult that is, because i think it'd have Been very easy for her to get online and say: i'ma do this and i immediately love it, i'm bombing. Can'T nobody tell me otherwise, i'm that and instead you know she's very humorous, she's very witty she gets online and saying you know, i'm having a hard time put a little extra lotion on my stomach to help me out. I don't i don't know if i like how it look, i can only put white with this hair, i'm looking like i'm, i'm only put white boys with this hair, but we won't move anyway. I put this outfit on. Let me tell you right now: i can only put white boys with this hair, but i'm not mad to be honest and it's wild and actually quite obscene to watch this tick tock be pulled apart because she makes his quip about. I can only pull white boys with this hair which for most of us i don't know, i'm not going to speak for everybody i'll speak for myself, because i think i i think i'd be thinking for the thinkers. I think i think the joke landed right, but i i think it's wild for us to act so obtuse if, as if we don't have any cultural understanding of the nuance of that offhand comment, and not only was that comment used because obviously we have this weird Black man, black woman, gender war, that is really creating, really gaining steam on twitter happening, and so it was used in that narrative that black women are always downing black men. She said nothing about black men. She made no statement about black men. I actually took that comment also to be more of a reference of the type of black women. You often see partnered with white men. You know i mean you could there's a myriad of ways to take it before you get to. This was an offensive statement about black men, but what really tipped off is that people use. That comment to be just so derogatory towards lip gloss, and i really think this is such a great example not only of the failure of the natural hair community and how many of us didn't come out. Learning to love our black aesthetics, but also just the general anti-blackness that flourishes so well in the black community, because i don't believe people would have taken it that far. If she had a different phenotype, i'm not even going to get into the ethnicity of women that are dragging her, but the one person in particular henrietta snacks, a light-skinned black woman, quote, tweets it and says stubbly pits lotion after the fit is on dirty room. I can only pull white boys sounds like it goes beyond hair, and then there were other offhand comments making commentary about her not actually being attractive. It is wild to do a video about learning to love your natural self. Have it end up on twitter and people use it as a means to very publicly degrade you? There was not a single thought about her safety, her well-being. What is the psychological impact of this discourse going to have on this young woman? No thought a man takes her image and creates a hinge profile and to supposedly prove that all the likes and swipe rights or, however, hinge works. A black man on her profile proves that she can pull black men with that hair. Texture y'all are unhinged unwell, unstable. While i did appreciate the way some of y'all clapped back and dragged this out of henrietta's snack so much that she had to delete that original tweet. But she kept her other tweets, claiming that the girl just had a problem with not being that attractive and that she was anti-black man. Somehow un unfettered unwell, unlearned y'all are nasty people, but the other side of it is that, like the natural community failed. If we came out of the natural hair community having to still work on learning to love our natural hair textures, are we going to sit here and claim that the outside other populations, black men and otherwise all loved our hair? When we didn't, i think black men absorb the same thing that black women absorbed during the natural hair movement, that specific types of natural hair were to be celebrated. It always had to be very thick, but it could be big and extravagant, or sleek back and baby hair down bouncy curls with minimal frizz, yeah and included in a ton of that imaging with narrow facial features. You know i have long talked about the european spectrum of beauty and the closer we skewed to that which is a dash of african-ness in it. The more those sort of images were getting praised and everybody every gender was being socialized to find these particular images, as desirable me with my natural hair, would very, i would so often be denigrated even the way like my ability to access certain privileges is dependent on The way i'm wearing my hair - and i don't see being called queen patronizingly, be as a privilege of my natural hair. It'S actually annoying. It'S often done in a very performative manner and i'm not interested so it's so wild to watch. People talk about lip gloss, particularly on twitter, because they want to fit what are now their modern narratives about black men, not having real privileges. And you know, a lot of these sort of gender talks often are over centering or hyper fixated on the dismantling of black feminism um. You know black women participating in this discourse to show their allegiance to black men and i'm not even saying that you can't respect black men in all of this. You know i'm not part of the divester community and i'm not part of the i'm a sitting to worship the grounds you walk on. I'M part of the i don't find people disposable movement. I don't believe in the disposal of people within our community and i want us all to work towards the very complicated adult act of kindness. I have done videos on this exact topic about the way texture discrimination functions about the multitude of intersections of isms. That one can face when i did my video about how pretty privilege doesn't exist and also that's a byproduct of commodification, because i think that's part of why people so freely talk about lip gloss and because their belief is that, oh, she just didn't, buy the right Things to access the pretty that's why she looks so regular. I do wish that the natural hair movement, with all its glory with all the fun we had during that time period, i really do wish. We had had just like at least a smidge more success, and it's really coming out of this learning to love our true selves. But you know: we've moved into a new era of commodification and instagram filters and and hating our black ass, no and hating. Our soft features, which lip gloss you know she's such a smart and intelligent young woman. You know she's done videos talking about you know loving her soft features, her full features. One of my favorite things about being black, is having a fat filled face. I think having a full face is so beautiful chunky, nose, chunky lips, chunky, cheeks, so pretty it makes you look so adorable and youthful. Also the big brown eyes they're gon na give every single time every single time. Another thing that i notice a lot of black people have that i love is a chunky back now. Look at me, as you can see, i'm skinny, but the back. The back is thick and strong as, like i don't know, black people are very. I don't know we look good and that's something that you know i've. Also, like you know, i i watch her and i follow her because i do relate to a lot of the topics she talks about, even though these are things that i might have already been working on, but just that you know that reminder keeping these things top Of mind of learning to love her because all of a sudden, whether it's botox or an instagram filter, suddenly everybody has an angular face. Suddenly everybody has these very structured facial features and somehow again reinformed that are naturally full and fluffy facial features and especially, as our you know, for me as like, especially for older black women as our weights ebb and flow, and as we go through different cycles of Our hormonal lifespan, that somehow the fuller and fatter your face is the the less attractive it is, and i really appreciate that look. This is already something that lip gloss has hit it on. I would highly encourage y'all to go, follow and engage with her. You know, as i, as i sign my way off this platform, go, follow the new folk put them on and celebrate them because they are definitely coming with the right messaging. I don't necessarily want to engage in arguing with folks online, not for the free at all, but you know lip gloss in response to the fault happen say y'all. Sending me messaging about this. I want y'all to fight. Y'All should have fought for me. Don'T come. Tell me what they're saying about me that hurts my feelings. Why didn't you fight for me? Hey guys so everybody's been dming me. Are you okay, i'm so sorry, i'm gon na tell you right now. I think that's such a dumb thing to say i don't like that being said, i'm the type of person go drag and come back to me and report back to me how you dragged it. I don't want to hear that sentimental because, let's be real, it does absolutely nothing. It'S not productive. I don't like how y'all are crying and throwing up as if y'all was the one who got caught a ugly road that was me and i'm okay, the day still moved on. I'M ugly, i'm this time that i'm here, if you're gon na compete, my ass, you dumb anyways y'all, i need y'all to have some decora stop, acting so surprised that this happened. We knew the monstrosity that these men were. We grew up with these men. These men are the reasons that you're shaking in your boots as soon as you take that wig off like get the up the day, goes on. Hold people accountable, drag people when you need to and move on. So i appreciated seeing all the clapbacks, and you know that is something that i do want to have more fight in me. You know i do want to have more stand up for what you believe in in me. Um i've been resting during this pandemic, but i'm about to come back with the pew people back at you, okay, because i believe you know, i think the times is calling for it - that we do need to stand our ground in what we believe in more. I got no kind words to say about it: okay, clap back fight back and let these folks know because it's unacceptable, the sort of anti-blackness that we have just come to accept - and i do find it very unfortunate that the natural hair movement failed in helping us To better love our natural hair textures, there are various ways to take on that journey and it does require time and labor. It does require some uncomfortable moments and i think following lip gloss, is a great journey to follow along and participate with her, and you know, i'm gon na go get my little natural hair, we'll see we'll see, maybe i'll come back and do a live with y'all. With my natural hair, all right, i haven't, i don't feel like i've been hiding it for real this year. How about you know what i mean. I think i've done a few videos where i had a several day old wash and go in my hair, and you know you do really still have to work through the way we've idealized certain images and how we feed into those images with ourselves. So you know i'm going to commit to doing better as well. Thank you all for watching. Thank you for audible, for sponsoring this course. It'S audible.com joolzy, or to truly the 500 500, get your first month free, come on over to audible with me. You know you can check out my library. I have so many great selections that i've been listening to and i will see you on the other side.
Comments
Jouelzy: Comments & sharing help the most! Two videos in on week! And this video is very nostalgic w clips from my now privated natural hair vids. For more exclusive content join my Patreon https://patreon.com/jouelzy
Model Win: I think the issue with the natural hair movement is that mixed race women with wavy loose hair became the face of it there is still a stigma against coarser 4c type hair and because it doesn't lay down flat it's seen as less desirable than looser hair types
Nicole The Alchemist: I don't believe it failed. I believe the natural hair movement was and still is successful. Why? Because a lot more of us embraced our hair and know how to take proper care of it. What failed was the marketing of the movement, not the movement itself IMO.
beautiful blacksoul: It failed when I realised that texturism was huge in this so-called community when you made that video years back. I grew up with natural hair, so I didn't clock it even though I had midback 4C hair. When I clocked it, I dipped.
ElegantPaws01: They profit off 4C insecurities with unnecessary products.
Kia Roane: I think the biggest issue is some young ladies actually learned how to take care of their natural hair, while most were indoctrinated by chasing “the Tracy Eli’s Ross” look, and they bought all this crap that never made their hair look that way, and then gave up and become resentful.
Christie Brooks: Honestly lipgloss TikTok kinda showed me how almost in real time that infamous tweet of how you could say something as simple as I like pancakes and somebody would be like so you hate waffles and you'd be like B that's not what I said at all we have in 2 different conversations where you coming from? Then even worse they pulled lipgloss pic from her socials and set up fake profiles to prove their point. WTF! That's insane.
Quick PS Tuts: The movement failed because we (Type 4 kinky girls allowed it). Yes. I said it. We complain about the Type 3s and racially ambiguous people hijacked the movement, but WE ALLOWED that. They wouldn't have hijacked the movement if we chose not to watch and subscribe. YouTube does not force you to watch or subscribe to anyone. So before we blame the Type 3s, let's ask ourselves why those women often had more subscribers than 4C women, when actually so many more African American women have kinkier types???? We know the answer, but it's sometimes hard to be honest with ourselves and self reflect. The algorithm is responding and showing you what you click and watch! I have been natural since 2010 and struggled with accepting my hair, but learned that natural hair is a repellent for dusties! LOL It made me realize I was trying to appeal to men who didn't really prefer me anyway. So why not learn to love myself and screw all that!!! It's so freeing. I get stares, rarely get compliments on my hair in its kinky state and I don't give a HOT DAMN! My hair is thick, edges are healthy and I'm doing me!
The Polymathic Professor: I'm 50. I went natural (no perm) in September 2002, as did my mother and 2 cousins. There weren't ANY natural hair products on the market in 2002. We used old school jheri curl gel. Look, natural hair ain't for the WEAK! You have to accept your hair texture AS IS and deal with it. That's the purpose of being natural. Be ok with it swelling, the shrinkage, washing it a few times a week if need be, refreshing curls....etc. Just do you young ladies! Don't let society take away your power over your hair! I rock an afro. I rock kinky curls. I do what I want and guess what? Folk deal with it!
Lise Plans and Journals: There’s no natural hair movement. There’s a natural-but-not-too-unambiguously-black-hair movement. It shows in the vitriol against Lipgloss and in the ‘movement’ overall.
thePLAINESTjane: I love how Jouelzy unapologetically calls out the swindles in the Natural Hair Community. Thank you! You called out these issues a decade ago and what do you know? The SAME dialogue sadly still rings true.
Kaligirwa Namahoro: I'm tired of the ABSOLUTE chokehold that laying edges have on our community. Why is it that hair be 4c but the edges be 2A
Michala Palmer: There are many in the Black community that are deeply invested in self hate so when someone actually deeply loves themselves in their blackness it causes an uproar. I love lipglosss
TDr.: While I do agree that the movement was highjacked by those who already had an "acceptable" or "passable" hair texture in society at large, I must also say that the movement has changed my life for the better. I stopped getting relaxers 5 years ago and I'm never looking back. I love the newfound freedom in just being and loving myself. So while the "movement" was bittersweet, I do appreciate the solidarity around loving one's natural texture of hair.
Victoria Lake: I’m an older woman in my 50s. Natural hair just was. It wasn’t kinky hair, loose curl hair, mixed or unmixed hair. You just wore what The good Lord gave you and used the products that were available and that you could afford. I was happy that there was a new movement for natural hair. The BW with the hair texture that received the most discrimination had a platform. Then all of a sudden BM, non-BW, and all these other people came into the space. They know that they did not face the same hair discrimination but just could not stand BW having a platform. It is so sad that when BW try to talk amongst ourselves about things that happen to us and brainstorm to find solutions, others come to profit off of BW hard work and efforts. I just wish there was an Underground Railroad where we could help each other without others jumping in and taking it down.
Zia Latrice: Yes, failed miserably & started scamming with Jheri curls, relaxed edges, labeling type 3 hair as 4B/4C, etc. And the way the girls attacked each other on YouTube…. ♀️
maya: the way i saw people unironically be like, “what do you mean black men don’t like you, you ROACH” i started looking around for the hidden camera though i don’t have the kinkiest hair, i definitely clocked all the times i got positive attention for my hair (when it was big and stretched) vs when i didn’t (when it’s shrunken) and internalized that. unlearned one set of beauty standards just to put on another
Indi1O McColn: I really hate it for the folks who missed out on you calling the natural hair community out WAY BACK! Because not a single lie was told and still years later your words ranged true Still is one my top favorite moments from old YT
AliyahBee: 4c ain't 4c anymore. The gaslighting 4c women get from the type 3 pick Me's is exhausting. I JUST started to wearing my natural hair when dancing. My edges were taking a tole from all the wigs. But when I get around mu dark skin mother with type 3 hair, she won't stop critiquing/shaming for wearing it. She's another pick that leans on the fact she's dark skin with extremely loose hair. She HATES I'm lighter than her but didn't inherit HER hair. The YT community just made me more insecure. The only videos I see are the women with my mom's hair. They would only send NATURAL HAIR CARE to the 3type girls. It's all jokes.
Kaylan Winters: For me, the wake up call was the underrepresentation of Locs. That loose natural hair advice was not working for my 4C hair, so I decided to Loc it. I thought the NHC was supposed to uplift all natural hair, but I realized Locs still are stigmatized even within our own “community”.
LilSunnybeans :3: Whew what a full circle moment. Almost feels prophetic lmao. I began watching you when I was 18. I’m 28 now. It’s crazy how you peeped the inevitable conclusion to the movement. What a journey hahaha.
Avianna W: Also, that comment about creating a narrative that BM loved 4c hair when BW didn't really reminds me of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Morrison said that she wrote the book because she felt like with the whole "Black love" movement happening around her that she didn't want to see the erasure of the reality/history of how being black was degraded.
Rinagade: My husband chased me, he said I was the most beautiful one on the whole campus. I wore my natural fro and it was huge at the time. He is a white man. I've shaved it and grown it back like 2 times in the 4 years we've together. He says I'm beautiful period.
Erya Bolonha: Crazy how the Natural hair movement marketing is so linked to BM's preference. I'm not speaking directly for myself(although I'm included), but as a general idea, we're sold/marketed what BM's find desirable, from hair products to wigs/extensions texture, to bleaching creams. If we were to analyze it from beauty standard's POV, we are being sold an illusion that shames our natural selves. I can't help but think we as women feel the need to be desired and that's our Achilles heel
Random User: As a black boy I remember growing up my mom would always tell me to cut my hair short because it is more presentable and when its grown out it is "ugly". So when I got older and started to embrace my afro I struggled finding a haircare routine with all the product pushing. The commercialization of hair care made it hard to make sense out of all the noise in the space. And even when my hair was moisturized black woman I knew would say it looks dry even if that's the natural look with minimal product. The truth is we grew up with pink lotion and using products that manipulated our hair to look less like its natural state. I think the problem is more than a single genders fault. So when I hear black women blame black men I think it takes away agency to say at the end of the day we need to be more self reflective and aware and stop looking outside of ourselves. We can't rationalize bad behavior by pointing the finger, or the cycle will never break
Love Brittany B: I noticed that with the baby hair too! Its because the baby hair gives the illusion of a looser texture. OOP I said it.
Dr. Alia Dixon, Nurse Practitioner: If black women would stop supporting bi racial and Latina natural hair YouTube’s and IG pages (in my Cyn Gs voice) they could never take over but we do it to ourselves Some Black women idolize these women and want to look like them so a black man can want them and desire them..Trauma bond has caused this and us black women are the problems white women are not supporting their channels only black women
Brianna Nechelle: I'm from Alabama, and I moved to NYC pre-COVID and it was the first time I REALLY saw black women and black men embrace their natural selves. I had already been in my natural hair journey, but it was SO hard for me to love my natural hair, which, to me is a reflection of my natural self. I have a vivid memory of this beautiful woman on the train that changed it all for me. Her afro was HUGE and BEAUTIFUL. It was like seeing the Mona Lisa, not in a fetishized way but in a LIBERATING way. My idea of beauty continued to evolve. (I personally like the beauty standards in NY more than LA and the South because it's more natural. NY weather is a mess, who got time for a full face of makeup?!) Anywaysss. When I got back, I remember being like damn. Don't nobody look like me. Like, no one has an afro. And I never really got attention from men, but NOW?! dry. LMAOOO :( The truth is the girlies in the south love a wig. Sure, natural styles exist but very much so in a "slick back," make it neat, respectability politics type way. And it's SO exhausting. It's exhausting not being able to just be yo damn self... I related so much to Lip Gloss's statement because black women in their natural form are NOT attractive to black men (esp. in the SOUTH) and it's sad AF. The self-hate is real and I can wait until we as a community evolve from this sunken place.
butterfly sky: I have been natural since 08. I remember being on YouTube and trying to find natural hair info and it was sooooo different it was so empowering and so liberating. It was a real community. I remember Mae, there was a girl named Cali and a few others that were so cool in the beginning. A few years later there was a real shift and it just didn't feel the same. People were asking me what my hair type was and I was like I don't know natural lol. I knew then it was a bit too much I fell off.
toosweetfrosting: People have been telling 4c girls to get locs when they are struggling with their hair. Its weird as hell because if someone with a looser hair texture was struggling, they will be recommended products or processes, not a locs.
Reabetswe Botlholo: I remember when I first got vaccinated one of the ladies asked me "why didn't you comb your hair" after I took my grey hoodie and I came up with some lame excuse of "sorry its the fluff from my hoodie" and this just goes to show how black people (more especially black women) can never just show up as they are.
Zikomo7: The natural hair movement failed because the 4Cs let it. We allowed the 3s in. We gave them more attention than the 4s. Also, we can’t deny BMs part in this. They said they wanted natural so we went. Then they clarified that they wanted wavy not coily natural.
Samri Bliss: It’s mostly black boys and later BM who made fun of my kinky hair. My Asian husband loves my kinks. Go where you’re celebrated not tolerated ~ Pink pill
damita jaida: i was just thinking abt this: i have a 3a blonde afro wig that a loooot of (non black) ppl would compliment and acknowledge me with. it was a really weird month of wearing it bc my natural is 4a/b that didn’t get that same desirability. i had to stop wearing it
W @ N D E E: Them prioritizing loose curly hair over kinky coily hair did us a disservice coz most black women have Type 4 hair
CreateHER: Bought all that product just to go back to grease and water and FINALLY my hair is in its glory!
Melanin Queen: The situation with Lipgloss truly pissed me off!! Men are so damn weird and dangerous! By and large when black men say they like natural hair, it is often the texture of those who hijacked the natural hair movement to begin with. If for some reason they are willing to accept the 4b-4c texture, your puff better be to the high heavens. They really tried to gaslight her into back tracking on her LIVED experience. Wow
Tan Mack: I used to get so distraught when my hair didn't look like or style like other people who said that they were 4c. I now know that they may not have been 4c or a different porosity. I made a comment about my baby hairs not laying down like a YouTube influencer's edges with 4c hair. SOOOOOO many people came for me in the comments talking about they were protecting her. FROM WHAT?!?!. I was done with the natural hair community. You have ALWAYS kept it real and I have really appreciated you.
Chromagens: 1) I do not get the baby hair obsession. My edges will be FUZZY and my hair will NOT be laid ️ 2) there's a lot I love about the newer wave of natural hair stuff coming from some stylists and "no oil". But the influencer finger wagging really feels like consumers and viewers not wanting to own up to some choices 3) the Lip Gloss situation... Sigh. Completely unnecessary. But also revealing seeing how people choose to come for her for literally nothing smh.
angfilm: it definitely imploded but I think with people like lipgloss on tiktok inspiring others, there could be a 2nd movement resurging in a form that the natural hair movement SHOULD HAVE BEEN!! perhaps in rebellion to the standards that have been put in place because of this failure
beautyandfashion1563: the amount of blood, sweat, tears and money i spent trying to change my 4c hair into something its not is wild. Wish i could go back and tell myself that my hair was perfect the way it looks without any manipulation
oct3087: I opted out of the “natural” hair movement when biracial/looser texture haired girlies said their hair and curls were never in. Are you kidding me? In the black community, looser textured hair has always and will always rained supreme. It was almost a slap in the face to hair them say this and the comments that followed
Arnettra Baker: Jouelzy coming for my neck on a Tuesday morning. I have been thinking about returning to straightened hair in the last few weeks and I do think it’s in part due to the fact that I will never have the type of natural hair that has been glorified in the community. Giving me lots to think about as always, Jouelzy!
GirlYouAlreadyKnow: I hear so much from black people speak on breaking generational traumas and it's interesting that conversation does not leak into the trauma we have around our features (unstretched 4 type hair, wide nose, dark skin) and instead it flips into nasty criticism and vitriol against anyone who brings it to the forefront. We have been violently oppressed around raw black aesthetics and it's bone deep into our insecurities now. We got work to do collectively but it starts with the indiviual. Time to get tf off Twitter and seek real books and education.
Akosua Boahemaa: The natural hair movement was dead on arrival. All the manipulation that influencers taught to get your hair done exceeded relaxing or straightening. That's when I knew it was about making your kinks look like loose curls. So it was not about loving your tight coils at all. It was about making it look like it was naturally loose curls. Definitely not natural.
OhNo ThatsMo: I remember I got blocked from curlz and Kinky Curly for bring your name up and for chewing them up for using and being fake. I can’t believe that was almost 10 yrs ago
Maroon Horizon: Didn’t fail me. I think people should do what they want with their hair. But they should acknowledge why the prefer some styles over others. I love my hair. I did this for me and and other little girls who see my hair
butterfly corpse: This makes me sad, how our hair, the hair that grows out of our head is still marginalized within our own communities.
stayfly3000: Hi Jouelzy! So on a macro level you're right on, but on a micro level, I think we gained major ground. I believe you have a point regarding the comodification of the movement by corporations and individuals who just wanted to make money; in the "good ol" US of A anything popular is gonna be exploited for the dollar bill. However, the number of women who now see wearing their hair the way it grows out of their scalp as a viable option, when in my era (80s-90s), a relaxer was the automatic go-to; I'm gonna count that as a win.
VIP Until Whenever: Through my daughter, I’m learning to be more comfortable with natural hair without manipulation. I started my natural hair journey during the 2010s and realized just recently how much it bothered me to see hair that wasn’t stretched with a twist-out or braid-out. When my daughter would literally wash and go —no styling products, no braids or twists— I would confront her about about her hair being “undone” but I never really could explain what was undone about it. It was clean, moisturized and detangled. We have more unlearning to do.
T Young: Wow! Outside of watching YouTube, I’m not on social media. I’m 40 and natural. I did not know all of this was still happening. I knew too many of us was not embracing our natural hair when years ago we continued to tell some women “ you got good hair”. This makes me cringe. I honestly don’t care how other women wear their hair. Whatever makes them comfortable. I’m not sure what else to say. It’s saddening. There seems to be too much hate amongst ourselves, not to think about hate from the outside.
Sadiqa: As a 4C girl that's been natural since 2010 I agree with what you are saying. Youtube was taken over by bi-racial "babyhaired" girls. I noticed that all of the 4C videos were mainly for how to get curl definition or perfect twist outs. Now that I'm loc'd I'm seeing it again with the curly ended faux locs and loc extentions with curly ends. People really have a hard time embracing their natural hair texture and it's sad.
Dana Marie: I was “natural” for a couple years before the natural hair movement on YT and I really got into it. Imagine my surprise when all them products didn’t make my hair curly. I didn’t know about your channel back then but I was living in delusion ESPECIALLY bc everyone who did a big chop had perfectly shiny ringlets.
Kaligirwa Namahoro: Even the tiktok sound "here is my natural hair untouched" has MANY "natural girlies" with their edges done. I'm so tired of the shenanigans, have we forgotten what untouched means
Rainice Waller: I was born in 88. When I was 12, wearing my natural hair in its natural state was unheard of. In today's climate, it's the norm for young girls to be natural. The discourse surrounding Lipglosss, a 19 year old, it's proof that the natural hair movement flourished. Millenials aren't relaxing their daughters hair at 4 and 5 years old. It's only a fail, if despite being natural, you still struggle to appreciate your hair in its natural state.
Several Piece: Having 4c, I used to be soo mad when my hair wouldn't get like the tutorials. 10 years later. I have a daughter and son. My daughter has 4b and my son has type 3. Don't matter what product I put in his hair...it's gonna look type 3 ♀️. All them products were a SCAM !!!!!
D. Taylor: I knew it was going to fail when the kinky coils that most of us have was labeled 3s and 4s and wavy, curly appeared to be ranked higher. The texturism was apparent from day one.
Erin Symone: Title is everything.... I had to divest from this hair thing years ago. I wasn't getting closer to loving me and it turned into just another space where I was only seeing people who I could never hope to be, being held above me. It got old quick. I just stay in my own lane now.
Jetun Nadine: 4C adjacent and 4C misrepresentation are terms that I needed to explain my thoughts around people believing they have 4C hair because of the negative connotations surrounding the hair type. Most people claim they have 4C when their hair is thick, dry or tangled completely ignoring that is it an actual type of curl. Also, Ms. Gloss read us for filth when she said "these men are the reason that you're shaking in your boots as soon as you take that wig off" oh she read down.
DancesWithPen: The baby hair trend is out of control. My classmates glues pieces of straight hair to her hairline every day. I don't blame her since everyone her age is basically rocking that look
xIKRx: Lip Gloss is a very attractive young lady and anyone who thinks otherwise is either jealous or needs to heal. I think she looks stunning rocking the style that's causing her all this grief but I'm Wht so what do I know
E M: Honestly, as someone with 4a hair the amount of hair tutorials I click on with someone claiming to be type 4 only to have 3b/c curls is astounding. Like y’all are just out here lying!
so.many.obstacles: I have a lot to say and a little time. I will say this, we can all find a privilege somewhere, if we move through the Visio diagram. I am dark skinned with full facial features, apple shaped body and 4c hair. I am not by majority standards considered to be beautiful. I do recognize that I get complimented on my clear smooth skin and my full thick hair. My hair grows fast and it grows long. I choose to cut it often because I’m not into long hair. That is a privilege or “advantage” over others in some way, because let’s be honest, there’s a competition happening whether we participate in it or not. In the competition someone has to win and someone has to lose. For any sort of supremacy to work, someone has to feel inferior. Oftentimes, it’s those that have “West African features and hair textures”. Whether or not you feel inferior, it’s those that are so-called superior’s duty to make you feel otherwise. We can use Lipgloss as an example of this. Henrietta used that moment to tear Lipgloss down about her looks, when she was discussing her hair. Because how dare Lipgloss feel beautiful and confident about her looks.
Chavon S: The internet has made it okay to bully people for no reason. You see someone going through a self love journey and you pick her apart. It's honestly a sickness.
Anne-Sophie M: I used to hate my tightly coiled 0 definition 4c hair while growing up. Although the Natural Hair community did not manage to make us love our hair, it definitely did manage to make me not to hate it anymore.
Carli Marie: When I started seeing those “length check” tshirts, I was like: this will not end well.
Lola’s Opinions: One thing, Jouelzy has kept it consistent for over a decade.
Avianna W: I have always felt that my natural hair styles were not complete unless my edges were laid. It wasn't until watching a Mayowa's World video that I even began to question that impulse. This year was the first time in my life that I have worn my natural hair as is without doing any laying of my edges, and it has honestly been so freeing
Naturalbeautybee: When will the day come when black women can focus on other things besides our hair?! Come thru self acceptance and simple hair regimes. Tight tectures are a fact (leave out the value judments of good or bad) and should not be disposed of, beat into submission or covered up from insecurity. The oppression of tight hair came with snatched bald edges, broken damaged strands and alopecia. Hair is should never be this serious. Hoping we continue to evolve dismantling white supremacy and be free to exist confidently as we are.♡ Great video!
Kia Roane: Oh absolutely. It was a shit show. But I will always be grateful for what I learned. My natural hair is down my back. And I definitely had to come to the internet for how to grow my hair, bc the salons didn’t have the knowledge. It just the truth.
Brittany: Greta video, as always! When I noticed the girls were cutting and straightening their hair to make it look like silky baby hairs I knew we never really moved forward around our hair.
SierraxSurreal: The natural hair movement helped me tremendously. Most of the YouTubers I followed did not promote products from “natural hair” companies. They used shea butter, olive oil, almond oil etc. At the time I think Miss Jessie’s was like the only brand in stores. Initially these YouTubers were showing their routines and how to manipulate kinky hair without breaking it. YouTube was not the moneymaker it is now, back then. It was very much I’m just in my bathroom with a camera. I mean bad lighting no thumbnails. I’m so grateful for this because I was so insecure about my hair but I was tired of hiding it. I big chopped in 2009 and never went back. I guess the glory days always come to an end. ♀️
Fairy: I realized the natural hair failed when I was debating chemically processing my hair to get the desirable texture. Like that defeats the whole “natural” part. But I love lipgloss and she’s really candid, intelligent and so fun to watch
MoalaTheArtist: I was so frustrated with my fine natural 4c hair not looking thick and 3b that I cut it all off in 2018. I had been natural at that point since 2015 and hated my hair more than I ever did with relaxer because of the rhetoric surrounding it. And when it grew back after 7 months I felt it would only look good if it grew downwards. So I got locs. The praise towards my hair (especially from men) is a 180 from when I was a loose natural…. And that’s truly because of length and the fact that my 4c hair doesn’t look recognizably 4c anymore.
ElephantQueen: I am LOVING the amount of black content creators that are supporting Lip Gloss and our truly natural hair! I will continue to like, comment, and share every video that involves black women supporting each other. Each day, the community of black women falling in love with themselves grows. THANK YOU!
Candace Julien: I've noticed this evolution as well in certain natural hair online communities. Having super long hair has become an obsession to the point of ppl sharing information about hormone supplements. This horrified me and I left those spaces for good. I've since locked up my hair, and I actually think the locked natural hair spaces and communities are a lot healthier. There's no place for a European aesthetic or hair texturism in the natural locked hair community. The entite paradigm around hair is different, I think it's actually more aligned with our type if hair (i.e. African texture). So I'm thinking that is where the natural hair movement will ultimately find the most success.
PatriciaSonia: Loved this video. My natural hair journey went so much easier when I finally realized that I didn’t have curly hair and the goal wasn’t to make my hair curly. Liberation came and I withdrew from that natural hair community. Less products and accepting, loving and appreciating my hair as is.
AJ2ThaMaxx: Babygirl! It took us this long to speak on the co-opting of the natural hair community. The colorism and the texturism is still showing love. I am still eternally grateful for the sistas, who went through the uncomfortable process of bringing love and acceptance to many of us that embraced their 4-something hair texture for the first time 10 years ago. I know that the “preferencing” has sept through the community but my love for YOUR work is still here.
Jennifer Piose: I really enjoyed this video. You mentionned the current gender war in the black community & its a heavy topic, but I would love a video on it!!
KD: Before the natural hair movement I felt like having odd Black hair, specifically my scalp that built up quick led me to be ostracized. My family asked once did I want to be white bc I washed my hair twice in one week. There's honestly no need for a natural hair movement but more for a individual hair movement. Taking account density, porosity, scalp condition is way more important than texture. My hair is 4a ish but my hair is coarse with 3 other textures, which can mimick a 4c look when pulled. The low porosity and high density has helped me find more products that work. I use design essentials for oil and dandruff use and then curls dynasty for my curls
Amber Parker: This video was spot on we didn’t get shyt from the natural hair movement. Women who I thought had the most beautiful thick curly hair were wishing they had a looser texture and to this day STILL. It’s a struggle for sure
CG Natural: “The very complicated adult act of kindness”…you couldn’t have said it any better when it comes to our community. Loved this as the folks say ‘that part’.
Karimah Rokins: As someone who went natural back in the fotki/ nappturality forum days i am 12+ years in and STILL trying to figure out how to properly care for my hair. I loved the honesty of trying to figure out what "done" looks like for 4c hair.
T Maposa: Another youtuber named Mayowa experienced a lot of bullying and cruel remarks over her natural hair texture from the so called natural community.
The DisCusted Kitty: I started watching you when you were a natural hair YouTuber. I remember that video and every word was true. The most popular natural hair YouTubers back then were girls with long curly and even sometimes wavy hair. They were just selling products to women who thought their hair was going to do the same thing. Even now long haired women are making bank off black women thinking that a certain routine or product or concoction will make their hair be ass length. It's up to genetics what your terminal length is and a lot of women don't know that. My loose hair has only ever been able to make it a little bit past my shoulders no matter how well I take care of it. People are mad at her for saying only white guys like her hair because it's true. I'm in my 40s but when I was her age and my hair looked exactly like hers. Black men were not having it at all. The only black men who liked my hair were 20 or 30 years older than me saying it made them nostalgic for the 70s. I had black AND white men tell I was beautiful but that I would look better with a perm. I don't understand why that woman who was insulting her was in her feelings about what she said.
Indiegirl007: So, I'm in an interracial relationship and I was discussing what Lipgloss said with my white male partner. And we both agreed that she is correct. Black women who look like Lipgloss DO get a lot of pull from white men. And not just white men, every other race of men. I saw so many young women who look like Lipgloss at a festival and these girls were either with other races of men or they were being APPROACHED by other races of men. All the brothas were with the lighter skinned, baby haired down, beat face, skin tight clothing, ladies. I don't understand why she was attacked for just stating the truth. I asked my boyfriend why he thought this is, and he said it was because they appreciate the natural. He even said that he doesn't much care when I add hair and prefers my natural curls/coils and bare face. I feel like black men will only say this about a specific girl.
Naturally_Nica: When marketing came into the picture, things started skew away from natural hair empowerment. Many of the OG natural hair creators divested from the true meaning of the movement for money. It's sad but the beginning was magical and I'll forever hold on to that.
ladymystic11: I have been natural since 2011. The movement helped me a lot.
Rachel Rae': Something that I think isn’t talked about as much is in my experience when I wore my natural hair and wash and go styles I experienced so much hair touching from others (of all races) and I grew tired of. I wore my hair less and less this way to keep people away from me. Which is sad.
KYCoconuts: I have definitely had to go on a journey of liking my fuzzy, 4c hair. I appreciate it so much more. Although personally I chose to do more protective braid styles because it is just easier for me because of my mental health and not having the energy to maintain my natural hair every day
Antoinette Deitcher: It was such a fail. As someone who was part of the "natural hair community" in NYC back in 2010-2013ish, and thoroughly enjoyed all the events, I see how it was mostly just product pushing and my kind of natural hair wasn't praised the same way that others with bigger, curlier hair was. My hair is still natural, but I cut my hair off when I had a baby in 2018 and couldn't be bothered anymore. Happy to be a baldie now lol.
Shannon Sharie: I’ve tried to embrace my natural hair but I find myself going right back to a relaxer. It’s so expensive purchasing products that MIGHT work. I’m over it. I’ll do what works for me.
LadyIsLovely: I'm not sure why we get so involved in these "movements". If you have coarse/kinky hair and you want to wear it that way, then wear it! Who cares what a hair company, influencer, or "movement" does. I can tell much thought was put into this video and that's great. I just feel that we shouldn't get so caught up in frivolous matters such as opinions on hair.
Alexis Jackson: I really love the dialogue and energy lipglosssss brings. I had to follow her immediately. I’m actually a bit hopeful (just a bit) that her video is going to lead the conversation to where the natural hair movement should have led us.
Taylor: The only good thing that came from this movement is the natural hair representation in commercials and some shows. I lived abroad in Japan for 6 years and was surprised to see racialized black women with their hair out on tv. It was nice to come home to that because it was almost not existent in years prior.
Ebene-ann Luke: Lipglosssss is a young general in the movement. She really said "go drag" and I was surprised because I've just been over fighting people that aren't listening. I didnt realize they really toke our silence as weakness. The "angry black women" and the "strong black women" have just been trying to do their own thing and quietly exist but they really tried to drag Lipglossss and while we have a lot of bw who speak out, I dont think we have as much
Meriam H.: Jouelzy’s channel was one of the FEW channels that I could identify with back then. I was so sad when she said she was leaving the hair discussion! These little girls are only doing “tutorials” and reviews for the sponsorships and likes.
Bre: *Pause video* When the movement first started, I didn't understand why ppl accused naturals on YouTube for pushing products when the motto was: DO/USEWHATWORKS FOR YOU/YOUR HAIR. I see why ppl say that about today's influencers, but not about the OG naturals. Ultimately, I think the movement "failed", because many type 4 bw didn't love their hair. The moment lace fronts became a thing, it was a done deal. We should've ALL been walking out with our fros and curls, braids etc like they did back in the 70s, and every now and then switch it up. But instead, wigs took over. Also, the water only method, was telling ppl to step away from products, just like the no oil method
Naturalbeauty_abena: Many of us chose to not follow the trend of "natural hair" but chose ourselves and appreciated our natural hair as is. Never in the 10 plus years laid my edges. But I do see your point why the movement failed.
morena101: I went natural right around the time YouTube was gearing up as a platform for women wanting to go natural. I remember your videos and ladies like AfricanExport and The Chic Natural because you all had type 4 hair. It was seeming like everybody started to lust after that 3C curl by using products that promised curl definition, and wash & go’s and I always think about about the girls who spent all that money and time trying to manipulate their hair into something that just wasn’t going to be. As a natural hair stylist, I still see it today. Girls wanting to come in for a wash & go in hopes that their hair will magically form into 3C curls, and I have to be honest with them. Your hair doesn’t do that, babe. Let’s try this flat twist out. It breaks my heart that so many girls have not really accepted their hair because that 3C curl is pushed to the forefront of being “natural”