'I love this cotton hair!': Black women, natural hair, and (re)constructions of beauty

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the current natural hair movement among African American women in the United States as a space where beauty standards are simultaneously contested, reified, and reshaped. Here, the "natural hair movement" is the recent trend of Black women consciously ending the habitual chemical straightening/ processing of their natural hair texture. The study is guided by the following research questions: 1) To what extent does the "natural hair movement" participate in/ endorse Eurocentric standards of beauty? 2) How are Black women utilizing the natural hair movement to (re)define, (re)shape, and (de/re)construct meanings of beauty and Black womanhood? Utilizing theories of beauty culture/ standards of beauty and Black feminism, this study explores these research questions by way of discourse analysis. The subjects of this study consisted of four internet-based natural hair care spaces: 1) The official website of Carol's Daughter brand natural hair care products 2) CurlyNikki.com, the world's most popular natural hair blog (Walton) 3) Popular video blogger Naptural85's YouTube channel and 4) A Twitter and Tumblr page within the 4C hair type sub-grouping. The language and images within these spaces were sorted and analyzed, to reveal patterns surrounding the ways that beauty is theorized within the natural hair community, via discussions of natural hairstyles, lengths, and textures. Ultimately, the study suggests the natural hair movement is a space where negotiations of identity are occurring, as Black women have created their own space to (re)shape meanings of Black female beauty, while at times influenced by deeply embedded Eurocentric standards of beauty.