00:00Everyone has an opinion on hair.
00:04Across South Africa, it has sparked debate around identity and beauty ideals.
00:09So are South African women really sending messages with their hairstyles?
00:13If you are like you're wearing your hair,
00:15you can't look at your hair,
00:16you can't look at your hair.
00:19Like we have that, we do judge if you're wearing hair.
00:23I don't know why.
00:24I actually love my hair and it's a new thing for me.
00:28Like I've always tucked my hair in or braided it or had a weave on at some point.
00:35I have a natural hair, it's an alfra, so I like to braid them.
00:39So it's very beautiful, braids are nice.
00:42The type of beauty that was marketed to us as black women was more of a Western standard.
00:48So it was like a no-go zone for me to even try to cut my hair and see what my natural hair looked like.
00:53But the day I did, oh my goodness, I was like, I'm never ever going back again.
00:59For stylist Nmisa Mimiduma, hair is more than a craft.
01:04I really consider myself to be no ordinary stylist.
01:09I, the physical me, disappears.
01:11I really just disappear and creation takes over and I build.
01:16And when I then step back to look at this creation, sometimes I'm also amazed.
01:23Mimi has collaborated with other artists in Johannesburg to showcase their own new idea of hair.
01:30For Mimi, fashion shoots showcase her talent and creativity.
01:33I label myself as a natural hair stylist, not disregarding anything else that doesn't fall under the umbrella of natural.
01:45And yes, we can play around with braids and wigs and weaves, but understanding that you are not the wig.
01:51When that wig comes off, you still need to be confident with the hair that comes out of your scalp.
01:57Negative stereotypes about Afro hair have led to many men and women ditching kinky and puffy hair for tamed hairstyles.
02:05These cliches have deep roots in colonialism and later in South Africa's appetite regime.
02:12But younger South African women want a different look.
02:15In Zimbabwe, which is where I'm originally from, one of the biggest stereotypes associated with natural hair is poverty.
02:23A lot of people have also experienced discrimination in schools because natural hair may not be seen as professional or may be seen as a distraction.
02:35Noreen Jonathan has thousands of followers on Instagram with videos showcasing her natural hair routine and product recommendations.
02:42I also wanted to be the role model that I didn't see when I was younger.
02:51So I wanted to show my natural hair, show it in different styles, figure out a way to basically romanticize tightly coiled, textured hair.
03:04During Appetite, hair was one way to separate black people from the rest of society.
03:08The so-called pencil test became infamous, where a pencil was put into people's hair and if it didn't fall, it meant that the person had Afro hair and therefore was not classified as white.
03:23On the Appetite, racial classification led to racial discrimination and violence.
03:28It also contributed to the myth that straighter hair was better, influencing entire generations.
03:34For Tha Yvonne Teh, who is a loctician, this is something she also has noticed in the media too.
03:44We see it in the magazines, one of the ones who put the beautiful women.
03:48The women with the straight hair, if you want to look the movies, like even for the kids cartoons,
03:55all you see is the beautiful babies with straight hair.
04:00So it's a system that has been put in place for decades.
04:05One way of styling tight Afro curls while keeping it natural is micro locks, of which Yvonne is a master.
04:11Because I wanted people also to see this other side of going natural, using less products, not putting anything on your hair apart from water and some light oils.
04:25The South African natural hair movement has come a long way and the country's hair care industry is booming.
04:31It's worth half a billion dollars and is projected to grow more than 6% in the next five years.
04:37But Liesel Smirdon, who runs a Cape Town-based natural hair care line, believes there's more potential.
04:44In the beginning, there were not a lot of people starting their own businesses.
04:48And slowly but surely, people were starting their own brands.
04:53And now there are so many people starting their own natural hair care brands.
04:59Liesel also believes that there's still work to be done for women to fully feel confident.
05:04So it is a bit of a journey of self-acceptance and finding yourself, but it's really, really worth it.
05:14There will be a few times when you are doubting yourself, when you might think, is this a good idea to even go natural?
05:22But I promise in the end, you're going to love the outcome.
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