It’s no secret that Afros are stunning. The natural hair movement is a testament to their beauty. There are magazine editorials, red carpet appearances and even runway looks that praise the Afro in all its iterations and still, negative stigmas persist. Dazhane Leah, a blogger and photography student based in London, seeks to disrupt the damaging perception of Afros with a new series called “Afro Bloomin.”
The mesmerizing photographs pair Afros with flowers, a universal symbol of beauty. “Together [flowers and Afros] are binary opposites, you wouldn’t think to put the two together because they both come with different stereotypes,” she told Mashable.
Try denying the beauty of natural hair after viewing this series. Leah captures the afro illuminated by natural sunlight, and embedded with images of roses and cherry blossoms. It’s amazing how similar the shape of an Afro is to a fully-bloomed cherry blossom tree. How can we call one beautiful while criticizing the other?
“I’ve read, seen for myself and been told by family and friends about the negative experiences they’ve had when wearing their natural hair,” Leah said. “An afro is a statement and the hairstyle itself represents and holds so much history and passion and represents so much. As a whole, natural hair, especially when worn in an afro or dreadlocks has been and still is looked down upon. […] “Natural hair, no matter what way a person decides to wear it, should equally fit societies’ standards of ‘Good hair.'”
We couldn’t agree more.
[via Mashable]
