The ‘Big Brother’ winner and former Miss Michigan USA celebrates the duality of wearing both natural curls and pressed hair.
This is Texture Talk, our long-running column that deep dives into the dynamic world of curly hair, from crowns of curls that are free flowing to strands that are tucked away in a protective style.
“Am I accepting my Blackness more if I wear my hair curly?” Taylor Hale ponders over the phone. “Am I rejecting my Blackness if I press my hair?” These are the burning and poignant questions about identity that have long circulated within the textured-hair community and that the former pageant queen — and the first Black woman to win on Big Brother — has grappled with since she was young.
“It’s not that I was ever embarrassed about or ashamed of my hair throughout my childhood,” says Hale, “but I learned very early on that it required more care and maintenance than other hair types.” For many Black women, this realization is the first step in a hair journey that can take years to navigate. Most of us can pinpoint the precise moment when we first became aware of our textured hair and how it differed from other hair types. For Hale, these moments of awareness happened throughout her childhood, as she played with straight-haired dolls and at pool parties, when her hot-combed coils instantly reverted to their curly state upon contact with water. From a young age, Hale routinely had her hair — a varied cascade of type 3C and 4C spirals — pressed and curled at salon visits. Her regimen didn’t require chemicals, relaxers or over-manipulation — just time and consistency. Above all else, Hale feels that hair should provide comfort and ease. It’s why, this year, she swapped her signature pageant queen blowout for a blunt face-framing bob. “I’m very, very happy with this cut,” she says. “It kind of feels like a dare, to really have to look at my own face.”
“I want…
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