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This week, we caught up with Ciomara Morais, an Angola native & actress with a seriously enviable mane.
Have you ever felt out of your comfort zone because of your hair?
When I was younger, I was incessantly teased about my natural hair. The kids at school (and, sometimes, the adults!) asked me if I didn't have combs at home, if I had stuck my fingers in the socket, or if I did not know that '70s happened before my birth. And, they said if I wanted to be someone, that I had to do something with my hair to be presentable.
When I was younger, I was incessantly teased about my natural hair. The kids at school (and, sometimes, the adults!) asked me if I didn't have combs at home, if I had stuck my fingers in the socket, or if I did not know that '70s happened before my birth. And, they said if I wanted to be someone, that I had to do something with my hair to be presentable.
But then, when I was 15 and in Germany, I went to a bank and I met with a very knowledgeable black man with a huge rasta. Sure, it sounds like an otherwise inconsequential day, but it set the way I started to look at myself — I realized that my success would depend on my talent and skills and not my kinky hair, even if they say otherwise.
Ana Rita D' Almeida and Denise Sonnemberg — two Lisbon-based twenty-somethings behind the blog Curly Essence — know that you are not your hair. Still, there's no reason not to celebrate the natural hair movement, and now, the ladies are bringing their expertise in everything from the best leave-in conditioners to the top travel spots straight to R29.
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