World Afro Day

World Afro Day on 15 September celebrates Afro hair and identities. In this video, teenagers talk about what their hair means to them.

Instructions

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Millions of people with kinky, coily and curly hair are celebrating World Afro Day today, a moment to appreciate Afro hair in all of its patterns and textures. Mekhatra, Feran and Naalah sat down to share how they feel about their hair.

Mekhatra: You can compliment it, yeah. No one can touch my hair. It's just off-limits.

What does your hair mean to you?

It's more of like an individuality type of thing, it's, like, what kind of separates me from about everyone else and what makes me unique to everyone, so people know when they see me, 'Oh wow, that, oh, that's my friend, yeah. He has really cool hair', or whatever.

Has anyone said something about your hair that you didn't like?

Feran: I was sitting on the carpet because it was carpet time, it was time to learn about something, and there was a girl behind me and she just started playing with my hair and my hair was in a bun so there was a big puff and she just kept on touching it, touching it and touching it. But, yeah, it was, it was uncomfortable.

Mekhatra: Well, as much as I know, no one can touch my hair, it's just off-limits. You can compliment it …

Naalah: You can compliment it, say what you think, but ...

Feran: You can't touch!

Hair stylist: I am just so glad that, um, I'm seeing so many children, so many young boys, young girls, just embracing their textures, but everyone's hair is different, and everybody's hair is beautiful and it's unique.

Feran: What do you want people to know about your hair?

Naalah: I like my hair the way it is, but either way, I'm gonna love my hair because that's who I am and that's just me. It may not be you, but that's how I feel about my hair.

Feran: What I would like to say about my hair is that my hair is not some form of natural phenomenon. It's not hard to take care of and my hair is like everyone else's hair, just that it's more curly. And just because my hair is not the same as yours doesn't mean you can touch my hair or expect me to straighten my hair to match yours. Because everyone's hair is unique and everyone's hair requires different things to make it look nice. People should, like, know that black hair is hair and it's not weird. It's just, it's just something people are born with and something people should appreciate.