"I've always looked at my thick hair as a challenge. Having hair that's difficult to style definitely made

me feel insecure. Something as simple as putting it in a ponytail required a lot of manpower and extra-thick scrunchies. Growing up, I definitely would think things like, If only I had a looser curl pattern, or If only my hair were less dense. Up until the age of 10, I always wore my hair curly and, during elementary school, mostly in cornrows or other elaborate braiding styles. Having silk-straight hair always seemed like a dream to me, but my mom never let me put in a relaxer to permanently straighten it.

"Around fifth grade, I went to a Dominican salon in the Bronx, and they applied a texturizer to my hair to loosen up my coily texture. I came out having silky-straight hair, and I remember once I went to school, everyone I ran into was shocked—it was like that Manny Degrassi moment. My straight hair was a hit with my classmates, but it sort of ruined my hair because I didn't know how to properly care for chemically treated hair at the time. But that didn't stop me. I started to religiously get relaxers for over a decade, and while it cut down on the time I spent styling my hair, in the end, my hair never truly felt healthy. I finally decided to stop getting them once and for all when I found that my relaxed hair didn't agree with tight braiding styles. It would just fall out in clumps after having it braided for weeks." — Brown