Captured Curls: Ashley Coleman

A couple weekends ago I went to Philly to visit some of my friends and had the pleasure of meeting a beautiful natural named Ashley! Of course after seeing her hair I had to spark up convo about styling, hair care and other good hair things. I swear, meeting fellow naturals is always great and a learning experience in it's own. It was great chatting with Ashley and exchanging hair stories so of course y'all know I had to have her featured. Below you can learn a little bit about her and her gorgeous crown, enjoy!

Please, introduce yourself!

My name is Ashley Coleman. I am a songwriter from Philadelphia. In addition to my love for music I just love to write. I have done journalism, written bios, short stories and I also write my own music industry blog. I work for The Recording Academy Philadelphia Chapter which sounds like German when you tell people, but basically, I work for the organization behind the GRAMMY Awards.

What is your current hair care regimen?

That all depends! Sometimes my schedule is ridiculous so I can’t always keep up, however I try to wash my hair at least once every two weeks. In between I like to do co-washes because it leaves my hair feeling soft and gives me the opportunity to detangle. During the winter months I blew my hair out a lot, just based on the fact that I couldn’t wash and go in the cold. But during summer months, I like to wet my hair, throw some Carol’s Daughter Hair Milk or Hair Honey in it and go. Two strand twists are also great because they last a while and you don’t have to worry about your hair every morning.

What is your hair type and what works best for your texture?

I have no idea which classification my hair falls under but I think it’s in the 4 something range. It’s kinky. No ifs ands or buts about it. Lol. I am thankful that I have some type of curl pattern even in the midst of the kink. It allows for me to rock it in a variety of ways. I’ve noticed that my hair thrives stretched with twist outs and that type of thing. And my hair loves water. And though I have a tighter hair texture, my hair is really soft, so I have to stay on top of trimming because it splits very easily. Super due for a trim as I write this.

What reaction did you get when you first decided to go natural or have you been relaxer

free all your life?

I went natural in college. And the funny thing about it is that it was so normal in college. I went to Temple where a lot of girls had natural hair so it didn’t seem that strange at all. And I was pursuing a career in the music business so there were a lot of natural girls at certain events I went to. The problem came mostly with family and after college. My mom is from an older generation that was all about frying their hair. So when I was transitioning into being natural, she was like “I don’t understand…” And then after college I realized I was around a lot less people with natural hair. And I have had really long hair all my life so it made me a little insecure to see other girls with flowing straight hair (some of which wasn’t theirs but still.) It took some getting used to. But after learning more products and getting some styles together … YouTube … it got a lot more comfortable. And my mom loves my natural hair now. She always says I changed her opinion, although she’s team perm. Lol.

Did you big chop or transition, for how long? If you’ve always been natural, did you ever have any curly hair girl insecurities? If so, what helped you adjust to having naturally

curly hair over the years?

I actually did the transition. I couldn’t bring myself to chopping all of my hair off. As I mentioned before, my hair was long all my life, so I was having a little separation anxiety. It took me about a year to feel like I was comfortable enough to cut my hair. It came to a point where I washed my hair and my boyfriend at the time and I were both trying to comb half afro, half permed hair. Lol. And he was just like, “I think it’s time.” So I went and got the entire perm cut off, which resulted in a nice short bob, which was refreshing. The first time I actually did something different with my hair. I kept it straightened for a while though and the first time I washed my hair I had the “What the hell did I do?” moment. I definitely had insecurity about it. I wanted my hair texture to be looser, I would see other girls with natural hair that was finer than mine. But once it got a little longer, I was like ok, I can deal with this. I still occasionally see girls and I’m like “I want that hair,” but I’m positive my kinks keep me humble. I probably wouldn’t know how to act if I had fine wavy hair. Kidding. But nonetheless, it was really a process of learning that my hair was ok and beautiful just the way it was. I NEVER even thought I had a hair complex until after I went natural. Because I was the black girl with permed long hair, I never thought about how attached I was to that. It helped me to realize that I was beautiful, not because of my hair, but because of me.

What makes you love your kinks, curls and coils?

What I love the most about my kinky curls is that it reminds me of my favorite baby picture of myself. Because my hair was permed at a very young age, I asked my mom while transitioning, “Well what was my hair texture like?” because I didn’t know. I think I had a kiddy perm since like 5 and in defense of my mother, she was unfortunately unable to manage my natural hair based on a health issue so … she had to do what she had to do. But when I asked her that, she would just say “Well … it was really curly…” And it would just hang there which made me so nervous to see what it was really like. Haha. But now when I wash my hair and step out, I laugh because it looks exactly like my baby picture and I feel some weird connection with that time. That may be too deep, but it always makes me smile to think of that.

Where can we find you on the web?

You can find me on my website … www.writelaughdream.com, it chronicles the music industry and different stories etc about my life as a songwriter. And also “like” my Facebook page www.facebook.com/writelaughdream.

Anything EXTRA you want us to know?

I just want all little black girls to know that they’re beautiful. I wish someone would let them know. No matter what we see on TV or music videos, we have to define ourselves. I’m not saying that everyone that wears weaves or perms their hair doesn’t know they’re worth, but I am saying that when I looked back, I realized that I wanted to be something other than what I was and I HAD NO IDEA. I hate that kinky and tight curls often have a negative association. It’s who we are. How did we begin covering that up and why?