Cuba: Afro-descendant women and men showcase the beauty of their hair

Cuban men and women who embrace their Afro-descended heritage and hair.

La Habanna hosted on late August the island’s first Afro beauty-aesthetics convention.

The trend that has been taking place around the world is gaining traction in the Caribbean nation.

Until 2021, Thalía Quesada had straight hair that was straightened with laborious treatments.

She decided to break the stereotype of what was considered beautiful, even within her own family, and now proudly shows off the voluminous curls of her Afro hair.

Read also: Embracing the Afro in revolt against Venezuela’s ‘bad hair’ stereotype

The medical student turned entrepreneur used her own experience to create a line of oils, creams and waxes based on natural products – coconut, flaxseed, rosemary- with which she seeks to benefit the Black community on the island.

“Nowadays my job is to help people like me, who want to find themselves again, and get rid of the straightening and the torture of the hot comb,” Quesada, who participated in the first Afro-aesthetics convention with her brand ThaliAfro, told The Associated Press.

“Our blackness and the importance of our hair”

Specialized artisan businesses, models, fashion designers, makeup artists, stylists, and the public came together.

Several hundred people also discussed the racial context in Cuba. An important issue, the organizer Annia Liz de Armas said.

“You have to understand the emotional and psychological side, the cultural effects, the historic reclaiming of our culture, our blackness and the importance of our hair to us.”

Cuba’s past is rooted in the island’s sugarcane production which employed enslaved Africans.

Black Africans had already been uprooted to the island prior to the of the industry in the late XVIIIth century.

According to official data from a 2012 census and based on self-reported information, 9% of Cubans are Black and 26% mixed race.

That year, about 11.3 million people resided on the island.

The Afro beauty aesthetics convention culminated on August 31st with a competition showcasing hairstyles.

If products for dark skin are now readily available in more and more drug stores and beauty shops around the world, but they are expensive and hard to find in Cuba.

In response, 12 specialized local brands have emerged in the economy under embargo, and there are at least five beauty salons that cater specifically to Black women.