This Kickass Blogger Is Celebrating the Natural Hair She Didn't Even Know She Had

(Photo: Sunita V.)

Sunita V.’s hair is big enough to have its own personality, which means it can get temperamental. There are days when the wind blows through it and it expands, refusing to stay in place. There are also days when the rain kisses it and it falls gently to the side.

“It’s funny, I think there’s me and then there’s my hair,” the New York City-based style blogger told Mic. It explains why the description on her Instagram account, which has over 33,000 followers, begins with a simple declaration: “Big Hair.”

That thick, curly and frizzy hair is very much a part of her identity now, said Sunita, who likes to go by her first name for privacy. Her hair, big and beautiful when left untouched, has inspired other women to embrace their natural hair texture, from strangers who email her to close friends who’ve given up on straightening altogether.

Ironically, Sunita herself took a little longer to accept her hair. Up until two years ago, she didn’t even know what her hair looked like in its natural state. She’d braided, straightened and done away with her natural curls her whole life — the result of pressure and scrutiny that too many women face for hair that looks “different.”

(Photo: Sunita V.)

A hair discovery, years later: A native of Wisconsin, Sunita said she grew up surrounded by women with mossy brown, straight hair. Her hair was usually tied back or braided as a child. When she finally did let it down, she was already in her teens and regularly straightening it.

It was part of Sunita’s effort to not draw more attention to herself, she said. As a child, her looks and mixed racial background made her a target for ridicule and bullying, leaving her with “stories for days,” she said. There was the time she wore her hair down for her sixth grade I.D. photo and a classmate called her a witch. There was the kid who was fond of calling her “butt-fucking-ugly.” The experiences soured her view of her hometown, she said, as well as her own looks.

By Theresa Avila