Hairstyle of the month and inclusivity

[purple_omelette]

Hi everyone. I've been thinking about making this post for a little while. Hairstyle of the month is a great initiative that unites a lot of members to try a particular hair project together, and encourages a feeling of community. I have noticed, however, the lack of diversity in hair types features on that part of the forum. From what I can see, most, if not all, of the hairstyles featured are only possible with straight or wavy hair, and curly and kinky hair is hardly featured at all. While I understand that the majority of this forum is white and/or has non textured hair, I think in the spirit of openness and friendliness that I have seen on LHC, it might be worth featuring non white creators and hairstyles on that part of the forum from time to time, to encourage non white or curly haired folks to participate and feel included. I need to add that I myself have wavy hair, so I have not been personally affected by this, and if any textured haired members would like to add their own thoughts, what they have to say would hold more weight. However, I think the overall skew of the membership towards people with straightish hair is probably also influenced by the kind of content on the forum, which may discourage people with diverse hair types from joining, since they might not feel the content represents them, and that they may not have as easy a time participating as a result.

Thoughts?

[tuanyiji]

I think a few links here would be useful for people to better understand the subject with caution. I would not attempt showing some specific hairstyles on public after reading some threads.

Box braids, and other similar styles (Tips and Advice, Mostly)
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=152022

Hairstyles and cultural appropriation
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=152906

Micro braids on Caucausian
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=96703

Question The difference between Dutch braids and Cornrows
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=136957

[purple_omelette]

Thanks for sharing these! My question was more about featuring kinky/curly/non white creators and their styles occasionally, not about actively promoting white/straight haired people to adopt those styles. That is, I was hoping the hairstyle of the month thread could simply be more inclusive and represent a wider variety of styles and hair textures to give more of the membership base and visitors things they can try, irrespective of hair type.

[cookies]

That’s a good point! I don’t recall encountering any photos from curly/kinky haired LHC members in those threads (not just instructions).
You/someone could make a poll for curly/kinky hairstyles, asking people what their go tos are - mostly styles you’d find in the thesaurus here, or mostly styles you can not find there. Either way, please share photos/a video of someone with your hair texture demonstrating your favorite styles.
And then they could be added to the thesaurus and the hairstyles of the month challenges.

(I’d attempt to do the poll, but haven’t made one yet and I’m on my phone out in the countryside these days)

[Sigrid]

Maybe you don't see a lot of kinky/textured hair participation here because there are other forums dedicated specifically to people who have that hair texture? :)

More diversity is always better, of course! But I also know there are forums like LongHairCareForum (https://longhaircareforum.com/forums/) etc. so a lot of people have other venues for hair care advice, styles, and whatnot other than LHC.

[purple_omelette]

That’s a good point! I don’t recall encountering any photos from curly/kinky haired LHC members in those threads (not just instructions).
You/someone could make a poll for curly/kinky hairstyles, asking people what their go tos are - mostly styles you’d find in the thesaurus here, or mostly styles you can not find there. Either way, please share photos/a video of someone with your hair texture demonstrating your favorite styles.
And then they could be added to the thesaurus and the hairstyles of the month challenges.

(I’d attempt to do the poll, but haven’t made one yet and I’m on my phone out in the countryside these days)

Good idea about the poll! I'll get around to making one soon :)

[purple_omelette]

Maybe you don't see a lot of kinky/textured hair participation here because there are other forums dedicated specifically to people who have that hair texture? :)

More diversity is always better, of course! But I also know there are forums like LongHairCareForum (https://longhaircareforum.com/forums/) etc. so a lot of people have other venues for hair care advice, styles, and whatnot other than LHC.

Yes I suspected as much :) I'm sure there are plenty of other online communities about hair, but since there definitely are LHC members with kinky/curly hair, and hairstyle of the month consistently caters to straight/wavies, I thought I'd bring it up as something to think about :)

[neko_kawaii]

A bit of history:

I select the Hairstyle of the Month from The Hairstyle Thesaurus. I made the Thesaurus because I was having trouble keeping track of which hairstyles had already been covered in Style of the Month. The Thesaurus was based on existing lists of styles here on LHC. The contents of the Thesaurus exist because members have provided descriptions, links, and their own tutorials on LHC.

If you have something to add, please please please please make a post in the Making the Thesaurus Thread (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=145221), or post about it in the Request for Styles thread (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=156014) I made a couple months ago, or use the report feature anywhere on the site where a style was posted about to notify the mods to make the addition.

My apologies for not being interested in scouring the internet myself for styles I haven't come across before, I just don't have that kind of free time these days and I've never enjoyed watching reams of hair videos. Please help improve the Thesaurus!