The Afropunk Festival was this weekend in Brooklyn, New York and, needless to say, like always the festival was filled with all kinds of beautiful people with really unique styles. What I love about Afropunk is that it celebrates Black culture that isn’t a part of the mainstream. It attracts all different flavors of people from all walks of life and interesting artists whom I may not have heard about otherwise.
Vogue commissioned artist Awol Erizku to capture the most interesting and unique hairstyles from Afropunk. Erizku said, “I think [black hair] is beautiful because it can be shaped, shaved, cut, whatever. That’s what I was trying to find today—people who had that kind of hair and who embraced it and were proud of it.”
Seeing natural hair always makes me happy because while I am Black Latino I don’t have natural hair. I am one of the few people in my family with Afro textured hair so my mom didn’t really know what to do with it. When I was a kid she would shave my head up until I was 10 (of course I got made fun of). Starting at age 11 she began to chemically straighten my hair. Now, if I ever decided to go natural I would have to shave all of my hair off and let the new hair grown in. I’ve always wanted to shave my head so I am sure I will do it someday but for now I will look in admiration at these vivacious and gorgeous portraits.
These are just 10 of many so check the rest of the photos out over at Vogue.
These 10 Afropunk Portraits Show Off The Beauty And Possibilities Of Natural Hair
