- An ethnographic film
Bijou performing her “wash-and-go” hairstyle.
"Naturally Free" is an ethnographic film that explores the nuances behind recent decreased relaxer sales in the Black consumer market. Relaxers, a product containing sodium hydroxide used to permanently straighten curls, has had a direct role in shaping Black womanhood hair care and grooming practices. The term used to describe the inverse of using relaxers is “going natural,” which is a decision that affects a Black woman’s physiological as well as psychological experiences in the world. "Naturally Free" examines the motivations, benefits and challenges four women face when choosing to wear their hair in its natural state after years of chemical and thermal manipulation. The four women featured in the film are ages 30, 61, 62 and 103 years-old. All three women illustrate and voice how historical racisms against Black bodies have resulted in a unique intersection of gender and race performances intimately connected to hair/styling practices for Black womxn.