2022 has been the year of frontals and colored hair. In my opinion that is, what do you think? Welcome to a new entry! Let’s talk.

Did you see the natural hair trend take a backseat this year? Yeah, I noticed that too. However, I did see a lot of experimenting with hair colors whether in wigs, bald cuts or bold afros. From bleached tones to vibrant reds, oranges, greens, you name it. We saw it this year.

One question popped up from a couple YouTube videos I’ve been watching and during my personal hairstyling experiments; is your hair still natural if you have bleached it? Think about it, is it?

What Does the Bleach Do?

The chemicals in hair bleach breakdown your hair’s composition and strips it of its color. In doing so, they also remove moisture from and change the curl pattern of your hair. You will notice that when you bleach your hair, your strands appear and feel straighter, they may also feel lighter, thinner, less dense.

Your curls no matter how tight they were before will appear looser. So much so, it takes less product or manipulation to make them more visible. You may have never paid attention before, but now that you’ve heard it, take a second to recall, or go on YouTube really quick and you will see.

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How Does the Hair Change?

Just a few weeks ago, I was growing out my low-cut and decided to go blonde. After applying the bleach and rinsing my hair; what initially appeared to be a short, kinky afro transformed into a wavy, blonde, well-laid do. My existing tight curls and coils became somewhat ‘relaxed’ (laying) and looser so they created waves that I could easily manipulate.

To be more descriptive, whereas I couldn’t stretch the strands before, once bleached, I could hold a patch of hair between my thumb and pointer finger, pull it and release only for it to fall into a wavy ‘c’ shape. When I went to wash my hair, it didn’t recoil, the curls only became more prominent. This is not very characteristic of my type 4 hair which would typically shrink when it comes into contact with water. It’s almost as if my hair grew when it became wet.

With all that being said, is your hair still natural after you have bleached it? Let’s look at the definition of natural hair. According to byrdie.com it is hair that:

“hasn’t been altered by chemical straighteners, including relaxers and texturizers.”

So What’s the Answer?

Based on the effects of bleach on the hair, would it not be considered a texturizer? After all, it does affect your hair texture despite the aftercare. Your hair strands become dryer and seem coarser to the touch. Would you not consider bleach a chemical straightener? Considering your hair also becomes straighter, hence the reason why your curls become looser and your length becomes more visible due to less shrinkage. The only box left unticked is the relaxer box, as your hair’s composition is not so completely altered as with relaxing cremes.

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So, what’s the answer? I have concluded that bleached hair is no longer natural. Hear me out! It is definitely not relaxed but, it isn’t completely in an unaltered chemical state anymore. Therefore, it is quasi-natural, you know, seemingly natural but not really. We have to remember that once the state has been changed by chemicals then it’s no longer natural. That is exactly what bleach is, a product full of chemicals used to alter the components of the hair to change its color.

What are your thoughts though, let’s hear them.