Naturalistas all over Haiti look to one website to get the deets on maintaining their natural hair: Afro Alice. The site is less than four years old, and was founded by Annie-Christine “Afro Alice” Emilcar, who lives in Port-au-Prince. Its reach is tremendous. It has a thriving community of over 12,000 fans on Facebook, and during any given day, there is a high number of conversations on its Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages.
Emilcar credits the site’s phenomenal growth to her degree of engagement with Afro Alice readers, her proactive stance towards the natural hair movement and her resourcefulness.
In visiting the site, it’s easy to see why so many natural hair-wearers look to it for inspiration. The site’s founder has detailed videos and tutorials, and tips-filled articles in Creole as well as English for visitors.
Kreyolicious reached out to her to discuss the site and her work, and to get a view of how the natural hair movement is progressing in Haiti.
Kreyolicious: How long have you been natural?
I have been natural for four years…July 2010 to now.
Kreyolicious: What sort of reaction did you get when you started going natural?
When I chopped [off my hair], nobody at home was really surprised. I was very versatile with my hair so a drastic hair cut was expected anytime. People in my [immediate circle]–home, work, etc—started to make fun of me when my hair started to grow [out] and I decided I wouldn’t perm my hair anymore.
Kreyolicious: Did you ever consider going back to your permed style?
Never. I saw it as a challenge to prove to them and to the world that you can go anywhere with your fro and be beautiful. And it worked. More than 30 people in my [immediate circle] went natural after my experience.
Kreyolicious: And what made you launch Afro Alice?
I was always passionate about fashion, makeovers, hair and writing. As I started to blog about my natural hair journey on my personal blog, my friends encouraged me to create a page to share my findings, experience, knowledge with a wider audience than my work and network folks, I created a hair blog and a Facebook page. I called it “Afro” as a [tribute to] this unique heritage from Africa: our hair. And [I added] “Alice”—which means worthy and noble in Celtic.
Above: The blogger behind Afro Alice shows off a natural do to inspire her readers.
Kreyolicious: What challenges did you meet as you launched the site?
I didn’t have any challenges as it was casual and informal at the time. I was doing it for fun…for the fun of writing and for the fun in talking about hair.
Kreyolicious: What sort of reaction did you get when you launched the site?
Everybody welcomed Afro Alice as there was a big need for online natural hair care resource. We are very satisfied with what it’s become. We are the second Facebook page about natural hair [based in Haiti] and are the most-followed natural hair page [based in Haiti].
Kreyolicious: What sort of effect have you seen as a result of the natural hair movement in Haiti?
The natural hair movement is empowering women in Haiti. It’s giving them an opportunity to get to know their true selves and fall in love with it. A lot of women are [going back] to natural and society is slowly starting to accept kinks, coils and curls.
Kreyolicious: Do you think it’s something that’s going to last, or…
Only time will tell whether it’s a trend or a real change. Too many Haitians remove perm from their hair but keep [the concept of perming engraved] in their minds. It took ages for the white masters during slavery to make us feel [inadequate] with our hair and features. It will take as much time, if not more, for us to see our God-given hair as a heritage that we should nurture and cherish.
[All photos published here with permission of subject. ]
CLICK HERE TO VISIT AFRO ALICE’S PAGE ON FACEBOOK | CLICK HERE TO READ HER BLOG | CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER | CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW HER ON INSTAGRAM |
