Olivia Dean has taken the music industry by storm with her chart-topping hit “Man I Need.” She’s become an inescapable part of the digital listening experience, and dare I say the world is better for it. Her music doesn’t just cover unrequited love and the perils of casual dating situations, though. Her lyrics posture self-love as a realized concept rather than just another bastardized cliché.
Natural hair gains another voice
But it’s Dean’s empowerment ballad, “Lady Lady, that has really found legs as the Black hair community’s latest TikTok mantra. Online, swarms of Black women are using Dean’s song as the auditory backdrop for their natural hair journey. In the second verse, Dean says, “God, I used to love this hair/ Now there’s something in the air.” Women use each line to show their transition from straight hair to curly fros, signifying a new era of hair acceptance.
@mobgyal I got my first perm at 7 and didn’t realize how disconnected I was from my real hair until years later. I went natural, did two big chops, and still wouldn’t wear my fro outside. Then one day, I finally did, terrified, but I did it. And somewhere in that moment, I stopped hiding and started embracing myself. Love every part of you… even the parts you’re still learning. ✨ #fyp #4chair #naturalhair ♬ original sound – Z
A change in tide
Natural hair discourse on TikTok can be contentious if not disparaging, so it’s nice to see people using this song to celebrate a transformation that used to be the pinnacle of beauty content in the 2010s.
Natural Hair YouTube had everyone excited for TWAs, big chops, and a future free of relaxers. Since the heyday of natural hair YouTube, though, the natural hair movement has experienced pockets of stagnation, at least within the digital realm. From admittedly nuanced conversations about the plight of the straight hair natural to the erasure of coarser hair texture within the natural hair movement, things have been tense online.
Even if it’s just a few lines in a song, this moment in time is a welcome blip of unbridled joy. No fuss, no confusion, just unabashed appreciation