Amandla Stenberg Had Burnt Bangs Before Embracing Natural Hair

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Photo: Getty Images

We can put a pin on the exact moment that Amandla Stenberg first started embracing their natural hair. Thanks, Instagram. 71 weeks ago – April of 2015 – Amandla posted their first photo with completely unstraightened hair.

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A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Mar 26, 2015 at 7:00pm PDT

Stenberg eased into the look by sporting perfectly straightened bangs with their naturally curly locks, and then started running over their roots with a straightener.

business casual

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Feb 24, 2015 at 5:32pm PST

“I’ve gone through so many different hair stages,” Stenberg told Glamour. “My first stage was when I was younger, and I thought my hair was too big, so I always kept it in this giant poof on top of my head. I wasn’t that great at doing ponytails, and so it was always really messy, and after that, as I kind of hit puberty and went to middle school and everything, I started doing things to make it smaller and straighter.” Amandla fought their natural hair texture before accepting it. “I got Keratin treatments, and then I had bangs that I straightened every day. It was awful. It was like frying the front part of my hair off.”

hi !

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Mar 13, 2015 at 1:11pm PDT

Stenberg saw people they looked up to on the internet embracing their natural texture. “I was basically doing anything to make it look straight, and then I came to the realization that I—because of the internet honestly, because of seeing people on the internet post pictures with their natural hair, I realized like, ‘Oh, wait, this is actually so cool. Why have I been fighting this component of myself for so long?’ And so I chopped it all off and slowly grew it back in its natural state, and now I love it.” We’re so glad they did, because their trendsetting hair looks constantly slay.

who’s this trapezoid ?

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Jul 5, 2016 at 3:01pm PDT

Everybody has lapses in confidence, though. “I still have moments once in a while where I feel the need to conform, but that’s also not really my—those are not my original ideas, like I don’t really feel that inside,” they said. “It’s just when you look around and you see people with straight hair in media, you kind of feel the need to fit in, so it’s kind of a constant battle loving my hair. It’s something that I’m continuously working on.”

Here are some of Amandla’s best natural hair looks:

graduate !!???

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Jun 9, 2016 at 7:26pm PDT

Met Gala.

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on May 2, 2016 at 9:09pm PDT

taken by @dritch

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Apr 18, 2016 at 6:06pm PDT

metal mulisha !!

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Mar 11, 2016 at 8:37pm PST

peace fashion week, thanks for the mmrs

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Feb 20, 2016 at 1:02pm PST

ur bf who always chillin @ leimert

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Feb 3, 2016 at 11:45am PST

story up w @papermagazine now ??

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Oct 12, 2015 at 12:17pm PDT

riding on the 6

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Jul 31, 2015 at 11:40pm PDT

by bb boi @emerson.ricard

A photo posted by amandla (@amandlastenberg) on Jun 20, 2015 at 1:13pm PDT