A Natural Hair Club At One Harlem Prep School Boosts Students’ Confidence In Their Crowns

The natural hair club teachers students about the history of hair discrimination alongside tools to style their tresses.

A prep school in Harlem has created a natural hair club to help Black and Brown students feel confident and take care of their textured hair.

The club’s beginnings were led by Jade Lambert, a teacher at Patrick Henry Prep School in Harlem. The public school teaches a wide range of students from grades 3K to 8th, serving its surrounding neighborhood as a hub for education and community.

Lambert saw a need for students to feel uplifted and knowledgeable about their natural hair. Wanting to supply them with the tools and skills needed to make their kinks and coils thrive, she launched the natural hair club last October.

“I just remember how I felt about my hair at that age, and I see it a lot in them.” explained Lambert to CBS News. “So, it was natural once I started teaching, it was the one of the first things that came to my mind because it’s something that we have in common.”

She obtained a grant that funded hair tools for young participants. However, the club meetings do more than teach new tricks for one’s hair. Lambert also uses the club as an educational opportunity, teaching students about the discrimination and subsequent advocacy surrounding natural hair.

“I just feel proud that I can give that information to them,” added Lambert.

In New York specifically, lawmakers passed the CROWN Act in 2019 to prevent discrimination against natural hair. With new legislation protecting individuals in school and the workplace, Lambert is adding to this cultural shift regarding textured hair.

Although the CROWN Act prevents discrimination, the law does not cover all forms of hate toward one’s hair. Especially in school settings, students can face bullying for having certain hair types.

According to the 2021 CROWN Research Study for Girls, nearly 100% of Black elementary school girls who experienced hair discrimination in majority-white schools did so by age 10. Over 60% of all Black school children in such institutions experienced it by age 12.

Wanting to combat bullying at the source, Lambert ensures that her natural hair club encourages self-love and celebrates all hair styles, especially those historically disenfranchised.

Furthermore, she wants students to feel encouraged to rock their hair in whatever style they feel best in. Calling it “an act of protest,” she intends to create a new generation of students who feel empowered and not ashamed of their natural crowns.

“Natural hair isn’t some form of being unkempt or isn’t you not caring about it. Maintaining your natural hair is probably the most care you can take to do hair at all,” Lambert said. “It’s quite literally an act of protest to wear your natural hair out.”