A Hamilton woman is on a mission to teach Black children to love and embrace their natural hair. Anita Grant says she was constantly straightening and hiding her own hair to fit in but when she found out she was pregnant with her daughter she wanted to make a change.

Grant wrote, Hello Hair a book showing little girls showing off their natural hairstyles.

“For over 20 years I did not show anyone my natural hair outside of my family and friends. During the covid pandemic, I had an opportunity to try different hairstyles and explore,” at the same time, Grant found out she was pregnant with a baby girl.

“I made the commitment to raise her to love every single part of herself, especially her crown,” Grant said.

Hello Hair is a magazine style and features 100 fun hairstyles that young kids and parents can recreate. The Hello Hair Instagram page teaches kids to embrace their curls and afros and educates them on how to properly care for their hair too.

Grant’s next project is dolls, four different dolls with different hair textures. They all have human hair so that parents and kids can test out hair products and styles.

“Getting to know their hair type and basically creating the foundation for them to better understand how to take care of their hair,” Grant said.

Shaneal Wilson is a Black hair influencer and educator who is collaborating with Grant on the dolls and a new book that will be coming out in the new year. Both women went on a hair journey years ago and say their hair is an extension of themselves. They hope that young Black girls embrace it sooner than they did.

“Embracing their curl texture and how it naturally grows, it’s such a beautiful experience, it’s a deep experience,” Wilson said.