When I was fifteen years old, I chose to decide for myself what I thought beauty looked like and embrace the parts of me I had been running away from for years. The idea that to be beautiful your hair must be long and straight presented through euro-centric beauty standards had dictated how I wore my hair until that day. I took a pair of scissors and cut off the chemically treated parts of my hair, leaving it short and natural. As I began to redefine the definition of beauty for myself, I discovered a whole community of black women on the internet who were brought together by their participation in the 'natural hair movement'. 

A couple of years later a friend of mine, Kukhanya Magubane, asked me to braid his hair. I began asking him questions about how long he had been growing his hair, and how he used to style it previously. I was not used to seeing black boys with long hair. All the black boys I knew, cut their hair short, because short hair equated to 'neatness' and 'respectability'. Our conversation brought me to the realization that similar to black women, black men were finding a form of liberation through their hair. The difference between the two was that Black men were growing their hair as opposed to cutting it like Black women, and the journeys of Black women were more documented.

I created BLK BYS & HAIR with hopes that the thoughts and stories of these young Black men would be empowering to other young Black men. And because everyone deserves a chance to be heard.