That’s Haute: A Conversation with Darrius Peace

Darrius Peace, a twelve year veteran of the haircare industry, hopes to redefine beauty and leave a legacy with his latest endeavor: MyHairAintNappy.com, a resource for natural hair-enthusiasts.  The brand also features a book, My Hair Ain’t Nappy: A Black Man’s Introspective on Natural Hair, available via the website and on amazon.com

What inspired you to launch the website? MyHairAintNappy.com was inspired by my entire career of doing hair.  I wanted to showcase natural hair in a way that it has not been showcased.  When I first started styling hair I learned to do relaxed hair. But natural hairstyling came with me experimenting with my Afro-textured hair, which I incorporated into my styling.  We weren’t taught that in school.  I attracted natural clients because of my own natural hair.  As a result of doing both [textures of] hair, my relaxed clients’ hair wasn’t as lustrous and full as my clients who had natural hair.  The benefits of wearing natural hair far outweighed that of wearing relaxed hair.  I noticed a shift: people with natural hair became more organically confident.

Who will your website appeal to? There’s a new, natural woman in town: she is professional, she’s stylish, she’s sophisticated, she’s polished and she’s refined.  She is no longer interested in wearing chemical processes and she’s ready to sport her natural tresses in a conservative, yet edgy way.  Because she’s a professional, she’s not interested in being limited to solely braids, twists and locks.  She seeks out styles that are somewhat ambiguous and leave you questioning ‘Is her natural?’ or lead people to say ‘I wish my hair did exactly what hers is doing.’  [I'm catering] to that woman, the woman who is interested in learning and loving her natural hair, and in learning beautiful styling techniques that she can do all by herself that give her a salon-quality finish.  What sets [my resource] apart from other natural hair websites or blogs is that it’s coming from the perspective of a black male who has over a decade of experience in the natural hair care/beauty industry.

What other developments do you have in the works? I do plan to go on tour speaking about natural hair, working hair shows and appearing at workshops to helppeople learn to do their hair themselves.  My purpose is  not to take business away from salons, but between visits to the salon I’d like to help people learn how to manipulate their curly textures into beautiful, salon-quality masterpieces.

Some women are hesitant to transition because they think men don’t like it.  What’s your reponse to that? I know a lot of naturalistas are curious as to what black men think about their natural hair.  To be frank brothers don’t care.  It ain’t even about your hair; it’s about YOU.  We love confidence, we love beauty, and we love you when YOU love you.

Ultimately, what do you hope to accomplish? At some point I am going to retire from doing hair.  When I do that, I want to leave a legacy.  I would like for this brand to help redefine what we consider, or what we’ve learned to be ‘beautiful’ and incorporate our organic beauty into that definition, to love and embrace ourselves in our organic form.  I don’t want anyone to think I’m opposed to relaxers – I’m not.  I prefer that if you’re going to wear anything that isn’t native to your curl pattern, that you don’t wear it because you think your hair is nappy.  I hope that black people begin to employ more positive terminology in reference to our hair textures and omit words like “nappy” and all those other words that are antithetical to our being beautiful.

For more information, please contact Darrius Peace - dpeace@myhairaintnappy.com