My Hair, My Crown: A tool to help build confidence

Narrow beauty standards make it difficult for young people to grow up celebrating their uniqueness. While everyone experiences unrealistic beauty pressures, societal bias unfairly discriminates against Black women and girls based on hair texture and protective hairstyles that are so culturally important. We’re taking action to change this. To break boundaries, build confidence and challenge stereotypes – so the next generation can grow up loving who they are without judgement.

We’ve launched The CROWN UK Fund to continue our work in eradicating race-based hair discrimination. During 2021, The CROWN Fund will invest £170,000 in Black-led grassroots organisations with the aim to: eliminate barriers to progress for women and girls in the Black community, empower the next generation, and drive long-term systemic change. Now, we’re taking our mission even further to uplift the next generation with ‘My Hair, My Crown’.

Since launching the Dove Self-Esteem Project, we’ve explored and challenged so many different kinds of appearance pressures, from celebrities to cultural biases. Most recently, we’ve aimed to explore and advocate for the unique beauty experiences of Black girls and women. We’re proud to be one of the first supporters of The Halo Code. It’s an alliance formed to create a more equitable and inclusive experience for Black people through the advancement of social policy change. And it’s why we’re committed to designing self-esteem tools and experiences with unique cultural nuances in mind.

My Hair, My Crown is a tool for educators, parents and mentors to boost hair confidence in kids with coils, curls, waves and protective styles – and to build allyship in others to create a respectful and open world for natural hair. It’s a session designed to target a key source of appearance pressure for young people: hair and hair culture. 

How does it work?

Set flexibly across two hours (live or remote), it aims to give young people the space to vulnerably self-identify key confidence-impacting stereotypes and experiences related to hair and beauty. By showing how many beliefs and life experiences everyone has in common, the session leader will provide an environment to talk about how those stereotypes and experiences can affect self-esteem. Then, together you’ll practise using insights and tools that help combat hair-related appearance pressures. 

Download the session now. Join us in making a difference to young people everywhere. Together, we can help end race-based hair discrimination.