World Afro Day is a holiday observed annually on September 15th and celebrates natural, curly hair in all of its forms. It’s a day that encourages black people and people of mixed-race ethnicity, to embrace their natural hair. This is also a day that attempts to raise the public’s awareness about the discrimination that often occurs based on people’s hairstyles.

It’s not uncommon for people of color to be told that their hairstyle is “too ethnic” or “inappropriate” for the workplace and this just isn’t right. Fortunately, there are plenty of people working to do away with these forms of discrimination and this holiday is just another tool for them to do just that.

The History Of World Afro Day

Michelle De Leon invented Afro Day on September 15th, 2017. Michelle was a stylist and consultant who launched this holiday to promote awareness and acceptance of Afro-centric hair and to encourage people to embrace their natural hair texture.

It also was seen as a holiday that could challenge the discrimination that people of color often face when it comes to their natural hair. And the final purpose of this holiday was to promote positive representations of Afro-hair in advertising and media.

She felt the need to create this holiday after having to struggle with societal bias in her own life. She wanted to make a better life for her 8-year-old daughter, so she created the holiday to put into the world the positivity towards Afro-hair that she wanted to see.

This holiday soon quickly spread around the world, and is now observed on every single continent, except for perhaps Antarctica.

Observing World Afro Day

Everyone everywhere can take the time to observe this holiday — regardless of what type of hair they possess. They can certainly educate themselves more about hair and help chip away at the discrimination that exists in the world.

People can also post to media pictures of their natural hair to inspire other people to take pride in their own natural hairstyles. And, people can also take the time to spread the news about this holiday using the hashtag #WorldAfroDay on social media.