Watching CityNews Toronto shine a spotlight on Hello Hair in their segment “Book of 100 hairstyles inspires Black girls to love their hair” was a moment I'll never forget. Seeing our mission summed up so clearly was incredible: a book full of styles and stories helping Black girls see their hair as something to love, not something to hide.
As the clip aired, we imagined living rooms across Toronto where parents were pausing what they were doing, calling kids over to the TV, and saying, “Look, that looks like you.” For us, this wasn’t just about TV time. It was about sharing a message of hair love and representation with families across the city who may never have heard of Hello Hair before, but who needed to hear that their child’s crown is worthy of celebration.
The segment introduces Hello Hair as more than a picture book. It presents the book as a tool for building self-esteem, teaching hair vocabulary, and opening up conversations about identity at home and in classrooms.
Viewers can see children flipping through the pages, pointing to styles that look like theirs, and engaging with styling doll heads alongside the book. There is a sense of play and pride happening at the same time. Kids are laughing, practicing new braids, and learning how to care for coils and curls. By pairing the book with hair styling dolls, the segment shows how inspiration turns into hands-on learning: children are not just reading about representation, they are practicing it with their own two hands.
Why This Feature Mattered to Us
As founder of Hello Hair, this moment carried a weight that the cameras could not fully capture. My own hair story includes years of trying to fit into narrow standards – relaxers, heat, and styles chosen more to blend in than to stand out. It took decades to embrace my natural texture openly, and becoming a mother was the turning point that made me decide I wanted something different for my daughter.
We also knew this segment mattered deeply for the kids watching. Black children often grow up surrounded by images that do not look like them: straight hair in commercials, limited options in toy aisles, and school rules that sometimes treat their natural textures as “unprofessional” or “distracting.” Seeing natural hair centered and celebrated on a mainstream news platform offers a powerful counter-narrative. It quietly tells kids, “Your curls belong on screen. Your braids belong in the spotlight. Your hair is worthy of being seen.”
How the Segment Reflects Our Bigger Mission
The CityNews feature might look like just a few minutes of video, but to us, it is a snapshot of the bigger mission behind Hello Hair. We have always believed that helping Black girls build a healthy relationship with their hair requires more than cute illustrations. It takes visual representation so they can literally see themselves, education so they can understand their hair and how to care for it, and play so they can practice new skills and express themselves freely. Read more about our story and why Hello Hair is deeper than hair.
Next, meet the four friends who bring the Hello Hair universe to life. Each girl has her own personality, style, and relationship with her hair, giving kids multiple ways to see themselves reflected. Meet Tiana, Tamia, Jade, and Liz here.
We are deeply grateful that CityNews Toronto chose to share this story with their viewers. Every replay of that segment is another chance for a child to see a style that looks like theirs, for a caregiver to find new language for affirmation, and for a community to reimagine what it looks like when Black hair is honored in public spaces. Our hope is that, long after the cameras are off, the confidence sparked in those few minutes continues to grow – strand by strand, style by style, story by story.
