Meet The New Guard Of Natural Hair Icons

For a long time, curly hair was taught how to behave. It was stretched and smoothed — anything to make it look more “tamed,” with entire routines built around minimizing volume and disguising texture.

Enter the natural hair movement of the late 2000s. Led by women with tightly coiled 4C hair, it championed the idea that texture didn’t need to be fixed to be beautiful. The goal was to understand and embrace it, not fight it — which often meant wearing hair in its natural state, from wash-and-gos to twist-outs.

But simply wearing it out is no longer the only definition of natural. Today, a growing number of creators aren’t just celebrating their texture — they’re expanding what being a natural hair champion looks like. These voices are pushing the conversation forward both on camera and behind the scenes, sharing everything from their “straight natural” routines and length-retention strategies to regrowth journeys, record-breaking afros, and even hair transplant recoveries.

More importantly, they’ve built communities where autonomy of choice matters as much as the end results. In doing so, they’re claiming space in a beauty landscape that once excluded hair like theirs — and proving that there’s no single way to wear your crown.

Ahead, meet the natural hair heroes of Bustle’s Beauty Icon Awards who are redefining the narrative in 2026.

The Braiding Whiz: Kayra Theodore

Follow: @kayratheodore

Followers: 90.8K

Kayra Theodore is a bona fide sculptor. Her wearable “hair art,” as she appropriately calls it, turns protective styles into gravity-defying installations. The Haitian-American creator, based in New York City, has built a reputation online for delivering shapes that are as engineered as they are editorial. Case in point: her viral collaboration with Nara Smith last December, in which she arranged her fellow Bustle Beauty Icon’s hair into a halo of petals that resembled a couture flower crown. From cartoonish spiral curls to XL bows, Theodore treats hair like a medium — not a finishing touch.

The Silk Press Enthusiast: Mekalae

Follow: @mekalae

Followers: 27.6K

No one loves a good silk press more than Mekalae. The TikTok creator describes her hair status as “straight natural,” meaning she relies on a flat-ironing routine that keeps her strands sleek without the damage. According to her followers, she’s perfected it. After prepping with heat protectants and chasing each pass with a rattail comb, she twists her hair into a netted cap to cool, with a takedown reveal that literally “falls off the bone,” as her commenters put it. For those with inches to maintain who want that signature glassy result, her method has become a go-to recipe for making a silk press last — and, most importantly, look freshly done.

The Twist-Out Guru: Sema

Follow: @semascreation

Followers: 225K

If you’re serious about growing your curls, Sema is your girl. She’s the beauty big sis who swears that getting healthy inches starts with being gentle on yourself and your strands. To see what that looks like in practice, just scroll through the low-manipulation styles on her page: twist-outs, braid-outs, and wash-and-gos — all encouraging her more than 200,000 followers to rock their natural texture. But she’s also refreshingly real about setbacks, from tension alopecia caused by constant slickbacks to turning to minoxidil when she needed extra help growing back her edges. It all ladders up to the mantra in her bio: “For Black girls learning to love themselves.”

The Fluffy Blowout Expert: Rachel Polycarpe

Follow: @rachelpolycarpe

Followers: 4.9K

Chances are, you’ve already seen Rachel Polycarpe’s work — she did, after all, kick off her own TikTok trend. The celebrity stylist can be credited with the brushed-out, disco-style “fluffy blowout” worn by Grammy-winning singer Olivia Dean, now widely replicated across social media. But the appeal goes beyond volume. Even in 2026, it’s rare to see a stylist work with textured hair rather than against it. By taking into account how curls naturally move, Polycarpe creates looks that feel airy, romantic, and touchable instead of overworked. Also trusted by stars like Chappell Roan and Ice Spice, she’s made it clear that curls are ready to claim their space on the red carpet.

The Curl Creator: Eloise Dufka

Follow: @eloisedufka

Followers: 761.9K

Curly-haired girls especially understand the temptation of a slickback. The tightly gelled style is pretty much guaranteed to behave, and for years Eloise Dufka made it her signature, showing her followers how to achieve an ultra-sleek finish even with texture. That is, until her hairline decided it had enough. After noticing thinning caused by tension alopecia, Dufka opted for a hair transplant in Turkey at the end of last year and is now sharing the process online. Alongside her usual “girl talk” content, her page has become a diary of everything from weighing alternatives like PRP and Nutrafol to the mental health side of recovery. And that’s why she’s so inspiring to watch: In an age when audiences are begging for transparency from influencers, she’s not gatekeeping her glow-up.

The Hair Historian: Adanna Madueke

Follow: @adannamadueke

Followers: 124K

Adanna Madueke wants you to know that hair is never just hair when you’re Black. The creator-turned-documentarian launched her YouTube channel, which now has more than a million subscribers, in 2016 after moving to Canada for medical school and struggling to style her 4B hair with the products available. Hoping to connect with others facing the same challenge, she began posting tutorials suited to everyone from total beginners to pro-level braiders. Most recently, though, she turned the camera outward with the five-part series Our African Hairitage, traveling to Senegal, Kenya, and her home country of Nigeria to uncover the histories behind culturally significant styles like Fulani braids and African threading — showing how hair, especially for people across the diaspora, carries identity, politics, and power all at once.

The GRWM Queen: Ivy Elix

Follow: @ivy4evr

Followers: 354.2K

Certifiable it-girl, self-proclaimed boho braid enthusiast, and Tarte trip attendee (basically a credential at this point) — is there anything Ivy Elix can’t do? Whether she’s wearing straight-back cornrows finished with wooden beads, her natural coils, or her favorite waist-length protective style, she just never misses when it comes to her hair or glam. It’s no wonder her photos are all over Pinterest. If you’re feeling stuck in a beauty rut, she’s the BFF you want to get ready with — and your next look is probably waiting on her feed.

The Afro Record-Breaker: Jess Martinez

Follow: @jessstheblessed

Followers: 146,000

For Jess Martinez, bigger really is better. The 29-year-old recently earned the Guinness World Record for the largest afro on a woman, clocking in at 190 centimeters — more than six feet in circumference — after years of bringing her natural texture back to life. She stopped heat styling in college, trading silk presses for low-tension twist-outs and letting her hair do its thing. Funnily enough, going for the record wasn’t even her idea: Followers nudged her to apply after a viral Instagram post in 2023. Now she’s using whatever platform she’s been given to champion the natural hair movement, reminding viewers that the biggest flex is loving your fro exactly as it grows.