'Curly is beautiful': Tunisian women embrace natural hair

Beauty standards have shifted radically in recent years, with a growing number of salons and cosmetic brands promoting natural styles

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Tunisian mother Mouna Jebali had long used a flat iron to straighten her thick hair, but with women everywhere challenging the stigma around natural looks, she has finally learned to love her curls.

To help her make what she called the "transition" to wearing her hair curly, she visited the North African country’s first beauty salon specialising in natural hair.

"For years, I was taught that curly hair was not neat, that it had to be straightened or tied back," Jebali told AFP at Pineapple Studio in the capital, Tunis.

She said she finally came to accept her natural hair after tiny curls started forming on her little boy’s head.

"That's when I said to myself: actually no, curly hair is beautiful," she said. In countries around the world, beauty standards have shifted radically in recent years, with a growing number of beauty salons and cosmetic brands promoting natural styles.