One tweet about hair relaxer kits for the past sparked a mini-reunion among models

The latest example of Twitter overload is the burst from women who, when children, modelled for relaxer brands. The Black Twitter communityFinding a connection unexpectedly and reminiscing about a shared experience.

After @prettiestluxury, the discussion began. Tweet a collage of models who posed on a box of no-lye relaxer saying, “I remember wanting to be the face of a hair relaxer so bad.” That was followed by a Quote tweet asking these women to “show themselves,” which became the centerpiece of a wider trend.

Jaelyn Evans, who was a model on ORS’ Olive Oil Girls No-Lye Relaxer box, said that she has since gone natural. Nomsa Sasa Madida, a makeup artist, also posted a photo update on Twitter showing prominent braids that she’s now wearing long after posing for a relaxer brand.

The posts quickly revealed that almost all of the relaxer models have chosen to give up using their products in favor of natural hairstyles. I was struck by how much I wanted the same style as the models in the images.

As many women remembered the days of using relaxers, I noticed the conversation. Though it’s been five years since I used a relaxer on my hair, the first thing that came to mind was the memory of going to the beauty supply store and seeing the boxes lined up with the models on the front.

Tarkor Zehn, an Audio Producer here at Vox Media, recalls what she felt when she found the tweet thread.

It was absolutely adorable, I thought! It was the best “where are they now” that I never knew I needed. It was fascinating to see how many of them had changed to natural hair or had been naturally effected from the beginning. This is a great representation of the evolution of Black hair, and the impact of natural hair movements.

BuzzFeedWe caught up with models to hear their stories and get details about where they are now. While some women in the threads said they hadn’t used the products they were posing for, all of the models quoted by BuzzFeed said that wasn’t the case for them.

Tweet from @chigirlmakeup read, “I heard y’all were looking for the hair box girls…here I go 😂 I was the original ORS perm box girl,” showed the box model posing with her natural hair in a photo collage next to a box of Olive Oil ORS relaxer. She Follow-up on her tweet saying that she’s been natural for over 10 years and Modeled when she was in her twenties.

It was an exciting journey to present those styles to the world, with curls, braids, and other styles that were inspired by how our hair looked naturally. This thread ran through all the models as well as the people who were excited to see them on their timelines.