Lupita Nyong’o celebrates her ‘kinky’ curls: ‘I love my hair’

Feb. 13 (UPI) — Lupita Nyong’o says she loves her “kinky” natural hair.

The 34-year-old Kenyan-Mexican actress discussed “the culture of hair” in the March issue of Allure, explaining she considers the term “African-American hair” to be “inaccurate” because she’s not African-American.

“I like the term ‘kinky,’” Nyong’o told the magazine. “Some people don’t like that term, but when I think about my hair, I think of it as African kinky hair.”

“I’m not really in deep with the politics of it all and the language choice,” she qualified. “I just speak from my own experience or my own preference. Curly hair differs so much.”

Nyong’o said she experimented with several different styles over the years, including relaxing her hair and going bald, before deciding to grow her hair out.

“My hair is the longest it’s been in over a decade,” the star said. “You go on YouTube, and there are just so many different ways of upkeep of one’s natural hair. It’s honey and rosemary water and avocado paste conditioning and whatnot. I’ve tried it all.”

“Now I love my hair. I love it because I’ve also been able to really embrace the stuff it can do,” she added. “It’s like clay in the right hands. Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands.”

Nyong’o had called out Grazia U.K. magazine in the fall for Photoshopping out part of her hair on its November cover. The magazine apologized, saying the photographer altered Nyong’o’s image without its knowledge.

“I am disappointed that @graziauk invited me to be on their cover and then edited out and smoothed my hair to fit their notion of what beautiful hair looks like,” Nyong’o said at the time.

Nyong’o is known for voicing Maz Katana in the Star Wars movies, and will next star in the Marvel film Black Panther. The movie co-stars Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan, and opens in theaters Friday.