The Hair Saint: Ona Diaz-Santin’s journey of empowerment through curls [Video]

October 16, 2024 — For Ona Diaz-Santin, hair care is more than a profession. Much of her childhood was spent in salons owned and staffed by her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother, where her love for hair styling and self-care developed.

For years, the stigmas surrounding curly hair both within and outside her own community made Ona inclined to wear her hair straight during much of her early life, until on the day of her high school graduation, her blow dryer broke, leaving her with no option but to sport her natural curls.

“Everyone was like ‘Oh my God, you permed your hair?’ and I [thought] wow – people think I have straight hair.”

As an Afro-Latina with textured curls, hair holds a deep personal meaning for Ona. A term often thrown around in the Latinx community to describe curly and textured hair is “pelo malo,” which translates to “bad hair.” It’s often made to …