Curly Connection
created at bgsu
By Cornasia Sandford
Spring | 2019
“During middle school is when I became interested in natural hair. I was obsessed with the big curls and everything, but just could not figure out how hair could look like that, or how my hair could look like that,” said junior communication major Elaysia Parks.
Elaysia is the founder of a new organization at BGSU known as Curly Connection. This organization started in spring of 2018 in hopes to promote self love and self care of all natural hair for students of color.
“I would define natural hair as the state of your hair when it has not been chemically processed or altered,” Elaysia said.
Elaysia is African-American with dark brown eyes and curly brown hair. She is originally from Cleveland but lived in a small suburb known as Cleveland Heights. She has worn her hair natural most of her life, but she has not always had an interest in natural hair. With a mother and grandmother as cosmetologists, Elaysia grew up surrounded by hair. But as a child, she saw “black hair” as “straight hair.” It wasn’t until Elaysia was older that she wanted something different.
The second semester of her freshman year at BGSU, Elaysia made the decision to get the hair she always wanted.
Elaysia Parks is a first-generation college student and has created a student organization that promotes self-love and self-care of all natural hair for students of color.
“I big-chopped my hair. I cut it all off and started over, and that’s when my natural hair journey began,” Elaysia said.
After cutting her hair, Elaysia’s self-confidence grew; she says she was able to fully accept herself and love the way she looked. Her hair journey was not necessarily easy for her, but it was an experience she doesn’t regret. The confidence she feels she gained is what she wanted all women of color to have, especially while attending a predominantly white institution.
“I started Curly Connection because I realized there were a lot of naturals on-campus and there was a need for type of common ground for naturals,” Elaysia said.
According to her adviser Adrienna Hutchins, Elaysia is very ambitious and resourceful.
Elaysia is all about her business and she knows what she wants and gets things done, Hutchins said.
Hutchins has known Elaysia for over a year, since they met at a previous campus event. They’ve been connected ever since and when Elaysia came to her with the idea of a natural hair organization, she wanted to be a part of it.
“It’s an organization that we were missing and Elaysia couldn’t of been a better person to start it,” Hutchins said.
Although Elaysia is excited about her undergraduate accomplishments, after graduation she plans to pursue her master’s degree in either media management or media arts.
Her ultimate goal is to be in a space where she can help improve the representation of African-American women on television and being able to create creative content.
“Elaysia is a strong-willed, strong-minded person that’s very very focused on her objectives,” Elaysia’s father, Eric Brown, said.
He describes his joy for her and her accomplishments. As a first-generation college student, Elaysia has worked extremely hard to get where she is today and Brown said he couldn’t be more proud of her.
Elaysia has a lot of support from her father, as well as other family members, including her mother, Aerie Parks.
“She is my sunshine. … Elaysia is truly outgoing and strong-willed and has so much more growth,” Aerie said.
With Elaysia being the youngest of two, her mother believes she is ”self-made” and will do everything she needs to be successful.
Elaysia made the decision to become a communications major at BGSU because she believed it was her first step to success. During her senior and junior year of highschool, Elaysia was involved in a post-secondary program that allowed her to take early college courses. This is when she decided communication was a good fit for her.
“I love to communicate with people and I believe that communication is one of the fundamentals of life, so I wanted that to be my major,” Elaysia said.
Unlike traditional students, Elaysia will be graduating with her degree in three years instead of four, due to the early college courses she took. In her three years at BGSU, aside from Curly Connection, Elaysia is a Ronald E. McNair scholar, a member of Chi Alpha Epsilon honor society, she was Residential Adviser and is currently an intern with the Institute for Culture and Society at the university.
Apart from her many accomplishments, Elaysia said she has a goal to make a difference for women of color and believes promoting natural hair plays an essential part in that.
“I’ll always be a natural hair advocate because I feel like giving people a voice and giving people knowledge is always going to be something needed,” Elaysia said.
