Hairstyle trends can change faster than the seasons. But for black women, there’s often a lot more than fashion at play. Many feel that if they straighten their hair in pursuit of the long, flowing locks that dominate magazines and TV, they’re trading their identity for a white beauty ideal. But if they leave it natural, women can face backlash from a culture - and employers - that still see styles like afros and dreadlocks as unprofessional and not beautiful.



As GPB’s Emily Jones reports, some moms in Savannah are hoping a beauty pageant can help their daughters to love the natural look from an early age.



Click here to see photos of the pageant.



There are a few things you’ll always see backstage at a beauty pageant: tulle, rhinestones - and of course, hair products. The moms at this pageant are busy applying gels and sprays to give their daughters’ hair extra shine, or help smooth it back under a bow or clip. Markeshia McGee’s hands fly through two-year-old Kaylee’s hair, unbraiding it to let loose a torrent of tight curls.



"I’m not doing any flat-ironing or curling, or anything that has to do with heat," she says, "because we don’t really put heat in her hair - trying to keep it as natural as possible."



You won’t find these girls’ hair treated with chemical relaxers to make it sleek and straight, either. This is the Little Miss Happy Headed Pageant, and it’s just for girls with natural hair.



"I want to reiterate to you all: this pageant is for them," pageant founder Mahogany Bowers tells the moms. "I want them to have a good time, I want them to remember this experience."



As the head of a local nonprofit, Bowers runs a lot of community events - but she says this one is personal. She worries about when her daughter starts kindergarten, likely with other girls who have very different hair. "I’m her mom, and of course I’m going to tell her she’s beautiful and her hair is beautiful in its natural state," Bowers says, "but what am I gonna do when the little girl goes 'why is your hair so nappy?' You know, at school."



Shawntel Waajid is the owner of The Nappy Hut natural hair care salon in Savannah. She’s been styling natural hair for more than three decades."You won’t feel pretty unless you like your hair," she says. "And if you take that same sentiment and turn liking your hair into putting fake hair on your head because you want to look like somebody else, or liking your hair because you chemically straightened it because you want to look like somebody else, then you’re never going to find you."



The pageant’s organizers hope it will help girls internalize the message that they’re beautiful just as they are. Local TV reporter Whitney Harris - who’s MC’ing the pageant - says an event like this would have helped her to find her own hair pretty when she was a kid. "I went to an all-white school, a majority white school," she says, "and my hair was different, and I didn’t always feel beautiful, and I wanted to have really straight hair like all of my friends."



Stylist Waajid says it can be tough for women to resist that feeling. "It takes courage, it takes strength, it takes pride in yourself for you to buck the system, to go against what everybody else is doing and to stand on your own."



Some women have lost their jobs or missed out on promotions because their natural hair isn’t seen as professional. Still, Waajid says embracing the natural look is worth all that risk. "Our hair has always been the defining characteristic of who we are. It represents our weakness if we let it, but it also represents our strength."



Back at the pageant, the girls are eagerly waiting for the results. One has cornrows, another loose curls. A third wears her kinky hair long down her back. And they all look like beauty queens.



Harris announces the winner: three-year-old Aaliyah White. Aaliyah will reign as Miss Happy Headed - until next year’s pageant, when she’ll place the crown on the next winner’s hair.