She looks in the mirror at her bronze spiral hair and with a face of disappointment, she struggles to gather it up into a bun hiding all of her curly mane away. It was just another normal day.

Straightening and chemically altering textured hair has been a popular routine for decades. But now, fewer girls are using heat and chemicals on their hair and are instead accepting what nature gave them.

Junior Arianna Sandoval went from wearing her hair up every day to embracing her curls.

“I felt like if I didn’t have straight hair, I didn’t fit in,” Sandoval said.

The problem was that Sandoval never really liked the texture of her hair.

“It was super frizzy and I felt like a cotton ball,” Sandoval said grinning. “It was my friends who mostly inspired me to wear my hair down. They would just bug me to wear it down and I was like, ‘Guys I can’t. There’s a lot more to it than that.’”

Junior Zoe McGregor, a close friend of Sandoval’s, felt different about her hair being up all the time.

“I’ve known her since kindergarten,” McGregor said with a shy smile. “I didn’t understand because her hair is so pretty and I just wanted her to express herself.”

This hair trend has developed into a Natural Hair Movement that has been exploding in followers. Sales in relaxers, a chemical product used to tame curly hair, have been decreasing. According to the hair-care company, Design Essentials, 26 percent of women stopped using relaxers in 2010. The percentage increased to 36 by 2011 and is continually rising.

The movement is inspiring girls and women of all hair types to unleash their natural beauty.

According to Huffpost Women, the movement shows no sign of slowing. They say that everyone has a story, and we each have our unique history and background that makes everyone’s natural hair so personal and special.

Kali Reagan, a stylist at local hair salon, Donaylle Nicole, has noticed the trend.

“The style is influenced from the 60s and 70s,” Reagan said. “The textured and natural looks are in, even in haircuts influenced for the runway.”

Natural hair is healthier than chemically and heat treated hair.

“It’s healthy to keep your hair natural because you’re wearing down the under layer of cuticles when using heat on your hair,” Reagan said.

This change didn’t happen overnight. For Sandoval, having natural hair demanded a lot of self-assurance and confidence, especially when she wore it down for the first time at school.

“I really didn’t want to go to school at all,” Sandoval said with wide eyes. “They really liked it, I was really surprised actually. It was a good feeling, a happy, warm feeling that everyone liked it.”    

But she admits that it was all worth it.      

McGregor has seen her transformation in hair style and is happy with her change.

“This summer I was talking to her and I was like, ‘You know what, you just gotta do it,’ and she did it,” McGregor said. “I was so excited to see it.”

McGregor and Sandoval agree that embracing yourself is better than hiding it away.

“I have been so much happier now that it’s down,” Sandoval said. ”Why haven’t I done this sooner? It feels great. Don’t be afraid to embrace what you got.”