Hair Dare: 1 Girl, 7 Styles

Did you know? More than 80 percent of all hairstyle how tos on the web are for white girls. OK, so that’s not an official stat, but it’s still pretty accurate. Type the word “hairstyles” into Google’s image search, and tell me what you see. A sea of blondes, right?

And I hate to admit this, but I never really thought much of the lack of ethnic hairstyles out there. That is, until one of our staffers, Rahel (who has long, gorgeous, black hair), brought it up in a meeting. Her complaint? She was stuck in a hair rut, but couldn’t find any cute hairstyle inspiration.

So I sent her to Byu-Ti Salon in Santa Monica, Calif. The stylists there helped her come up with some super versatile looks, and taught her how to do them on herself. A week later, she was showcasing some of the coolest hairstyles I had ever seen her wear in the office.

With Rahel’s help, I put together a gallery of black hairstyle inspiration — complete with hairstyle how tos provided by the stylists. With seven different looks and professional advice on how to get them, you’ll have everything you need to break out of that hair rut you’re in.

Check out all of Rahel’s black hairstyle pictures here.