Proud To Wear It - How Cxmmunity and Firstline highlighted the parallels of cosplay and Black hair care

Houston, Texas. DreamCon weekend. We’re inside a club that’s bumping with bass, packed with Black folks from every walk of life; anime hoodies, foam swords, painted faces, and yes, custom-branded durags and bonnets on heads that are just as fly as the cosplay. The party? Trap Sushi. The giveaways? Firstline Brand’s Wave Enforcer line, an iconic name in Black haircare.

At first glance, cosplay and durags might seem like they come from two different worlds. One’s about embodying your favorite anime hero or video game character. The other’s about protecting your waves, your twists, your braids. But here’s the thing: both come with the same baggage in Black spaces. The same whispers about being “presentable,” “professional,” and “respectable” get tossed at people who wear either. And those whispers? They’re not harmless, they’re policing.

At Cxmmunity, we’ve been tapped into this conversation for years because the cosplay community, specifically the Black cosplay community, is a cornerstone of our ecosystem. Our audience, our collaborators, our people… they’re BLERDs. Black + Nerds. Creators, artists, gamers, and entrepreneurs who are as likely to know every word of a Kendrick verse as they are to debate the best One Piece arc. But for all their creativity, BLERDs still face the same cultural gatekeeping as any other pocket of Blackness.

That’s why partnering with Firstline Brand made perfect sense. Firstline isn’t just the largest Black-owned haircare company in the game, they’ve been shaping how we express ourselves through hair fashion for decades. They know what it means when a bonnet or a durag becomes more than just functional; it becomes a statement. Together, we set out to tell a story that’s bigger than a product: how protective headwear is another form of cosplay, another way we say this is who I am, even when the world doesn’t get it.

The backdrop to this was a moment we all remember. Comedian Monique’s viral video calling out Black women for wearing bonnets in public, framing it as a lack of self-respect. The intention might have been love, but the message landed tired. Younger generations weren’t here for respectability politics masquerading as empowerment. And in that pushback, we saw the same energy that fuels cosplay culture. Whether you’re rocking a Mario hat or a Leaf Village headband, you know what it feels like to get side-eyed for how you choose to show up. And you also know what it feels like to not care.

So under the theme Proud To Wear It, we hit DreamCon 2025 with our host Supreme Sensai and started talking to people. Convention attendees. Content creators like HeyTonyTV, iMinikon, and Jordan Bentley. The responses were clear: yes, durags and bonnets protect hair. But they also protect identity. They are armor and expressions, just like cosplay. Some folks told us cosplay made them feel freer than their “regular” selves. Others admitted there’s a time and place for headwear, but almost all agreed; labeling them “unprofessional” is played out.

The weekend ended at the Trap Sushi party, where attendees walked away with Trap Sushi-branded Wave Enforcer bonnets and durags, posing for “yearbook” photos that captured their personalities. It wasn’t just merch, it was proof that fashion, function, and identity could share the same space.

That’s the heartbeat of our new documentary Proud To Wear It, now live on Cxmmunity Media’s YouTube. It’s not just about hair or cosplay, it’s about owning every part of your identity, without apology. As we continue creating spaces for BLERD communities to thrive, we’ll keep telling these stories where fashion, music, tech, and culture meet, and where we all get to live, and look exactly how we want.

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