Rugby star Sadia Kabeya: Embracing my natural hair helped me ‘love myself more’

English rugby union player Sadia Kabeya says that embracing her natural hair helped with both self-love – and her rugby game.

Currently with Red Roses England and Loughborough Lightning, Kabeya says she decided to go fully natural for a whole year in early 2025, explaining: “I needed to be able to strip back everything to be able to love my natural self.”

And the decision had positive knock-on effects, both in her career and personal life. “I now love myself more and it’s also helped with my rugby, because I’ve had nothing to think about outside of the sport,” says Kabeya, 24.

Since starting rugby in secondary school in Crystal Palace, South London, Kabeya suggests that her hair has often been front of mind when playing sport.

“It has definitely been an up and down journey,” the Loughborough University student explains.

“I remember doing everything I could to grow my natural hair and it never reaching past my ears. A lot of time I would also have my hair in braids and then as I got older, I discovered extensions.”

Describing rugby as a “white majority sport”, Kabeya, who won the Rugby World Cup last year with England, says she would go to games in secondary school with a plastic bag or a headscarf on her head if it was raining. “Nobody would bat an eyelid, because that was just normal for me back then,” she says.

“It wasn’t until I went outside of school to play and with rugby having a big social culture, I noticed that after games the other girls would be ready in half an hour and I would still be there trying to blow-dry my hair or do my edges,” she says.

“I remember thinking I needed to try and fit in and that’s why I relied heavily on braids.”

Kabeya continues: “It wasn’t until about two years ago I realised I needed to do something about that.

“If not I was going to be bald and not have any love for my natural hair.”

Throughout her time experimenting with different hair styles, Kabeya explains it came with a lot of questions from others. “In the black community, you express a lot of your personality through your hair,” she says.

“I used to have these long braids all the way down to my bottom and I would get comments asking, ‘Why is your hair so long?’ or, ‘Why have you got blonde hair this time?’

“I understand from those people’s points of views – they were just asking a question – but for me, it made me really question, is this something that’s not normal?”

“I think through meeting different people and being in different spaces in rugby and people who may not have been around women of colour, it definitely changed the way that I saw my hair in a negative way.”

Kabeya first started playing rugby 12 years ago, saying: “I never knew what rugby was before and then I was asked to come out of a lesson to pick up some dusty boots and join in. Since then I have never looked back.”

Kabeya explains that she’s had a variety of experiences in different clubs. “My first premiership club was in Richmond and that was a shock to the system,” she admits.

“I think I was maybe one of three or four black girls in a squad of 40.

“I was there for two years and during that time, I tried to shrink myself and fit in – whether it was by listening to the same music as everyone else or changing the way I spoke.

“Then the next year, I moved to Wasps Women. That was during Covid and the Black Lives Matter movement – there was already a lot of open conversations going on,” she adds.

“I was only 18, so I was really young but the coach at the club put on a Zoom call and said they understood what was going on. They wanted to give the girls who were already at the club a platform to speak.

“There was about five or six other black girls and they just spoke about their experience. This was polar opposite environment for me and then I felt comfortable and accepted in a rugby space.”

Inspired by her own experiences in rugby – particularly wearing a headscarf underneath her scrum cap to protect her hair – in 2025 Kabeya launched her own satin-lined scrum caps with sports equipment brand Gilbert Rugby.

Kabeya says she felt compelled to make these caps for a reason, explaining: “I know a lot of young girls and boys don’t want to get into the sport, maybe because of something as simple as not wanting to get their hair muddy or dirty.

“That could be the reason that they stop playing rugby but having something as simple as a satin-lined scrum cap could knock down a barrier or keep more people in the sport.”

She continues: “Rugby isn’t a space that we normally see women or men of colour because it naturally is a middle-class, white sport. So having something that you can resonate with – it was a no-brainer and it’s been in the works for about two years.”

Kabeya says it’s important for other people of colour to see representation in the industry. “I was really fortunate to have another England rugby player, Shaunagh Brown, at the time that I was coming into the setup,” she explains.

“She was someone who was very unapologetically herself.

“I knew how powerful it was to me and it made me feel seen – and that was only one person. I think it’s very important, especially now, for me to use my platform to be that person for someone as well.”

Sadia Kabeya is an Ambassador for Revive Active, being fuelled by Zest Active and Joint Complex. Visit the Revive Active website for further details.