My natural hair has been on my head for about seven years of my life (I shaved my head my freshman year of high school).
That's a long time! Before that I was chemically treating it to the degree it wasn't even my hair anymore.
And I've learned some interesting things along the way.
Black hair is a huge part of our culture. Black women (and men) spend billions of dollars a year on our hair! We take up a huge portion of the economy.
Why is this so significant?
Well, black hair has a rich history that has been marked by wanting our hair to look like the only face of beauty many of us were exposed to: white hair. This is the part many are familiar with. However, if we look further back than that, we can see that African hair was in no way trying to imitate white hair. We created styles and artistry that inspire many hairstyles today (note: cultural appropriation).
I wanted to talk about the resiliency of that culture. Our hair was uniquely our own and with colonization, that culture was paused for the sake of survival. Yet, black woman still found ways to make our hair our own.
A large part of our culture is the subsequent denial of our hair as what it is: beautiful the way it is. White societies told black woman verbally and non-verbally that in order to be beautiful, respected, hired, and uplifted, our hair had to look a certain way. It had to look like theirs. Our mothers were convinced and spread this sentiment to their daughters in an attempt to make them look "presentable" and give them a better chance at life.
In the 70s, we used our hair as protest. Black female leaders like Angela Davis wore afros as a way to deny a Eurocentric beauty standard.
And she looked great doing it.
But this doesn't mean that natural hair is the only way black woman should be able to do their hair. The point is our freedom to express ourselves. There has been talk that black woman who straighten their hair are "trying to be white" and this argument comes from the notion that white people "own" straight hair or blonde hair. This simply isn't true. Besides the fact that Black women can be born with some of these features, they also created the styles that they wear themselves. They don't owe anyone anything.
Our hair in all of its forms is a part of our history. We can wear it natural or straight. Curly or wavy or braided. With a wig or shaved. No matter what, our hair is our choice.
Just like our texture, our hair is resilient. I am featuring some of my favorite black owned hair care brands below (this is not sponsored, but wouldn't it be nice if it was?)
These images are not my own. Source unknown.
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