THE POLITICS OF MY BLACK HAIR

To start, I think that it is very important to understand what my hair looks like and what the characteristics of my hair are. I am of Nigerian descent, and my hair texture is 4c all around. So in the front, in the back at the sides and on the crown of my head, my hair is 4c. I have very thick curly afro hair, it is very close to the colour black and it is prone to dryness. It is fragile due to how curly it is, which means I need to pay a little bit more attention to it then I would if my hair were of a different texture, such as 3a.

Now that you have an image of my hair I think it is clear to see how different it is compared to the hair of other hair types. Africans, generally speaking all, to a degree have curly hair which range between 3a and 4c, some are looser but generally speaking Africans, black people, people who are mixed but have a black parent, usually have hair that falls underneath that category. Our hair, just like the colour of our skin makes us distinct and is another feature which shows others that we are black or have a degree of “blackness” in us.

Years ago, that feature (our hair) was and still is to some degree is used to discriminate against us. Our hair distinguishes us and differentiates us from other races and because it makes us so distinctly “black” it is used against us, just like the colour of our skin. You can see this discrimination in the past, when in the late 18th century in Louisiana, black and multiracial women were banned from wearing their hair in public. The law was created to suppress women of colour and “put them in their place.” [1] 

Another example of us being told that our hair is for some reason a problem, was in 2013 when Vanessa VanDyke risked expulsion for having her afro [2]. People generally say that it affected other students, because they couldn’t see the board due to her hair. But think about this: What about the black kids in the 60s and 70s who had their afros? Do you think that their afros were  distraction in class? Saying somebody’s hair is distracting is an awful reason to tell a black child to cut or get rid of their afro. An afro is the natural hair of many black people. The Guardian gives many other examples, of how black people are being discriminated against, because of our hair [3].

It is clear to see, that when it comes to black people, our hair isn’t just hair, because society doesn’t allow it to be just hair. Society doesn’t like it, and when you see people risking expulsion and having to leave or get fired from their jobs because of their hair it tells black people something. It tells them that the hair growing out of their head isn’t good enough. It tells them that they, aren’t good enough. An afro is just our hair combed out. It doesn’t have to be perfectly shaped, it just combed black hair. You’re saying, that that is unacceptable? Then you become upset, when we see white people wearing our hairstyles and being celebrated for it, but we wear and take on hairstyles from our own culture and are shamed for it (example: Zendaya and Miley in regards to dreadlocks [4]).

Because of this, in many cases you see black and multiracial girls manipulating their hair, so it can reach the Eurocentric beauty standard for hair which is “neat, tidy hair.” This equates to straight, sleek, wavy hair, which is impossible because black hair isn’t meant to be straight or why, it’s meant to be curly. Incredibly curly. It is impossible for black people to achieve that without damaging our hair (relaxers, improper use of heat), yet we do it, because we are being conditioned to think that that hair is right and ours is somehow wrong.

There is a major problem with that. Black people can’t achieve a Eurocentric beauty standard, because we are not European. We are African. This means that we sty forever unattractive and not beautiful in the eyes of Western society. We remain oppressed.

Therefore, hair isn’t just hair for black people and in many cases, the reason why a white woman and a black woman get a weave, is usually very different; even if they may not want to think so.

It is important to understand, that when it comes to black people hair is a sensitive topic, because it represents so much bout black culture and the black community and is an added factor of what it means to be black. Going on through history, you can see that hair was an incredibly important part of black culture (and still is today). In Africa hair was used to represent and symbolise status among different tribes, within the black culture, hair is used to express ourselves (along with music such as hip hop) because for so long we were stopped from expressing ourselves in other ways. The afro in the 20th century was a political statement. It represented black power and the idea “I am proud to be black,” after years and years of oppression and being taught that being black, is essentially some sort of “curse.”

Now, the natural hair movement is coming and taking many black men and women and helping them rediscover their blackness. It helps them to understand themselves and become confident within themselves. We start to understand why we put weaves and braids in our hair and our attitude towards it changes. The reason behind putting in weaves and braids, isn’t because “I want to hide my hair,” but because I want to protect it, take a break from styling it and help it grow. Your attitude towards having a relaxer changes. It isn’t now because “having straight hair is pretty and my hair is ugly,” but because I like how I look with a relaxer and I understand and love my natural hair but I prefer straight hair to curly hair.

Black hair and black hairstyles have a lot, of history behind them, and it is imbedded into our culture. The political and social issues surrounding our hair our huge and if you don’t understand that, then you don’t understand our anger and our pain, when people take our hair lightly. Or, when people from other cultures who adopt our hairstyles are praised, but society can’t seem to see the normality in black people themselves (where those hairstyles originally come from) wearing them.

[1] http://blackgirllonghair.com/2014/07/shocking-history-why-women-of-color-in-the-1800s-were-banned-from-wearing-their-hair-in-public/

[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/vanessa-vandyke-expelled_n_4345326.html 

[3] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/03/vanessa-vandyke-florida-girl-threatened-expulsion-afro 

[4] http://slimybaby.tumblr.com/post/128038704894/jazzgaze-mainstream-irwin-reaction-of-miley

• http://black--lamb.tumblr.com/post/120942415204/why-do-black-people-straighten-their-hair-if


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