She looks at me through the mirror with skepticism across her face. “Are you sure you want to do this?” “I’m sure,” I say with a nod. It’s taken over a year of contemplation and persuasion, I am not turning back now. I take a deep breath and squeeze my eyes shut, the back of my neck tingling as the humming razor unforgivingly shears off twenty-eight inches of hair. Opening my eyes, I see my beautiful locks rubber-banded together and laid out on the speckled blue countertop in front of me.
Growing up in a traditional Indian family, I’ve always been pushed to preserve the thick, silky, black hair that I was “blessed” with. Long hair is encouraged for girls in my culture, as if it defined a woman. Cutting hair short is a very bold statement; some
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Although I liked how it looked, I felt like it overshadowed who I was. As a child, I was extremely shy and typically kept to myself. So much so, my family and friends would always tell me that I was “hiding behind a curtain” whenever I let my hair fall in front of my face. I finally realized that the only reason I kept my hair long was because I felt like I had to. Taking care of it was not worth the little satisfaction that it gave me when I took the time to style …show more content…
I felt naked, defenseless without the security of my hair veiled across me. Similar to those who wear a hijab, I hoped my worth would now be in my words and actions rather than my appearance. Instead, with my body in full view and nothing hidden under the shadow of hair and normalcy, I tore myself apart. I shamelessly picked at every single flaw I saw in myself. I thought that cutting my hair would make me feel edgy and bold, but I had never felt worse. I needed to prove my womanhood, so I wore makeup more often and dressed femininely to try to suppress the growing feeling of
inundated with this idea of what “good hair” is, to the point that it seemed natural to force that same ideal upon me.
This essay is concerned with issues of identity, body image and the politics of hair within African American culture. It discusses the lived experiences of a number of African American women and is no way generalizable to all African American women. Nonetheless, body image and hair politics are prominent features in African American culture because they have deep historical roots and still feature in present day. Body image is generally understood as a mental image of one’s body as it appears to others (Featherstone 2010). This mental image produces body consciousness, which Samantha Kwan describes as an amplified mindfulness that one’s body does not conform to hegemonic cultural standards (Kwan 2010). In today’s modern context, hegemonic cultural norms are reproduced and widely disseminated by the mass media with the help of new technologies. These new technologies Elliott’s discusses, with some in the form of satellite television and other widely utilized media, give viewers unprecedented opportunities to view and scrutinize their favorite celebrities in close proximity (Elliott 2010).
Since the early 1900s, Black women have had a fascination with their hair. More explicitly, they have had a fascination with straightening their hair. The need to be accepted by the majority class has caused them to do so. Though the image of straight hair as being better than coarse hair still hasn’t left the Black community, there has been a surge of non straight hairstyles since the nineteen sixties. Wearing more natural hairstyles, which ironically enough include ‘weaves’ and ‘hair extensions’ has been considered to be more empowered and more enlightened. However, this image comes with a price, and though it appears the ‘natural’ hairstyle movement has advanced Black women, it has actually set them back.
Throughout the years we see different trends, styles, and taste's that apply to what society accepts as attractive at their moment. Some people choose more conservative looks whereas other generations were far more liberal in their way of dressing and styling their hair. In order to understand why people would choose certain hairstyles in the 1980's it is important to know more about that year for example,who were the top celebrities or other famous people that had a major influence on society during that time. We know that most fashion and hair trends come from artists in the music industry because they play a major role in everyone's life. People will listen to their music and watch their music videos which will serve as
A woman’s hair is often referred to as her “crown and glory.” Hair is a salient physical characteristic of one’s self concept and how others view their level of attractiveness. One of the major intra-prejudice amongst African Americans is hair texture. This stigma is especially prevalent among African American women. For African American women, hair carries an even greater psychological complexity. Starting from slavery, African Americans were judged by the texture and curl pattern of their hair. For example, Blacks with lighter skin color and straight/wavy hair had certain advantages oppose to those Blacks who possessed more afro-centric features, such as darker skin and kinky hair (Myrdal, 1962; Neal & Wilson, 1989; Parrish 1944; Poussaint, 1975; Reuter, 1917). While a plethora of commentaries have been written on black hair, few empirical studies exist that have examined the reverberating consequences of slavery, as it relates to the western indoctrination of hair and its impact on racial identity/self-concept among African American women.
" This brings us to ‘Good Hair’, a 2009 documentary by Chris Rock that examines what the ongoing pursuit of ‘good’ hair says about African-American cultural identity and the hair-care industry. It investigated and revealed why black people across the ages have subjected themselves to sometimes dangerous, often painful practices in the pursuit of beautiful hair. It also looks into the dangers of many common hair-straightening treatments and reveals the alarmingly high cost of having ‘good’ hair. The social and psychological aspect of hair was delved in by the authors of Hair Story (2010), Tharps and Byrd note, since the beginning of African civilizations "hairstyles have been used to indicate a person's marital status, age, religion, ethnic identity, wealth, and rank within the community..... ...
In the recent past year or two, a woman’s natural hair has become a big thing. Before, African American women, to be specific, were so disgusted by their hair. They would do anything in their power to change the “nappy” aspect of their hair to “beautiful”. They would use relaxers very so often and hot combs.
During this time, women were seen embracing their natural tresses with locks and twists, but that seemed to quickly change. In order to fit into this new European standard of beauty, women were required to alter their hair, thus stripping them of the little identity they possessed. The increased support for the natural hair movement alters the black woman’s perception of beauty while intentionally and unintentionally challenging the ideology of beauty within the western world. With more women wearing their hair natural, black women have begun to accept their unaltered appearances while redefining their perception of beauty.
Whenever I travel to another part of the US or another country in the world I find myself taking on the vocal and speech patterns of a native speaker. I lose my own way of speaking, and adopt that area's accent.
“Listen as your day unfolds. Challenge what the future holds. Try and keep your head up to the sky. Lovers may cause you tears. Go ahead, release your fears. Stand up and be counted. Don't be ashamed to try.”
Revolutionary fashions made it acceptable to show more skin, develop different styles, and be able for women to express themselves. Women began to liberate themselves from the traditional long hairstyles and turn to the new and shorter masculine hairdos. “The bob appeared in the US shortly. Women with bobs needed more frequent haircuts, and wanted permanent waves” (Monet). Women began to cut their hair shorter, cringing their hair, and finger waving it.
In the short story ‘growing my hair again’, the author explains how women in the African traditions are held captive by the traditional culture and their struggles to trying to break away them using the main character Nneka. In Nigeria as well as in the other parts of Africa, culture was and still is given a lot of emphasizes especially when it comes to the traditional practices and beliefs. The culture however vary from one community to the other and ranges from the rights of passage, religious beliefs to other religious practices such as offering sacrifices and the role of women in the community .Nneka was married to a rich man in traditional Nigerian community and as in other areas, women had a role of being submissive to their husbands
One of women’s constant struggles is upkeep with culture and society’s ever-changing definition of beauty. Although both genders have hair on their bodies, the views and acceptability of the amount or the location of body hair vary immensely. In fact, women are often thought to be hairless and men to be hairier (DeMello, 2014). Women must then put in effort to uphold a standard, in which the idea that being feminine is natural and effortless (Toerien and Wilkinson, 2003). That being the case, I will argue that the hairless female body has been transformed over time to represent beauty and youth. More importantly, I will argue that it has now become normative in Western society and deemed unacceptable if women do not conform to the hairless
During an interview with Channel 4, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said that “hair is a political thing”. Indeed, the way people wear their hair tell something about them. As the author said, if a black woman wears braids, people will have a certain image of her, as a radical, an artist, a traditional African woman and so on. It opens the debate on what society consider as beautiful. Most of the time, straight hair would be considered as beautiful and professional. In Americanah, Ifemelu has an
I can't remember the day my hair and I parted ways. We used to get along when we were young! Displayed in the ponytail fountain on top of my head, she was quite cooperative....