The Importance of Hair
“I Am Not My Hair”, is a beautifully written song from the soulful artist India Aria, and it perfectly captures the whole message of my essay. Braids, weaves, natural, long or short, hair has always been a pivotal point in my self-esteem and how I wanted other people to view me. Over a period of time; however, I wanted to challenge the societal norms of beauty and how that correlates to hair, so on a particular day, I decided to get all my hair chopped off. This moment not only changed my perspective on beauty, but also change the need for me to not get validation from anybody else.
Since this whole essay is about my hair, I would have to take it back to the very beginning, and since the day I was born, hair has
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always been important to me. I was born with beautiful curly hair, which translated into my later childhood. My mom would put my hair in various cute hairstyles, such as plats, buns, and ponytails, but of course grass is always greener on the other side, this goes into my biggest regret involving my hair. When I was in the sixth grade, I begged my mom to let me get a perm, which would chemically straighten my hair. This proved to be a mistake, as it took most of my hair out, and I wore it in choppy hairstyle, which was not cute. With my hair gone, so was my self-esteem. In fact, on a particular day in class, I walked in and I can already see Cole, the sixth grade class clown smirking at me. As I walked out to get something for the teacher, I heard Cole say to the class, “her hair is shorter than mine”, as the whole class erupted in laughter with him, I put on a brave face, trying to seem nonchalant, but on the inside I was dying from embarrassment. This was only the first of many incidents that happened, where some of my classmates would talk about my hair and make jokes about it. In sixth grade that low self-worth journey began and all the different hairstyles I wore to make myself feel and look prettiest did also. My first major hairstyle was wearing weave ponytails, which was for my dance competitions, this would result in me feeling insecure in the fact that the other girls had their real hair and it was styled very pretty. I would want to wear my real hair, but I was too embarrassed at how bad my real hair looked. Also, while I was in middle school, I would get mean comments from the boys in my grade about my appearance, saying such things like, “your hair looks like a boy”, “that girl is so ugly”, and “she would be prettier if her hair looked good”. The comments about my looks would translate into the need for me to get my beauty validated from basically everybody, or else I would feel ugly. Moving on with wearing weaves, I wore braids to get my hair to grow, which it did, and at one point I even wore my natural hair down in a bob cut. This made me feel good and I had hope that I would get my natural hair all the way down my back and that I wouldn’t have to wear weaves anymore. From the years of sixth grade and upward to high school, my hairstyles changed and I would even get a lot of compliments on my hair, even from people who made fun about my hair in the past. In fact, it was in my senior year of high school when my viewpoints on hair changed. My mom had pretty long hair, but she decided to cut her hair in a really cute pixie cut, I loved this cut on her and it shocked me how good it look, because my family and I have big foreheads, but the cut still looks cute on her and it made her stand out. The fact that the short hairstyle made my mom stand out, is exactly what I wanted for college, I also wanted a hairstyle that didn’t take a lot of time to get done in the morning. So a week before my high school graduation, I decided to take out my long wavy weave and cut my natural hair. Basically everybody told me not get my hair cut, and was really worried about how it would look, but this really a testament about how far my self-esteem and self-worth has gone up, because for the first time in my life I made a decision without caring about the opinions of others. In the end, the short pixie hairstyle I got, turned out the best decision I ever made for my hair, because I felt confident in my outer appearance and it showed me that hair does not define me or anybody else, hair is only a small part of a person’s self. The short hair also proved to me that I didn’t need the validation of others to confirm how beautiful I thought I was, and that real beauty comes from within and how the choice you make. Through the past 18 years of my life, I told you how a little thing, such as hair has controlled my thoughts, emotions and belief in myself.
Appearance in general came from the opinions of other people, who for the most part, didn’t really matter to me, which would result in an unhealthy low amount of self-worth and respect. Throughout history, the topic of hair in the African American community was a big one. Black women have been brainwashed, since they were a little girl, that African American hair wasn’t good enough and that we need to chemically straightened our hair, or wear weave to replicate the style of the European woman, which would translate into looking as closely as a white woman as we could. We live in a white society, so of course we wanted to live up to the beauty standards, that showed that white women reign superior to others, but especially to the black woman. But the times have changed, more African American women are wearing their hair natural, or just simply chopping all their hair off, because that is what they wanted to do, they are no longer concerned with conforming to societal norms of beauty. I feel the same way as they do, in fact, my short hair, that I wear now, has given me a whole new set of confidence and a new outlook on beauty. I learned that anybody can wear short hair, girls, boys, and even little kids. I have a new felt pride in myself and that I never want to wear fake hair ever again, in fact, I want to go a step further and get my hair all buzzed off. With all that said, hair is not meant to be a limitation or something to box people in, hair is just another way to express yourself and you should wear your hair the way you want to, without the concerns of
others.
Alice Walker’s short creative nonfiction, Dreads uses imagery to convey her narrative about a hairstyle that was inspired by singer, Bob Marley. Dreads are defined as a “hairstyle in which the hair is washed, but not combed, and twisted while wet into braids or ringlets hanging down on all sides”, according to howtogetdreads.com. Imagery was chosen for this paper by the depth of Walker’s illustration of beauty that natural hair has that might seem to be abonnement or not professional by society standards. This reading sparks interests just by the title a lone. That people have mixed feeling about dreads, some might see it as being spiritual; or as a political statement. However, Walker loves the way her natural hair is supposed to form without
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.
Many people say that African-American women natural beauty isn’t the white supremacist look but fail to realize that when straightening your hair or looking a certain way minimizes their self-actualization to present themselves as an individual. By hiding your true beauty (meaning expressing yourself through the way you look) brings self-esteem issues because you are constantly putting yourself down when you find yourself looking more natural than different. For example Hook states, “within white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, the social and political context in which the custom of black folks straightening our hair emerges, it represents an imitation of the dominant white groups appearance and often indicates internalized racism, self-hatred, and/or low self-esteem” (336). That indicates that the illogical beauty standards of white supremacy brings women self-esteem to rock bottom and sooner or later make them hate the way they were born/created as an
inundated with this idea of what “good hair” is, to the point that it seemed natural to force that same ideal upon me.
Instead of being allowed to embrace their unique and personal beauty African-American women have been reared in a society that edifies all things non-black. Light skin and long flowing hair are exalted and as a result many African-American women have bought into this. Oftentimes African American women resort to the use of skin bleachers, wearing colored contacts, hair weaves and using chemicals that contain lye to alter the texture of their hair.
Hooks, Bell. “Straightening Our hair”. Good Reasons. eds, Lester Faigley, Jack Selzer. Boston: Longman Publishers, 2001. 446-452.
The history of the significance and culture related to African-Americans’ hair is a very deep and interesting topic. There are many different hairstyles and troubles from having to live with those different sorts of hairstyles, but which hairstyle would someone choose and why? This book shared the experience of African-American men and women in the 1800's to the current era in extensive detail to help answer that question.
The article Straightening My Hair by Bell Hooks makes her argument of finding the reason of why African American women straighten their hair. She first states that Black Americans straighten their hair because it is the stage of transformation; it closes the door of innocence and opens the door to adulthood. Slowly, she starts changing her views. She comes up with the statement that African Americans do not straighten their hair for reasonable reasons, but to imitate the characteristics of white women. She informs that black people repeat this process because they have low self-acceptance of their roots and background, and that they have lost beauty in themselves. My argument against this statement is that it is erroneous to claim that the straightening of African American hair is misinterpreted as their acceptance into the white community; straightening of hair is the symbolism of impending womanhood, closing the door of innocence, and sharing a time to meditate by relaxing your soul.
Don’t touch my hair: this should be a sentiment simple enough to understand. However, for many black women this establishment of boundaries can be broken repeatedly and without any regard for personal space. Solange Knowles’ song “Don’t Touch My Hair” and accompanying music video takes this declaration of self and creates an anthem for the empowerment of black women and dismissal of microagressions, white beauty standards, jealousy and appropriation. Her lyrics emphasize the emotional connection that black women have to their hair. But, beyond this pride is an act of self-love militant and radical against white standards of beauty; or is this self-love subscribing to the notion that black women’s hair is an object detached from their personhood- objectifying themselves to other’s gazes and not subverting them? In order to answer this question, theories from Helen
It started with a minor compulsion to do hair. I found myself spending more time than ever before staring into the mirror, strategically situating each strand. But it quickly escalated, infecting the realm of my desire: I wanted to cut hair. Mine, my housemate's, that guy who walked by me in the park and so desperately needed to trim off his mullet. Anyone. I found myself nightly snipping off different pieces of hair, my wastebasket mounding with black, brown, bleached little trimmings, the cast-offs of my art.
Almost 250 years of slavery and anti-blackness within the United States has created a divide in what type of hair is acceptable. According to Cynthia L. Robinson, “Black hair texture is graded” (Robinson 2011). Precisely, this means that a Black woman has either good hair or bad hair. Good hair has a resemblance of European hair texture, meaning straight and wavy curls. Good hair also diminishes the look of African ancestry. Bad is the complete opposite. The texture is kinky, coiled, and thick, giving the appearance of short hair (Robinson 2011). Hair that bears a resemblance to Eurocentric beauty standards is more beautiful and makes the individual with that hair type more beautiful as well (Robinson
is an unescapeable part of your life. Where your hair can not always be neat
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
The African American Registry states, “the standards of beauty that slaves encountered upon arriving to the “New World” were the privilege of fair skin, straight hair, and thin features, in contrast to "African" dark skin, curly hair, and wider noses and mouths. Some slaves had to get accustomed to the European beauty styles to survive (literally)”. Although many women try to deny this reasoning today, it is in fact quite prevalent. Many women in the African-American community continue to wear their hair in straighter styles to look “presentable”. Until society realizes that beauty is more than what the Europeans believe, many people will continue to miss out on the true beauty of natural hair.
This is a great example of how people choose to lower people’s self esteem by telling them they have to look a certain way in order to be considered attractive. This is why in this modern society, the plastic surgery rates are very demanding. We don 't know when enough is enough. During this process we lose our true identity. There was this article that I read about why African American women had to wear something to cover their hair during the 18th century. I was really surprised when I heard about that. The reason they made us cover our hair was because white people wanted to diminish our beauty. White women were also jealous because black women had a lot of versatile hairstyles. The media always portrait a thin white one, but you never see them praising a beautiful thick african american woman. It messes up people mentality especially the younger generation of black little girls. Even within the black community, we need to change our mentality. All shades of black is beautiful and we need to realize