Hairstyles often act as cultural artifacts since they are both public (visible to others) and personal (linked to the body biologically, personally molded to suit cultural and personal preferences) – women’s hairstyles are central to their social positions (Synnott 1987). Hair acts as a symbol of both self and group identity as well as a form of self expression and communication. I was recently listening to India Arie’s “I Am Not My Hair” and it reminded me of a time where my own confidence in my hair had been shaken due to importance that our society puts on a woman’s hair.
In Arie’s song she points through her lyrics that in today’s world “Good hair means curls and waves” and that “Bad hair means you look like a slave.” The concept of conventional
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After my own hair had broken off I realized that hair had the power to decide how others treated you and in turn how you felt about yourself. Noliwe Rooks supports this idea in her book “Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women.” In it she says, “Hair in 1976 spoke to racial identity politics as well as bonding between African American women. Its style could lead to acceptance or rejection from certain groups and social classes, and its styling could provide the possibility of a career” (1996, pg. 5-6). Although Rooks’ quote is an older one it still applies to social inequalities that black women face today in regards to their hair. When I was in high school I personally chose to wear my hair in weaves, when a woman braids her hair and then sews “tracks” (strips of hair) onto the already braided hair or when a woman uses a bonding method and tracks are glued to the hair at the root, to help prevent further damage from happening to my hair, to feel like I did when my hair was once long and to feel as if I belonged like I once did. My best friend Kaljah however wore her hair naturally, hair whose texture hasn’t been altered by any chemical straighteners, including relaxers or texturizers. In our predominantly white high school she was the only person who wore an afro. We were both in an afterschool program that helped us apply, interview and prepare for college. There was one day …show more content…
To many hair is just hair is just hair, but as Ruth Smith, owner of Strictly Roots (SR), points out in Cheryl Thompson’s “Black Women and Identity: What's Hair Got to Do With It?” it can act as a little more for black women, “When you can look in the mirror and you can see your natural kinky Afro or locs and it’s yours and you can say, ‘you know what, I like that’ and you know why you have to like it, because that’s what it is; when you get to the point, that’s when you start to see your true beauty.” Black hair represents more than just hair; it represents
By the twentieth century, slavery had damaged black pride, and made it known that black features were inferior. When it came to black women and their hair, black women desperately wanted to match the standard of “white” beauty. Walker’s solution to this was to create a look that was Afro-American without trying to imitate whites. Walker spoke about beauty emphasizing that to be beautiful does not refer to the complexion of your skin, or the texture of your hair, but having a beautiful mind, soul, and character.
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
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).
Some black women have taken it upon themselves to fight what they perceive as racial discrimination against black women maintaining natural hair. It is not uncommon to see many young women creating blogs to share insights about how natural hair can be maintained and the need for African women to accept this as part of their identity
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.
Black women have been the essence of style, originality all while receiving nothing but bad response from critics who secretly envy them. Natural hair tends to be another widespread trend. I think that some do the natural so they can connect with their African roots while I think others just like the look, or maybe it’s easier. No matter what grade of hair society has one marked term for black hair which is “nappy”. Besides pertaining to actions, the word ghetto is used to describe just about every aspect of a black girl's life. "Girl your hair look ghetto" and "You talk/sound ghetto" are two common phrases used around school. Colored hair, weaves, extensions, dyes and relaxers/perms are all things black girls have encountered. If your hair looks "too" nice, it's assumed that you're wearing weave or that you've gotten a fresh
Hair Care is another popular africanism present in America for African americans. For african american woman going for a natural hairstyle is quite common. Dating back to pre-colonial africa a natural afro hair style defined status and identity. Different styles indicated certain qualitie...
She states, “Individual preferences (whether rooted in self hate or not) cannot negate the reality that our collective obsession with straightening black hair reflects the psychology of oppression and the impact of racist colonization” (Hooks 540).
The kids I went to school with, the boys I had romantic relationships with, and even my family members, all made negative comments about my body hair. As a young kid, I believed my body hair was a personal problem. Experimenting with different hair removal procedures, some even painful. I wasted hours removing the hair on my body, in attempts to feel better about myself. My low self esteem became linked with the hair on my body. I believed I had too much body hair for a girl but according to Mills (1959) and the social imagination, I had too much body hair for society. My peers, as well as my family, had been socialized to believe that women’s body hair was gross, and unfeminine. Women had been taught to remove their body hair for decades now in the western world, and it was showcased or the lack there of hair was showcased in all forms of media. As a young girl, my mom bought me my first razor and paid for the electrolysis for the hair on my arm. It was in these actions, where the idea that it was my own problem started to form because it felt like I needed treatment for this problem of mine. I was perceiving a deep seated public issue as my own personal trouble. I can’t blame my mother or my peers because by the time my peers and even my parents were born, the western world had already determined that women should not have body hair. Christina Hope (1982) explains that in 1914 in America magazine’s had just begun
In this paper I’m going to show how African Americans have used hip hop and black hair are two ways in which African Americans embrace their culture and fight oppression. However, as we have reviewed in many classes, oppression is not easily escaped. So in this paper, I’m going to show how cultural appropriation is used as a way of oppressing black culture. So this paper is an expansion of what we have learned in the class.
There have been musicals, documentaries, researches, panel discussions and even talk shows about hair, hair qualities and hairstyles, even Oprah Gail Winfrey chose hair for the magazine's September 2013 theme. According to Adlman (2013), Oprah Winfrey in a video interview said, Women, we have issues with our hair, [Black women's] hair represents the first thing anyone sees of them, or of ourselves, and so we identify with what our hair looks like. The History of Black Hair: Hair Story by Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps (2002) is an entertaining, concise survey that follows a mostly sequential path which begins in Africa and ends in America. It details the roots of black hair care in America, from centuries ago to the modern day, outlining how much hair truly signifies much of African culture. “Ever since African civilisations bloomed, hairstyles have been used to indicate a person’s marital status, age, religion, ethnic identity, wealth and rank within the community” (2002:3)
This paper will argue that to be a Black woman with natural hair, is deviant in the eyes of white culture. Natural hair is regarded as unkempt, unclean, and unprofessional (Thompson 2009). American society seeks to demonize the hair of Black women because natural hair disregards Eurocentric beauty standards (Robinson 2011). To rebel and wear one’s hair naturally comes with a price - especially in the workplace and school environment - because there are discriminatory dress-codes that prevent Black women from meeting institutional requirements (Klein 2013). Black women face discrimination for their natural hair due to the power imbalance of white men in work and educational structures.
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
Hair is not just a part of you, hair is also a way for people to judge you. When Ifemelu cut her hair, people asked her if it “meant anything, like something political” (p211), or if she became “a lesbian” (p211). The way of wearing one’s hair has influence on people, good or bad. In Americanah, wearing an Afro may probably not make it easier to get a job. In a conference, Adichie said: “If Michelle Obama had natural hair, Obama would not have won [the presidency of the United States]”. Indeed, the image people would have had of Michelle Obama and thus of Barack Obama could have been different, as if something might have been “wrong” with