I might not be the appropriate person to talk about hair, especially natural hair, because I am not the most knowledgeable about it. Yes! I am Black and I grew up with the barrettes in my hair, along with those annoying bobos and beads. From the constant hair pulling and burns from the hot-combs, I am surprised I haven’t had serious damage to my scalp. But that’s besides the point. Black women have had their share of humiliation of sitting under the dryer for hours upon hours, and now they’ve taken the initiative to do something about their own hair.
Over the past couple of years, Black women have been wearing their hair however they want, and what’s so inspiring is that it’s usually their natural hair. Whether it be in an afro, bantu knots, cornrows, or simply wet and go, they are taking back their right to wear their hair carefree.
Unfortunately, it has also caused an issue culturally. Black women in the workplace have been wrongly accused of inappropriate dress attire because their hair isn’t conventional. Yet, at the same time, their hair is being culturally appropriated. It’s easy to spot these wicked acts, and because of that, Black women have been fighting back.
Social media has played an important role in all of today’s social injustices, whether it be positive or negative. From A-list celebrities to tutorial YouTubers, Black women everywhere is shedding light on this superb topic. For example, we all remember when Zendaya flawlessly rocked her locks at the Oscars this past year — but what I couldn’t stand the most were the comments and backlash she got for it. With the help of social media and fans along with articles and memes, Zendaya received support and encouragement.
When Caucasian women decide to wear their hair like the thousands of Black women who have been doing so for ages, and call it something else or claim it as their own, it’s upsetting and also known as cultural appropriation. So when Kim Kardashian had her hair in cornrows, many of Black Twitter broke into outrage because they saw it as offense. Similar to many other influencers, Kim Kardashian was just another subject to the fuel of this powerful movement.
It’s cool and all that everyone wants to start expressing themselves and hair is usually the goto for these kinds of instances. Just understand that when you claim something, try to understand where it comes from, and at least give the credit to those who have been killing it since the beginning.
Ebony Anderson-Brown, Editor in Chief & Publisher
2 thoughts on “Let’s Talk About Hair…”
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Lovely post!
I posted about the conundrum, I think blacks are judged differently because if you notice before the civil rights era black women made sure their hair was non threatening. We wore bee hives, flips, long hair pressed into submission. Diana Ross, the wives of political leaders Martin, Malcolm; every black woman in the public eye was the brown version of their white counterparts. The black power movement changed that, but since they were considered subversive, so was their hair. Now when Viola Davis grooms her own hair for the Oscars, it’s a problem. People wonder where her heads at. Check out my site https://www.bronxbeyondborders.com.