About five to six years ago, I noticed a trend among my female family, friends, and peers regarding their hair. They were tired of constantly applying chemicals and heat to their hair to straighten it or create loose curls. Starting over was their go-to and by doing so, they cut off all of their hair. My initial reaction wasn’t really a positive one because I couldn’t imagine just cutting off hair that’s been growing since birth. Unbeknownst to me, I was doing the exact same thing, just in a different and more insidious fashion. Around this time, I began to wear hair extensions, which are commonly referred to as weave. My real hair was braided and a hair net was sewn onto these braids. Then, the weave would be sewn onto the net. Prior to …show more content…
Huffington Post has dubbed 2012 as the year the natural hair movement was conceived (Wilson, 2012). They gave a comprehensive timeline of events of actresses, singers, and social media gurus that have embraced the movement. Among the social media gurus was an African American woman named Nikki Walton who is better known as Curly Nikki (Wilson, 2013). She has developed a huge online following because of her blogs concerning natural hair. Her blogs and videos detail helpful tips for women who are transitioning, which is the act of cutting off hair and ceasing to use any type of heat or chemicals. She also details helpful hair care tips for maintaining and making the most of natural hair. There is also a connection with past movements such as the Black Power movement from the 1960s, which birthed the phrase “Black is Beautiful.” There are some similarities as well as differences between statements being made in that era versus currently. Even though the focus is on natural hair in the African American community, there are more broad implications that suggest the acceptance of one’s self as an individual who is not only naturally beautiful, but deserves the means to express that beauty without …show more content…
Bertram D. Ashe (1995) discusses the black women’s role in beauty in Toni Morrison’s “Song of Soloman” and Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God”. At the most climactic part in Song of Soloman, the black woman who has natural kinky hair asks her mother and grandmother why her love interests, who is an African American man, doesn’t like her hair. The response was another question on how he can like himself if he doesn’t like her hair. This is a common retort used to combat the negative implications made by African American men. First, the most important women in their life have hair similar to other African American women. Are they willing to go home to their mothers and grandmothers and tell them what to do with their hair? Not without a harsh reaction from the women who raised them. Secondly, they neglect to consider what grows from their scalp is the exact same as what grows from the scalp of their female counterparts. Yes, some do cut their hair but if you took away razors and products that make a wavy pattern in their hair, the results would be identical to African American women. Essentially, this can be seen as an expression of self-hatred. Furthermore, the domination over women comes in the form of physical attractiveness. The female lead character in “Song of Soloman” and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” were not concerned with how
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).
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
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
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...
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.
The pursuit and glorification of the “white standard of beauty” (Patton, 2006, p. 24) by African American women in film, highlights the insecurity and stigmatization they face due to their colour. This desire to look like models on billboards and magazines, has drove them to peruse the shelves of beauty products, undergo plastic surgery and skin bleaching in order to have lighter skin. The mismatch between the comparisons of their black physiques against white ideal body shapes, has resu...
The ideal female beauty in American culture is predominately white (Bankhead & Johnson, 2014). Throughout U.S history, women’s mainstream beauty ideal has been historically based on white standards such as having blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, a thin ideal body, straight hair, and thin lips (West, 1995; Yamamiya, Cash, Melynk, Posavac, & Posavac, 2005; Leslie, 1995). Therefore, the features of African American women tend to be viewed as undesirable and unattractive compared to the European standards of beauty (Awad, Norwood, Taylor, Martinez, McClain, Jones, Holman, & Hilliard, 2014). According to Ashe (1995), “African beauty, body and hair have been racialized, with slim/”keen” European features being the accepted standard of beauty since enslaved Africans was forcefully brought to the Americas.” The physical characteristics of Black women such as having broad noses, brown skin, full lips, large buttocks and course hair has been looked down upon throughout United States history (Byrd & Tharps, 2001). In effect, the standard of beauty of European features that were forced on slaves are internalized and currently seen in the standard of beauty of African Americans (A.A) (Chapman, 2007). These standards include African Americans perceiving light-skinned as being more favorable than dark-skinned (Maddox & Gray, 2002; Perdue, Young, Balam,
...nd attractive. It creates a double consciousness that is difficult to reconcile. Carla Williams argues that “given the legacy of images created of black women… it is an especially complex task for contemporary black women to define their own image, one that necessarily both incorporates and subverts the stereotypes, myths, facts and fantasies that have preceded them. (Wallace-Sanders et.al, 196) The root of the problem lies within our society. While very culpable, mainstream music and advertisements are not the only promoters of female objectification; the key is unwinding the inner tensions between these two groups. There is a need for the promotion of female solidarity, regardless of their skin color. We need to rid society of the evil of racism—only then will conceptions surrounding African Americans parallel and be as positive as those surrounding white women.
In Hair Story (2002), the authors write about some of black hair style, include the West African manner of wearing their hair in braid or wrap to the current and most popular hair styles: weaves, natural hair and chemical hair straightening by black people- a style considered as imitating "white" hairstyles. Byrd and Tharps (2010)
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.
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.
Malcolm X wrote of his “conk”: “This was my first really big step toward self degradation: when I endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh to have it look like a white man’s hair. I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that black people are ‘inferior’ –and white people ‘superior’ –that they will even violate and mutilate their God created bodies to try to look ‘pretty by white standards” (X 356). Many black men and the majority of black women have diverted themselves from the wearing of unprocessed (natural) hairstyles from the fear of losing approval from whites and fellow blacks as well.
The internet was also there to aid women with their new looks. Many women and hairstylists did not know how to take care of natural
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
For many years, I coveted anyone's hair that was anything that my hair wasn't. Despite our differences, we have come to a mutual understanding. And, now, I can say, with some confidence, that my hair and I are friends, not just forced to be together because of genetics. But I can admit this only after years of hard lessons and experience.