“What would America be like if we loved black people as much as we love black culture?”
Amandla Stenberg
Mugeti Gitau opens her article on the politics of natural hair with this statement: “whether we like it or not, black African hair is political”. My thoughts on it? I couldn’t agree more. Before I understood the concept of hair politics and the debates around the type of hair texture deemed essential in our society, I was just a girl who wished to have long wavy relaxed hair. I went through relaxer after relaxer, Easy Waves, Dark and Lovely, Soft and Free until I decided to cut all my hair off and go back to my roots. Now that I have acquired the knowledge that I have, I look back at 10year old me and wonder why I put up with so much to feel a sense of privilege by having hair that could ‘shake’. I put up with my scalp being burnt, hair loss, and missing out on dancing in the rain because of the fear of my hair going back to its original form. So yes, my hair is not just a choice of style, it’s definitely political. Here’s why.
In 2006, India Arie released a song featuring Akon titled I Am Not My Hair. It describes the hair journey of both black womxn and men and how black people’s identity is often viewed as insignificant and something that has to be altered or eradicated through the adoption of a more ‘proper’ identity induced by the Eurocentric beauty standard. Akon speaks of how black people are refused jobs because of their dreadlocks, a style that is often stereotyped as untidy and unprofessional. In the song, India speaks of her hair revolution and how she felt like she had to press her kink in order to fit into the white beauty standard, Good hair means curls and waves, Bad hair means you look like a slave. Towards the end of the song, she speaks of how she finally decided to stay true to her identity through her hair, telling the world to not judge her by her hair and skin, I am not my hair, I am not this skin, I am not your expectations no.
In 2015, Fashion Police host Giuliana Rancic, a white woman, passed a comment on actress Zendaya’s hair that was styled in faux dreadlocks for the Oscars red carpet, saying that it must have smelt like ‘patchouli’ oil or ‘weed’. Zendaya responded to this in an Instagram post stating that the reason she decided to wear her hair in dreadlocks to a big event such as the Academy Awards was to showcase positivity in people of colour and that ‘our’ hair is good enough in a time where there is already a lot of criticism of African hair in society. She went on to say that the comment was ignorant and disrespectful, full of outrageous offense and negative stereotype towards black people. This was met with a lot of commentary on social media as to why a person of colour owning up to their identity on a show such as the Academy Awards is still viewed as something eccentric. The Oscars, known to be the biggest film awards in the world have received a lot of backlash over the years for their lack of diversity. White celebrities who have worn originally black hairstyles on red carpets such as the Kadashian/Jenners, Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake and Mylie Cyrus have received praise for braiding, twisting, locking their hair and have been dubbed as trendsetters for wearing styles that where created and worn by black people for centuries.
Unlike white people’s hair, black people’s hair constantly needs to be kept in protective styles for it to stay healthy and grow. In African history, hair played an important role in symbolising one’s family status, background, spirituality, tribe, marital status and social status. These African styles include dreadlocks from the Himba tribe of North Western Namibia, braids and beads from the Fulani and Wodaabe tribes of the Sahel Region and West Africa, Ochre dreadlocks of the Hamar tribe in Ethiopia and many other styles that have been copied and remodified in current pop culture. This goes in line with what America actress Amandla Stenberg is teaching in her Youtube video titled ‘Don’t cash crop on my cornrows’. She speaks about black hair and black culture and how white people ‘borrow’ it and get praised, while the owners receive contempt by owning their identity with afros, cornrows, braids and dreadlocks, as seen with Zendaya.
In her book Americanah, Chimamanda Adichie openly speaks on the power of hair in the deconstruction of black identity. She even mentions through her protagonist’s blog how Barack Obama would not have won the election if Michelle Obama had natural hair. We have witnessed diversity outstandingly permeate popular culture in 2018, which has made going natural famous in media and amongst many of our societies. So, the message I have for my fellow black folk is love your natural hair, it is who you are. Relaxers and weaves are nice now and again but if you don’t appreciate who you really are unfiltered, unrelaxed and unweaved, then how will other people appreciate the real you?