What Makes the African Woman’s Hair Such an Important Conversation?

On August 28, 2016, a group of schoolgirls in South Africa had finally had enough. It was time to challenge and confront the overly strict hair policies of their school. And so with placards in their hands and one voice, they staged a protest against the discriminatory hair policies that particularly affected black girls. 

At the forefront of the protest was 13-year-old afro-wearing Zulaikha, whose hair was deemed ‘untidy’ according to the school’s code of conduct, leading to repeated orders to straighten it to keep it “tame” and “tidy” to fit appropriate school standards. Defying these orders, Zulaikha was bullied, kicked out of school multiple times as a form of punishment, and also had to change schools three times because of her hair. 

In 2014, two years before the protest, a 16-year-old girl from Cape Town was sent home from school because her braids were too thick, causing her to miss about a week of study. On August 21, 2018, Faith Fennidy, an 11-year-old black student at a private school in New Orleans was asked to leave class for having extensions in her braided hair. Her hair was described as ‘unnatural’. In Massachusetts, two African American girls, Maya and Deanna Cook, faced a similar situation – they were kicked off their sports teams and prohibited from attending prom because they wore their hair in braids – something that was deemed ‘unnatural’.

The notion that natural black hair is untidy and unconservative is not strange. Still, it is unnatural that young girls attending school had to fight for their rights to wear the hair growing out of their scalps. Or that now and then, there’s an argument on social media on why Black people should or shouldn’t wear their own hair.

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A 2023 CROWN Workplace Research revealed that race-based hair discrimination remains a pervasive issue for Black women in the workplace – from hiring practices to daily workplace interactions – impacting Black women’s employment opportunities and professional advancement. The study surveyed 2,990 women within the U.S. between December 2002 and January 2023. The women were part-time or full-time employees, and aged between 25 and 64. The survey results showed that:

• Black women’s hair was two and a half times more likely to be perceived as unprofessional.
• More than half of the black women surveyed felt they had to wear their hair straight in a job interview to succeed. Two-thirds reported that they had changed their hair for a job interview
• One-fifth of the black women surveyed said they had been sent home from work because of their hair.
• Black women with curly/textured hair are 2x as likely to experience microaggressions in the workplace than Black women with straighter hair.
• One-fourth of the black women surveyed believe they were denied a job because of their hair.

In 2018, Brittany Noble Jones, an African American reporter, was fired from her morning anchor job for wearing her hair in a braided style on air. In her essay, Brittany explained how she had asked her news director if she could stop straightening her hair. A month after giving her the green light, she was pulled back into his office and told that her natural hair was considered unprofessional and the equivalent of him throwing on a baseball cap to go to the grocery store. He insisted that Mississippi viewers needed to see a beauty queen and even questioned why her hair didn’t lay flat.

What’s hair got to do with it?

Everything.

Hair plays a vital role in shaping an individual’s appearance. But when it comes to black hair, its importance is more than mere looks or aesthetics. In precolonial times, in African societies, black hair was seen as a symbol of a person’s identity. Different hairstyles such as dreadlocks, braids and twists, not only distinguished individuals but also told of their marital status, age, tribe, religion, wealth, family background and rank within the community. There was a hairstyle for everyone that set them apart, and for every occasion too. 

From warriors in Ethiopia to young women coming of age in West Africa, braided styles were significant to where you came from and where you were going in life, according to the book Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, by Ayana Byrd and Lori L.Tharps. 

During the Transatlantic slave trade, “one of the first things the slave traders did to their new cargo was shave their heads if they had not already been shorn by their captors,” Byrd and Tharps explain. “Presumably the slave traders shaved the heads of their new slaves for what they considered sanitary reasons, but the effect was much more insidious. The shaved head was the first step the Europeans took to erase the slaves’ culture and alter the relationship between the Africans and their hair… Arriving without their signature hairstyles, Mandingos, Fulanis, Ibos, and Ashantis entered the New World, just as the Europeans intended, like anonymous chattel.”

As a means of survival and preserving their cultural heritage, some African women, especially rice farmers, braided rice seeds into their hair. They also used cornrows to transfer and create maps, enabling escapes from plantations and the homes of their captors. Left with little hair and limited time and tools for their haircare, these women made do with what was available, using bacon grease, butter and kerosene as conditioners, cornmeal as dry shampoos and sheep fleece carding tools to untangle their hair. Talk about Black hair as a powerful tool for resistance. 

Black hair and being a baddie? Yes way! 

To wear your natural hair is to be considered bland, unattractive, unappealing, and even broke. After all, you’re only wearing it because you can’t afford a wig. People will claim that natural hair is not fit for events or suggest that wearing your natural hair will chase your potential spouse away. You’re on locs? What if your future husband/wife does not like it? Wear a wig and look presentable if you want to marry. Let’s be honest, these hot takes stem from internalised and accepted Eurocentric beauty standards. Because who says natural hair doesn’t make you look presentable? 

With the coming of age and the enormous knowledge of black hair and what it represents, it is no longer a flex to find our natural hair unworthy to be worn with pride. Or that for it to be socially and societally acceptable, it has to look a certain way: silky, wavy, straight and long. Even sadder and more ridiculous to see it coming from black people who should be proud of their hair. 

Natural hair is not the opposite of fine hair. In the words of Chika Unigwe, “natural hair is not the ugly step-sister of oyibo hair, destined to a life in the shadows, only to be exposed in hidden spaces.”

So, yes! You can wear your natural hair and be a baddie.