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Hair - The Road to Greater Awareness
Feb. 14th, 2018 08:06 pmI picked up two books on a common subject recently, and read them back to back.
The first was Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America by Ayana Bird and Lori Tharps. Once I’d recovered from the significant pun damage of the title, I found this fascinating, informative and entertaining by turns. It focuses on the cultural, economic and political significance of Black hair in America, from the 1400s to the early 2000s.
This is something I previously knew very little about, but I was inspired to learn more by Ebony Aster’s hair reports on the Feminist Frequency Recap Freqcast for Star Trek: Discovery.
The politics of appearance can be a tricky subject, particularly since accepted standards of beauty are still unfortunately very entrenched in an ideal of light skin and long, flowing hair, which makes it difficult for a lot of people to be appreciated for their inherent qualities.
The book is a comprehensive study, both fascinating and horrifying, with a wealth of interesting information on what is evidently a complex subject. I was particularly interested by the way the significance of certain hairstyles has changed over time as attitudes have developed, so that original meanings are lost and connotations supplanted.
One weakness of the book is that it covers the same period of time in different chapters, focusing on different themes, so it is repetitive in places and sometimes hard to follow the timeline.
The later chapters deal with the lack of awareness of important differences and practicalities of hair care amongst non-Black people, which certainly resonated with me, along with the awkwardness of wanting to ask questions and learn more, but not wanting to seem rude or disrespectful.
I would have liked a lot more pictures - I spent a lot of time breaking off to look things up online - but overall, this is an excellent book that I thoroughly enjoyed.
For a more personal approach, I then moved on to The Politics of Black Women’s Hair by Althea Prince, which is a collection of essays and interviews about individuals’ experiences with their hair.
Prince says all Black women have “issues, experiences and journeys” with their hair. I would extend this to include all women, as I’ve certainly had many issues, experiences and journeys with my own hair. As a white woman with very thin, straggly hair, I absolutely sympathised with the interviewees’ desire for long, thick, flowing tresses, and the journey towards accepting my natural hair. Over my lifetime, I have slept in wet plaits to get huge frizz, I have scrunch dried and sprayed my hair to get crunchy curls, and I have both dyed and straightened my hair.
Prince does make an interesting point - hair is very personal, but also very public, and adds tremendously to how other people view and react to you. And I’ve certainly had the most positive comments from others when my hair has been dyed and straight.
My favourite part of the book were the sections about mothers trying to instil in their daughters the idea that their natural hair is beautiful and does not need to be altered. But they admit the difficulty of getting this message through, when media and celebrity influences suggest otherwise. And it’s true that it’s still rare to see Black actresses with natural hairstyles in film roles, though this is now less true in TV shows, I think.
I also think people are freer nowadays to do what they want, without so much fear of censure. In London, in 2018, I see a lot of variety in hairstyles. For example, the audience in the cinema when I went to see Black Panther last night was about 50% Black, and all but one were rocking natural styles of various kinds. And in Waitrose in King’s Cross today, there were three male, Black cashiers - one had dreads, one had braids, and one had a short afro, which suggests that some employers at least are no longer so restrictive about personal style.
I still dye my hair (currently it’s blue and purple) but I do it for my own enjoyment, not to elicit a particular response from others. And I don’t straighten it any more. I hope that things will continue to progress to a point where hairstyles can be a wholly personal choice, and not so loaded with significance.
And speaking of Black Panther, it was pretty good! It was visually stunning, and I loved the array of badass women, mostly wearing non-objectifying outfits, and showing off a range of awesome natural hairstyles. I also really liked the different relationships T’Challa had with his mother, his sister, his ex-girlfriend, and his bodyguard, all of whom were well-rounded, distinct female characters with different strengths and personality traits.
I thought Killmonger made for a nuanced and understandable villain, and I liked the fact that the better aspects of his agenda were actually adopted by the heroes at the end. The film certainly raised interesting questions about how far social responsibility should extend.
But, it also basically boiled down to two buff men having a fist fight, which was a little tedious.
Still, overall, I enjoyed it.
The first was Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America by Ayana Bird and Lori Tharps. Once I’d recovered from the significant pun damage of the title, I found this fascinating, informative and entertaining by turns. It focuses on the cultural, economic and political significance of Black hair in America, from the 1400s to the early 2000s.
This is something I previously knew very little about, but I was inspired to learn more by Ebony Aster’s hair reports on the Feminist Frequency Recap Freqcast for Star Trek: Discovery.
The politics of appearance can be a tricky subject, particularly since accepted standards of beauty are still unfortunately very entrenched in an ideal of light skin and long, flowing hair, which makes it difficult for a lot of people to be appreciated for their inherent qualities.
The book is a comprehensive study, both fascinating and horrifying, with a wealth of interesting information on what is evidently a complex subject. I was particularly interested by the way the significance of certain hairstyles has changed over time as attitudes have developed, so that original meanings are lost and connotations supplanted.
One weakness of the book is that it covers the same period of time in different chapters, focusing on different themes, so it is repetitive in places and sometimes hard to follow the timeline.
The later chapters deal with the lack of awareness of important differences and practicalities of hair care amongst non-Black people, which certainly resonated with me, along with the awkwardness of wanting to ask questions and learn more, but not wanting to seem rude or disrespectful.
I would have liked a lot more pictures - I spent a lot of time breaking off to look things up online - but overall, this is an excellent book that I thoroughly enjoyed.
For a more personal approach, I then moved on to The Politics of Black Women’s Hair by Althea Prince, which is a collection of essays and interviews about individuals’ experiences with their hair.
Prince says all Black women have “issues, experiences and journeys” with their hair. I would extend this to include all women, as I’ve certainly had many issues, experiences and journeys with my own hair. As a white woman with very thin, straggly hair, I absolutely sympathised with the interviewees’ desire for long, thick, flowing tresses, and the journey towards accepting my natural hair. Over my lifetime, I have slept in wet plaits to get huge frizz, I have scrunch dried and sprayed my hair to get crunchy curls, and I have both dyed and straightened my hair.
Prince does make an interesting point - hair is very personal, but also very public, and adds tremendously to how other people view and react to you. And I’ve certainly had the most positive comments from others when my hair has been dyed and straight.
My favourite part of the book were the sections about mothers trying to instil in their daughters the idea that their natural hair is beautiful and does not need to be altered. But they admit the difficulty of getting this message through, when media and celebrity influences suggest otherwise. And it’s true that it’s still rare to see Black actresses with natural hairstyles in film roles, though this is now less true in TV shows, I think.
I also think people are freer nowadays to do what they want, without so much fear of censure. In London, in 2018, I see a lot of variety in hairstyles. For example, the audience in the cinema when I went to see Black Panther last night was about 50% Black, and all but one were rocking natural styles of various kinds. And in Waitrose in King’s Cross today, there were three male, Black cashiers - one had dreads, one had braids, and one had a short afro, which suggests that some employers at least are no longer so restrictive about personal style.
I still dye my hair (currently it’s blue and purple) but I do it for my own enjoyment, not to elicit a particular response from others. And I don’t straighten it any more. I hope that things will continue to progress to a point where hairstyles can be a wholly personal choice, and not so loaded with significance.
And speaking of Black Panther, it was pretty good! It was visually stunning, and I loved the array of badass women, mostly wearing non-objectifying outfits, and showing off a range of awesome natural hairstyles. I also really liked the different relationships T’Challa had with his mother, his sister, his ex-girlfriend, and his bodyguard, all of whom were well-rounded, distinct female characters with different strengths and personality traits.
I thought Killmonger made for a nuanced and understandable villain, and I liked the fact that the better aspects of his agenda were actually adopted by the heroes at the end. The film certainly raised interesting questions about how far social responsibility should extend.
But, it also basically boiled down to two buff men having a fist fight, which was a little tedious.
Still, overall, I enjoyed it.
