The word “politics” often gets one to thinking about long, drawn out campaigns, exhaustive speeches filled with auspicious promises, mudslinging between candidates as they fight to prove why they are more worthy of your vote than their opposition and hope for new city, state or national policy that will make living a bit easier for its citizens. Roughly translated from the Greek politka, which means “affairs of state”, it’s easy to see why these images are one of the first to come to mind when the word politic is used because it is a system of rules or opinions which govern a given organization in order to make operations within it fair and balanced. At least that is the intent anyway. But when it comes to applying this term to hair, Black hair in particular, the standard meaning for the word becomes a bit harder to comprehend.
For a very long time Black hair has been pegged as being political and for almost as long women of color have been trying to define the exact reason why this is so. Many books such as “Hair Matters” by Ingrid Banks have taken the definition to task by looking at the history of Black hair through slavery, antebellum, the straightening revolution and on into the Black Power movement, but only touched on the fringes of what it means to have “political” hair. Is it because of the texture which is so different from the standard by which hair is judged as normative, or the versatility it possesses when it comes to styling? Is it because of what Black hair stands for or because it makes us stand out? As Noliwe M. Rooks states in her book “Hair Raising”:
“Hair in 1976 spoke of racial identity politics as well as bonding between African American women. Its styling could lead to acceptance or rejection from certain groups and social classes, and its styling to provide the possibility of a career.”
So is it the notion that the identifying characteristics of Black hair styles alone are what make it so politically? In the 70’s wearing an Afro automatically labeled you as a hyper-conscious radical who thumbed their nose at the system while wearing a straight style gave the impression that you were assimilating European beauty. Wearing cornrows was a mark of pride in your heritage while perming defined you as someone who was ashamed of the skin they were in. While one can unquestionably see how those styles came to be seen as unspoken political statements for the time at hand, can the same be true today?
The question of what makes Black hair political in present society brings about a myriad of answers that are as diverse as Black hair styling choices. Some feel it is a nod to the power within the culture of African American people which has allowed them to withstand the injustices and atrocities heaped on them since being brought to the country. Others feel it is indeed the versatility in styling options of naturally textured tresses which gives us the right to choose what we feel makes us beautiful according to our heritage. And still others believe it’s because of the way Black hair presents itself, and its wearer, as uniquely different from others.
“It’s unconventional and against the norm,” states journalist Tisiphani Mayfield, who also dances with the Milwaukee Bucks’ Energee dance team. “The fact that it can make you stand out in a crowd of straight hair and black suits makes people nervous. [It] reminds them of the black power movement. An afro makes people think you have message - by any means.”
But aren’t those ideas just throwbacks to what made Black hair political forty years ago? In a comment to a 2008 Jezebel.com article titled “Glamour and ‘Political’ Hair: What Have We Learned”, one reader advises another reader to look to bell hooks or Toni Morrison – a 70’s era poet and writer, respectively – in order to get a better understanding of the politics of Black hair. While is idealistic to look back at the foundation of the Black hair movement to get an idea of its base politics, in an ever evolving society can we realistically state that the same precedents placed on Black hair in the 70’s, 80’s or even 90’s can still be used to classify Black hair in modern times? Or are we now dealing with a new set of standards that dictate how our strands should be styled, cared for and represented in popular media?
By definition, the word politics is nothing more than a system of laws that decree how something should be done and what certain things stand for. These laws are usually set into place by a governing body of elected officials who represent several sectors of society and lobby for policy that best suits the needs of their constituents. When it comes to Black hair, it seems there has been a change in the governing body that defines the standards of what is acceptable when it comes to styling kinky hair and what is not. Whereas the European standard of beauty ruled many of our follicle forbearer’s hair care choices, now women and men of color are seeing more of their own setting standards of beauty which are more closely aligned with our culture and heritage. So this should attest to the idea that what made hair political centuries ago is far and away different than today. But even with that being the case, answering the question of why Black hair is any more political than any other type of ethnic hair still remains largely unanswered. However the best answer presented so far has come from Camille Reed, CEO of Noire Design Concepts in Silver Spring, Maryland.
“The last big natural hair boom, in the 70's [was] a flat-out rejection of conformity and some of the elders still see it that way. The "processed mind" – the constant judging/comparing we do to reduce someone else’s comfort in how they look – takes longer to eradicate than the hair change. That's the true "political" revolution that is natural hair.”
So it is the fact that Black hair, especially in its natural state, challenges beauty convention of not just the prevalent European standard of beauty, it also thumbs its proverbial nose at the standards which exist within its own cultural community. With that being that case it seems Black hair isn’t as much political as it is controversial because of its ability to change the politics which govern beauty standards across the board. In essence, many have flipped the political script by now defining their hair styling choices rather than having their hair define them. Women no longer “go natural” as an expression of a universal cause, although many still believe this to be true. Women, and men in some instances, no longer choose chemical processes as a means to “be white”, although many who are against relaxers still seem to think.
As many make the move to embrace natural hair as a lifestyle choice and society makes its move to accept natural hair as being a branch of “the norm” when it comes to Black hair, it can be assumed that the politics surrounding Black hair will transform to fit the bill. But is this the case?
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