In the Season 1 finale of my Wednesday Workshops, I finally dive deep into hairism, texturism, and other hair politics. Below is an outline of my major talking points. You can watch the full recording at the end of the post.
Personal Memories of Hairism, Texturism, and other Hair Politcs
When I was maybe 6-years-old, I prayed for long straight hair that fell down my back.
I would attach Mardi Gras bead, towels, or old shirts to my ponytail and make believe it was long flowing hair!!
That eventually changed in high school when I went natural. I remember someone whisper from the back of my high school math class: “Sarah is Brave!”
I wondered why I needed courage to let my hair grow the way it naturally grows from my scalp?
That’s Hair Politics!
Hair is highly racialized, especially for black people. It was a primary way of identifying black people during slavery.
Our hair is also one of the most highly stigmatized features of black people for that same reason.
Slavery and Colonialism divorced us from our native hair-care practices, tools, and rituals.
Hair is also highly politicized because it’s the most mutable of all our racial features. The one we can most easily “do something with.”
Black people have been conditioned to be especially ashamed of the features of our hair that are most distinct from others:
- its capacity to hold its shape and defy gravity. AKA: stick up! (vs. the color of it)
- and it’s immovability, it’s stay-put-ness. It doesn’t swing or sway or flip!!!!
Hair and Color are a serious intersection of beauty politics for black people!!!
Hair politics also includes Institutionalized Racism in dress codes and hair policies at work and school that target uniquely BLACK hairstyles
Hairism also involves gender stereotypes and conditioning about femininity that make it especially contentious for black women!
Hairism is not just about the texture, but also the style and the length.
Hair is closely tied to class and respectability politics.
But there is a steadily growing practice of Hair Love!!!
I end the live with practices we can do to reaffirm our natural black roots.
HOMEWORK: Write a love letter to your ROOTS!!! Find or create your own hair rituals. Naturally High Hair noted in a recent live that hair rituals can be meditative. Can be the time you take for meditation, prayer, and affirmation!! Let your hair-care practice be an homage to your ancestors, and intentional love letter to your ROOTS!!!
AFFIRMATION: I love the hair I was born with. My natural hair is enough. My hair is beautiful just the way it naturally grows from my scalp. I am worthy of every second and every cent I invest in my hair care.
NEW: Launching Patreon September 1st, with the September theme of High Learning!
You will still see plenty of me on social media!
XOXO