Ever heard the word 'nappy'? It is a racist term that was used toward black women in the 1880s. Nappy meant to have naturally coarse and tightly coiled hair. Nowadays, people refrain from using that word because it is known as an offensive term, just like the "N-word. The texture of the hair of black slaves women was so hated that their slave master would cut off the hair of the slaves because it was said to "confuse them". Research has shown that people with coiled hair would be treated as subhuman and were required to do the work outside of the house which was harder work, while those with looser curls — who were sometimes mixed-race — were typically deemed as house slaves, they would do less of the labour.
Even after slavery was formally abolished in 1865, tests like "the comb test" was used in the U.S. to somehow show that 4C, kinky hair was not socially acceptable. Some organizations like a sorority or church would hang a comb outside of its door, indicating that if your hair could be easily combed with a fine comb, you could join. If your hair got stuck in that comb, then you could not enter. Similarly, in South Africa, people of colour were forced to participate in "the pencil test" to see if they could hold a pencil in their hair while they shook their heads. If the pencil dropped to the floor, the person would be classified as white, therefore granting them access into "white only" buildings. However, if the pencil remained in the hair, they were forbidden from accessing those same privileges.
Oftentimes when we think about the history of blacks in America, we think about the injustices that we experienced as people of colour because of the colour of our skin, when in fact, in post-Civil War America, it was the hair of an African-American male or female that was known as the most "telling feature" of Negro status, more so than the colour of the skin.
Garrett A. Morgan and Madame CJ Walker were pioneers of the black hair-care and beauty industry in the early 1900s. They're known as the inventors of chemically-based hair creams and heat straightening tools designed to permanently, or semi-permanently, alter the texture of black hair. Over the years we grew thinking that straighter and longer hair meant more beautiful and healthier. What this essentially means: the looser the curl pattern, the better the hair. Black women were ranged to be in category 4c which means curled are tight and coily and hair is kinky but words like "bad" or "rough" were being ascribed to 4C hair.
"There was a period in time that I hated my hair," Charlene Akuamoah, who has 4C hair, tells Bustle. "I thought it was so difficult to manage: It was rough, the curls were too tight, it didn't look 'presentable,' it was always dry, and I felt like I looked better with straight hair," Charlene said that many of those self-hating thoughts came as a result of relaxing her hair for over 20 years — and thus only ever seeing her hair straightened for the majority of her life. "I thought that my hair had to be tamed," she adds.
You see we started to get influence in saying certain stuff like my hair is unmanageable, or not healthy because of its shrinkage. So how could we fix this "Problem" about our " unmanageable" kinky hair? We went to the hair salon every four to eight weeks, without fail, making our scalps go to harsh straightening, chemicals beginning at a very young age - sometimes eight, 10 - that would result in hair loss, bald spots, sometimes even burns on the scalp. We fried our hair at temperatures of 450 degrees Fahrenheit or higher almost daily, to maintain the straight look. Or we simply cover our hair up with wigs and weaves maybe do some nice style with a scarf, some women prefer wearing braids extension.
The problem with the relaxer is simple, New research finds evidence of a link between the use of certain hair products, such as dyes and relaxers, and raised the risk of breast cancer in women. Cancer is the price black women have to pay to fit in this society's beauty standard. Today the typical ideal vision of a professional black woman tends to look like this, rather than like this and not like that.
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In a personal essay published on Jan. 7, Nobel recounted numerous incidents in which she felt targeted because of her race, including being chastised for wearing her natural hair "After having my son, I asked my news director if I could stop straightening my hair. A month after giving me the green light I was pulled back into his office. I was told 'My natural hair is unprofessional and the equivalent to him throwing on a baseball cap to go to the grocery store.' He said, 'Mississippi viewers needed to see a beauty queen.'".
There is a natural hair movement that is global. Millions of women are exploring what it means to transition to natural hair, and they're cutting off years and years of dry, damaged ends in order to restore their natural curl pattern. We know that black women express their individuality and by experimenting with different hairstyles regularly. But no one should say my hair is ugly because it is not straight or long, because of this and that. No one should be fired for being unprofessional because her hair doesn't fit what society deems okay.
The natural hair movement is more than managing our hair without chemical products. It's about self-love and self-worth. It's about being brave enough not to fold under the pressure of others' expectations. You got to appreciate your roots no matter what ethnicity or what hair type. Thank you for listening ( reading lol).
