Policing Black Hair

Cheyann Harris

Essence Mcpherson, is a black girl who wore weave for most her life. She never had an issue with it, or even felt self conscious until she was older and began working in more diverse settings. Growing up she went to a predominately black school. Most of the girls there wore hair extensions so she never felt out of place. Her discomfort began when she started working with people who didn’t understand her various hairstyles culturally. While it is easy for her to switch between blonde, blue, and green hair without any burdening attachment , it was a foreign concept to those around her.

“I feel very uncomfortable in my workplace because my white counterparts love to question me about my hair”, she said. “Everytime I switch it up. It’s oh, you cut your hair? oh, you dyed your hair? They even try to touch my hair sometimes. A lot of people switch their hair every week but you want to question mine.”

A lot of her frustration also comes from the prevailing idea that black women wear hair weaves because they are bald underneath their extensions.

“They’re always like why don’t you wear your natural hair, are you bald ?”

The idea that black women only wear extensions because of an inability to grow their own hair, is a belief that has been plaguing the community for too long. Camilla John, a Brooklyn College Student, has her own radio show discussing beauty and health tips for black women. She remembers originally hearing the idea from her own father after experimenting with sew in weaves for the first time.

“My sister put weave in our head, and at first our dad couldn’t tell because we always had long hair, but then he got mad and said ‘why are you wearing this? It’s not for you’. He said that’s for bald women.”

Camilla knows that women wear extensions for the ability to change their appearance when they feel like it. Although, she has been surrounded by a completely different influence for most of her life. At a young age she asked her father for a perm, and he replied by telling her that perms were for “nappy headed”children. She recalled a time when her half brother asked her father why he was not born with the same hair texture like the rest of their siblings, and he blamed his mother for being too dark, and cursing him with kinky hair. Camilla’s childhood stories highlight the issue of colorism, and the biases women of color face.

“I’ve had guys that I’ve dated tell me, ‘when we have kids you’re gonna make my kids hair so pretty’ or ‘you’re going to make me some coolie babies’”, she said.

Camilla was always favored more than her friends with kinky hair. Growing up girls she knew chose to hang out with her instead of other black girls because her hair was curly. At the time, she did not realize that tolerating their behavior was contributing to the bigotry we are now trying to erase from society. Because the discrimination didn’t apply to Camilla, it took her majority of her life to realize that black hair is black hair. When they discriminate against one, they are discriminating against all.

“People used to think I was Dominican or whatever. They asked me if I’m mixed. What does it matter? I’m black, I identify as black.”, she said.

Camilla is still trying to find ways to challenge stereotypes through her radio show discussions. Christene Bordo, a Brooklyn native has silenced the noise by staying away from social media sites. After dyeing her hair to be rainbow colored, Christene received a ton of backlash online.

“I dyed my hair about six to seven colors”, she said. The stylist that did my hair showed me what she posted on Instagram. There was this one comment that went, ‘ I hope she works for herself’.Why would an adult want rainbow hair?’”

For Christine, the negative social media comments was nothing compared to the things she’s faced in some of her previous relationships. Growing up, one of her many popular characteristics that attracted her partners, was her lengthy hair. After her decision to cut her hair off, her partner, and her family had a hard time adjusting to the change. They constantly questioned her about why she cut her hair off to wear wigs. She spoke about how making decisions with her hair was hard because everyone around her was constantly spewing negativity.

Christine, and Camilla voiced their frustration about people in society that try to make hair extensions strictly a “black thing”. Women of different races, and ethnicities wear extensions for a variety of reasons.

“I think it’s stupid. Everybody wears extensions whether you’re Black, White, Indian, or Asian”, Camilla said. “Kim K wears wigs, Cardi B wears wigs. I think it’s just a perfect way to not disrupt your own hair.”

Both women are at two different stages in their life, but have the same advice for women of color who have been affected by this issue. Camilla has recently come to terms with the fact that there are still people out there that hold such ignorant values. Although, her idea of fighting back is to not fight back at all.

“If we keep having comebacks, and clapbacks all the time it’s going to keep the issue in the air”, she said. “ People need your energy to feed on, but if you ignore it, who are they going to talk to?”

Christine has always been a free spirit. She urges women to stop obsessing over how others perceive them, and focus on self- growth.

“ If this is what fits you, if this is what you like go with it”, she said.“ It starts with yourself”