Black Women Straighten Their Hair Analysis

A line of hair and beauty preparations for black women was produced and distributed at the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company. Her hair

The attitudes and arguments towards and against black hair in “Balm” by Lonnae O’Neal Parker and “My First Conk” by Malcolm X are contingent because they express two distinct views on black hair. Malcolm X pleads that manipulation of our hair by straightening or covering by wig is self- degradation. While Parker believes that the time she spent doing her daughters hair is translated to the love she has for them. This time not only assures the girls that they have a loving mother, it assures Parker that she could send them out into a world that would appreciate them because they had someone who put time (love) into the girls. Parker is aware of the scary truth that our worth by outside world is one dimensional and fuel by aesthetics. Both Lonnae O’Neal Parker and Malcolm X have analyze the importance of hair in the black community. Parker praises the “black hair ritual” while Malcolm criticizes it. Even though their topics differ, both essays share the act of taming natural hair, and the motifs of love and pain

In the excerpt Malcolm X talks a lot about Black men who conk their hair. He also talks about black women who wear red, pink, purple, blonde and platinum wigs because they want to look more white. People do many crazy

“Black Hair” by Gary Soto is a three stanza, free verse poem that observes the life of a young Mexican boy and his admiration for Hector Moreno, a Mexican baseball figure. The speaker is immediately identified as the young boy as he starts to reminisce about when he was eight years old. The boy goes on to talk about how he thought of himself at this age, as well as Hector and his parents. He would watch the baseball games and look up to Hector, copying him, and addressing how this win for Hector would be a win for him and all the “brown people”. The audience isn’t addressed as a literal part of the poem, so we can imagine it from a bird’s eye point of view.

“Janie ties her hair up in the store un- der her husband’s orders so that other men will not touch her. Hair is a tool for sexual desirability across races and ethnic groups; however, the issue within the African community is that the “type” of hair that is often de- sired. However, hair is a marker of femininity, so to restrict or demean one’s hair is a direct attack on women’s being. This implies that when the hair is covered—as it had to be on the plantation or other places where African women existed, they were deemed less feminine and thus less womanly”

The researcher interview with African American women with natural hair and examination of social media. The researchers explain that in the natural hair community a curl texture is more attractive than kinky hair texture and lengthier hair more desirable than short hair; also having manageable hair is dynamic to African American women’s effective performances of Black femininity. This research expands the discourse in African American Studies that theorizes the experiences of African American women with natural hair compared to those of African American women with relaxed hair such as perms (Howard, 2015, p.

Another area in which women made changes was with their appearance. Women used their attire and style to show an independence, a certain freedom in which they alone had control. Starting with the “Gibson Girl”, women dressed in long, slim dresses, freeing themselves of the poufy petticoats of yore. Women started wearing shorter dresses and shorter hairstyles, leading to “Flapper Jane”. “Women started wearing “less” clothing, shorter dresses, cutting off their hair, and just being more “sensual” than normal”, (Bliven, 1925).

Since the early 1900s, Black women have had a fascination with their hair. More explicitly, they have had a fascination with straightening their hair. The need to be accepted by the majority class has caused them to do so. Though the image of straight hair as being better than coarse hair still hasn’t left the Black community, there has been a surge of non straight hairstyles since the nineteen sixties. Wearing more natural hairstyles, which ironically enough include ‘weaves’ and ‘hair extensions’ has been considered to be more empowered and more enlightened. However, this image comes with a price, and though it appears the ‘natural’ hairstyle movement has advanced Black women, it has actually set

African American women's health, hair politics, and physical activities. Studies show that African American women tend to pay more attention to their hair instead of their health issues. Researches came up with a theoretical argument to figure out why hair matter for some women. They discover that hair presents a barrier to exercise in that the time and economic restrictions involved in maintaining a hairstyle post exercise for physical activity as prohibitive. This study provides some perception about the relationship between hair and health for African American women and suggests that extra attention is justified to address views about beauty ideals and hairstyles as a barrier to exercise (Versey, 2014, p. 2015)

As an African American hair plays a vital role in our society. The ideal of Black hair is one that allows you to explore your inner feelings, attitudes and sense of style through the facet of hair. However, this freedom of expression becomes questioned as you try to pursue a professional career. As an African American woman pursuing a career in the field of broadcast journalism, your freedom of expression through hair is often limited by corporate policy. By pursuing a career in this field and attaining my first internship in a top 10 market. I have already faced some challenges. Due to the fact that I was only an intern, I did not receive pressure from corporate level to change my look. However, I placed internal pressure on myself to assimilate to white culture standard of “professionalism” by straightening my hair for an intern newscast. I decided to elongate my naturally, kinky curly hair in order to fit the bill of a typical news anchor. Who declared black hair of any style to be unprofessional?

Over the course of the last few years the volume of information on how to take care of black hair has grown exponentially. Social media has provided us with easy access to this information and in response black hair has become the rave. Having African American hair is an exciting journey. It’s a marathon and not a sprint so no matter how long you’ve had your black hair in its natural state you will continue to learn and mature in the ways you take care of it. Here are the top 5 things you absolutely need to know about caring for black hair.

There has been a notable amount of conversation on the internet on the rebirth of the natural hair movement. Cherise Luter (2014) states that despite afros and the natural hair movement not being a new concept (i.e. the Black Power Movement), it has gone under what she calls a “refreshing change”. Furthermore, what used to be “I’m black and I’m proud”, has been replaced with “I’m me and I’m proud” (Luter 2016). So, what is the natural hair movement? It is defined as a movement where black women decide to not conform to the social norms of chemically altering their hair and wearing it in its natural, kinky, or curled state (Joignot 2015). The movement could also be considered as an outlet for black women to display their racial and cultural pride or to articulate their “political position (Brown 2014:297). However, simply the terminology “movement” is something that should be shocking to many. There is a great amount of historical context behind the continuous influence Eurocentric beauty ideals have had on black women for centuries. According to Nadia Brown (2014), Black natural hair throughout history has proven to be recognized as “either unintended or intended personal and political statements” (298). the beauty standard in Western society which praises European hair textures, has influenced many black women to be critical of other black women who choose to chemically straighten their hair, accusing them of being subservient to the dominant and pervasive racist

In Pelo Malo, a prime example is about Junior’s desire to be identified as a musician for his school picture; however, he began this obsession about straightening his hair. There were many topics of the ideas of beauty being this popular ideal that “‘everyone [in Venezuela] wants to have straight hair’” (“A Rare Look Into Latin American Race Relations”). In context, the term ‘pelo malo’ refers to ‘bad hair’ about curly, unruly hair. This brings a taboo topic into identity politics that Rondón mentions, “‘The origin of [‘pelo malo’] is very offensive. It’s very racist.’” (“A Rare Look Into Latin American Race Relations”). Many Venezuelans are descendants of European and indigenous, African ancestors, which can be demonstrated from most citizens having thick, tightly curled hair. Peter Wade claims, mentioning of a sociologist who studies racial and political issues in Spanish-speaking societies, there’s an “overwhelming consensus…that African hair is ‘bad’ can only be an expression of racism and its internalization”. He furthers mentions about hair treatments like straightening hair has become quite popular for many citizens who have curly hair. In Pelo Malo, for example, Junior is seen watching a video of an Afro-Latina woman talking about putting mayonnaise on the hair to straighten it, who was later caught and gotten in trouble by his mother. Moreover, Mariana Rondón further mentions that hair straightening is “the second most successful business in Venezuela”, she talks about how there are products like hair Botox and all other types trying to straighten hair (Farrell). This pushes the behavior of exclusion towards individuals with African ancestry that it becomes “notoriously a site for the enactment of race and gender hierarchy” – meaning, that the ideology about relaxed hair is a guarantee for more success

Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair, investigates the notion of what good hair is. Dominant society views good hair as straight or essentially caucasian hair. This is not only problematic to the self-esteem and confidence of black women, but it can also cause black women to appropriate Asian culture. Black women unfortunately take advantage of Asian culture in search of what society believes is good hair. Many black women wear weaves in order to align to what society believes is good hair. However, when they buy this hair, they do not realize what Asians go through. Likewise, Asians who give up their hair do not know where or who this hair will be going to. Thus, this desire for good hair further perpetuates the lack of understanding that black

Gates also writes about a time when he was at his uncle’s house to watch television. While they were all watching, they saw Nat King Cole, a famous singer with “patent-leather hair” (328). His hair was processed, but not to the point where it looked completely like white peoples’ hair. It still looked somewhat natural. Back then, it was rare for an African American to be seen on television as Cole was. This shows the slow transition of blacks becoming accepted into white society.