Navigating My Hair Journey

Oak Systems
Nov 4 · 2 min read

Like many other aspects of one’s identity and presentation, one often has very little control over how one’s hair is seen and interpreted by others. With that in mind, hair seems like it should be so innocuous. However, when taken with our contemporary context of anti-Blackness, choices around hair often become political acts. My own journey towards loving and learning how to take care of my hair involved a lot of defiance, reflection, and mentorship from loved ones. That required months of research, guidance, and missteps. Now, with the team at Oak, I’m working to provide that knowledge and personalization that I would have loved when I was at the beginning of my journey.

I’m getting a joint concentration in Computer Science and Statistics, and a secondary in African American Studies. In other words, I’ve dedicated my studies to the unique intersection of technology, justice, and empowerment. When Unique, Tolu, and Miela approached me earlier this summer to work on Oak, I dove at the opportunity. The space of Black hair care is so varied, complex and beautiful, and I’ve found the community warm and supportive. And while the movement was pioneered by Black women, they’ve been incredibly welcoming to people of other genders. Navigating my journey and its implications to my Black manhood has been wonderful, and I’m excited to share that experience with more people.

I’m from Kingston, Jamaica, and at my high school, it was against the rules for men to grow out their hair. In addition, this was often deeply racialized, with the rules being disproportionately applied to Black men. My presence within this specific system, which was reinforced by broader social norms, cultivated nervousness around my hair and its connection to my Blackness and my manhood. It was only when I came to the United States to finish my education that I was liberated from those strict rules and able to grow in my self-love and personal self-expression. Now, I’ve dedicated time and energy, through Oak, to making that process easier for more people, regardless of their gender, geography, and experience.

Haircare is a deeply personal and nuanced process, and one that is particularly hard to navigate when one doesn’t know where to look, or what information to trust. However, the knowledge is out there, and Oak has done an excellent job synthesizing it and making it presentable and easily digestible. Moreover, the algorithms that we’ve developed will match you, uniquely, to products that work best for your hair. That type of personalization is new to this space, and combined with our ability to leverage the abundance of data available, it will revolutionize how people think about their haircare.

Oak Systems

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Utilizing AI to create personalized hair care for kinky and curly hair.

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