I Got Nappy Hair; Deal With It
Navigating natural hair in public spaces
--
Natural Hair In Public Spaces Can Still Be Daunting
I still remember the first time I wore my Bantu knots on a work meeting; it felt so liberating but also sad because I often had never felt comfortable wearing my hair in natural styles because of the silent culture that presents itself in the corporate world. Natural, “ethnic,” or nappy hairstyles are still not considered “professional.”
Most of the corporate world still does not promote kinky, natural African-American hair. However, I still wore my hair in a natural style anyways, and after that moment, I continued doing it.
Wearing Natural Styles At Work Isn’t Just For Me; It’s For Others
I didn’t wear my hair in Bantu knots just for me; I wore it for all the people that feel they still can’t wear their natural hairstyles to work. And I hope that as more people wear their natural styles at work and in public spaces, this creates a kinder society towards our hair (as weird as that sounds because hair shouldn’t even be a “thing,” but somehow it is).
We are slowly working towards a society that will no longer care how Black Americans wear their hair. But it will take some effort on our part to help the world get there, and one way we can do this is by wearing our natural hair more frequently, which leads to my following statement….
Desensitize The World To Afro-Centric Hair
The more we expose people to our natural hair, the more accustomed they can become to the differences between our hair and eurocentric hair. I call it a de-sensitizing process.
The Crown Act
Thankfully, we have the Crown Act, which provides protections to black individuals to help prevent discrimination based on their hair, but should we have laws in place to protect the identity of black hair?
No. It’s quite pathetic.
But at least society has acknowledged the problem. Once you have awareness, you can create change.
