Listen Up Fort Collins, My Hair Is Not A Display.
Moving from Green Valley Ranch, a suburb in Denver, where most of my neighbors looked like me, to Fort Collins, where the entire town is predominantly White, was a huge culture shock.
The racial make up for Fort Collins is 88.99% White and 1.56% Black according to data from 2018. The underrepresentation of People of Color is extremely devastating in Fort Collins. But what hurts the most is when I go to stores, there is nothing to acknowledge that people of color live in this town.
Fort Collins has a dry climate, and because of this, I and other Black individuals need to keep our hair moisturized however, being in a town that has zero hair stores, that carry products that offer Black people the ability to wear our hair naturally, and no, Sally’s does not count. There’s not even an ethnic hair care section in Walmart’s, Target’s or even the Walgreens that are near by and it makes it harder for us to keep our hair intact when they aren’t in protective styles.
A protective style is a style that keep the ends of your hair tucked away so that they are protected. These styles can be anything from head wraps, braids (crochets included), wigs and many more. However, these styles cannot be kept for more than two to three months. So, when it is time to wash our hair, and let it breath for a month, there are no products to give our hair life. For me personally, I find it frustrating when it is time to buy more shampoo and conditioner, or a protein treatment packet, I must go 90 miles back to Denver to buy these because they are not sold in Fort Collins.
It is hard enough that I feel as if I don’t fit in here in Fort Collins, but to add the idea that I am also underrepresented hurts as well. But the only thing that irritates me the most is the number of stares that I receive when my hair is natural, or when I wear a wrap or in braids. The amount of people that ask to touch my hair is highly uncomfortable. But then there are a handful of people who don’t ask, they just feel the sudden urge to touch my hair. When I started last year, it felt that people only saw two things when they saw me. My skin color and my hair. And they felt uncomfortable to ask about both.
Fort Collins prides itself on the diversity culture that they claim to have, but the truth is that the town has a lack of diversity and they need to swallow their pride and take steps towards accommodating for all races.
