Good hair, bad hair
The nature of female beauty salon in the Dominican Republic is complex and researchers faced a redoubt with sophisticated cultural and anthropological meanings
SANTO DOMINGO. “The Dominican Republic has gone from being a pigmentacracy to a hairocrocy”. In summary, this was the thesis presented by the American anthropologist Gerald F. Murray, and the Dominican sociologist Marina Ortiz. The book being presented today “Good Hair, Bad Hair. “Anthropological study of beauty salons in the Dominican Republic is one more analysis in the series that FondoMicro has dedicated to the study of local micro enterprises. El Colmado, or the convenience store, El Taller or the workshop, y El Colegio, The School were the first titles and tallied sectors.
When they reached the female beauty salons, the records were broken. 55,000 salons, not counting nail salons or sophisticated spas that are becoming popular, there are many salons. So many, that after convenience stores (65,000 nationwide) the beauty salon is the largest micro and small enterprise. In third place are betting parlors.
A study limited to the socioeconomic aspects would be impossible in this sector of microenterprises. The nature of female beauty salon in the Dominican Republic is complex and researchers faced a redoubt with sophisticated cultural and anthropological meanings. For starters, in few countries there are so many beauty salons in proportion to the population and to continue, in a few countries women go as freqeuently to the beauty parlors.
But… why? The answer is simple: because Dominican women have curly hair and want it smooth. What conclusions should be drawn from this idea? That’s what Ortiz and Murray have studied.
Female redoubt
Salons, understands Murray, form “a closed universe of which Dominican men are mostly ignorant.A center of socializing with its own rules and behavior that is in evolution.” And that attract 12% of wage earning women, no matter whatever their wage level: “if they earn more, they spend more. If they earn less, they spend less, but in all social classes one can see that between 10 and 12% of a women’s salary is spent in the salon, “explains Marina Ortiz.
It was to be expected that they would encounter the issue of racism in their work. As leading member of FondoMicro and author of the book’s prologue, Frank Moya Pons explains, “in a salon all the esthetic values of a population that for centuries has lived trying to extricate itself from its African roots to form a largely mulatto community preferring instead to call itself India and seeks to whiten itself through the treatment of its hair”.
Q. “Good hair, bad hair” … the title already warns that the issue at hand will be complex. Is it an ideological statement?
Gerald Murray: It is an anthropological observation. People in the D.R. talk a lot about “good hair and bad hair” especially in that social group that has “bad hair” — without shame or taking the term an offense. I thought that it indicated racism, a rejection of the African. There is no denying some of that, but I’ve talked with dozens of Dominican women who tell me that they refer to “bad hair” because it is difficult to manage. They are not making a racial judgment as they do not view this as an African or Haitian issue. They say that is hard to handle and this has been repeated to me by so many Dominicans I have had to reject my previous concepts.
Q. Most sociologists or anthropologists who have addressed the issue will not agree.
Gerald Murray: Marina and I were taking controversial positions as the study progressed. In the first chapter I identified several academic myths made regarding race in the Dominican Republic: first, Dominicans who are offended if a stranger calls them black are not denying nor the color of their skin nor the African component of their heritage. They are instead rejecting the insulting implications that have invaded the Word “black”. Second, it is said that Dominicans are called “indios” to deny their African roots. The authors note that on the contrary, that “indio” in the Dominican language today simply refers to a color and not an entire race. Third, it is said that that the Dominican woman smooths her hair in the salon because she wants to “whiten” it. We believe that this explanation constitutes is arbitrary and eroneous. Straight hair, the aspiration of many is an aesthetic preference, not racial. It is more similar to the homogeneous hair of Chinese women or to that of the indigenous women, rather than the heterogeounos hair of the European or American women. The Dominican woman going to the salón wants to leave looking beautiful but not white. The Dominican beauty salon is an esthetic center, not a temple that nurtures mysterious, complex races.
Marina Ortiz: Gerald is man and a foreigner. As a woman and as a Dominican I arrived at the same conclusion. We did interviews, surveys and organized focus groups. We looked for Dominican women with very bad hair, “pepper hair,” as its referred to, to whom we asked “why do you smooth your hair ?”, and to those who did not smooth their hair we asked “why did you stop?” Those who processed their hair answered that their hair was more manageable when it was smooth. They were most specific and said “I do not want to change my skin, I am black and I like my black skin but I would rather have straight hair. When my hair is curly and hard I spend more time dealing with the wash, conditioning, detangling, and later the need for an oil to leave it shaped, but in addition the hair never dries and the head remains humid for hours.
Q. Have you identified a bias rejection of blackness or just see it as a practical fact?
Marina Ortiz: There is an aspect that women often talk about and it is the one that has to do with the socialization of the Dominican girl. Since we are little we are taught to do moñitos, cleaned, bathed, our braids are made … After a pattern of beauty behavior has been created for you, you follow it … It’s not that since you are small you are told that braids are nice … but the process is a way to create relationships and become involved. Where did the saloneras learn their craft? In their home! When these girls grow up, going to the salon every week is natural. We see our mother taking care of herself and want to be like her, participating in the female complicity that took place in our house. The beauty routine in the home is like the cooking routine.
Q. They insist that the salon is a feminine haven for clients.
Gerald Murray: There is a protective mechanism of the monopoly of women. In other countries there are no hang-ups for men to come into salons. But here men do not want to enter. There is a tendency to label a man as being gay if he is in the beauty field. I believe that this thinking provides a function -not necessarily a conscious one, but one that works to protect the monopoly of women. The field is so lucrative that men would come in as hairdressers, enter as clients, and that would damage this place of sanctuary with its women clients and the monopoly that is held by women hairdressers.
Q. And is it good business?
Marina Ortiz: Yes, it’s a very good business. And many have different arrangements. There are owners who also work. In other situations, the salon employees work on commission. In yet others, employees work only for a commission and tip, without any contractual obligation, and may not even work on a daily basis. And other arrangements function as a real estate business where the owners rent out “stations” or chairs, and the stylist comes and serves her customers. There are salons with one employee and we found one with… with 100 employees!
Pelocracia
Q. If the fact of wanting straight hair does not indicate rejection of the African, as argued … then there is not so much racism in the Dominican Republic as they say?
Gerald Murray: Today the dictatorship of loose and straight hair is prevailing in the country and this takes place at all social levels. A Dominican doctor explained it to me very well: in the country there has been a transformation from the pigmentocracy in the past to the present “pelocracia”. Earlier, in the sixties, people cared about the color of their skin, using powders for whitening. Trujillo used powder and women powdered themselves before photos. The skin color was a very important criteria of female beauty. I think that today that cinnamon-toned skin, the color of “indios”, is not only accepted, but is preferred to the “Jabá gringa” to use an example… Before woman walked along the streets with ahead full of rollers, not anymore. Before there was a dictatorship of the skin, now it’s a dictatorship to have straight hair.
The study has just come out of press. Delivering it, a graphic design employee said the title should have been “Good moño, bad moño”. And then, the two authors realized that … there was still a lot left to understand.
Fondomicro
The Fund for the Financing of Microenterprise, Fondomicro, has expanded its work and currently provides research on the business market, in the area of credit, financing, management development, portfolio audits, project diagnosis and evaluation. This is in addition to its credit programs for the microenterprises for research and publications.
Originally published in spanish at Diario Libre on March 19, 2012.
