The Rejection of African-American Hair in White America
How Eurocentric beauty standards pertaining to hair affect African American girls and women’s relationships with their own hair.
For Black people, hair is so much more than just what grows on top of our heads, It serves as an extension of our identities. (D’Ardenne). As girls grow into women, we are faced with immense pressure and desire to be seen as pretty. While America is diverse, the beauty standards remain rigid. In America, beauty is heavily based on white features. This is reflected in society, the media we consume, and those we deem as worthy of the title “beautiful”. The internalization of White beauty standards have a direct effect on how black women view themselves, and more specifically, their relationship with their hair ( Robinette). When you’re a little girl beauty seems to be so clearly defined in the everyday aspects of life that you do not even notice. Magazines at the grocery store, television shows, barbie dolls, fictional characters, books, and more. So what does this mean for African American girls who grow up in this country essentially being the opposite of everything that “beauty” apparently is? We cannot change our skin color to white and if we have brown eyes we cannot replace them. Leaving the easiest thing to try to manipulate being our hair.
Growing up, my mom would always devote Sundays to doing my hair. Hair days included washing, detangling, and styling. These days included lots of tears, but I always loved having a fresh new style to wear at school the next day. I loved the beads, the bows, the braids, and all the creative styles my mom would experiment with. Hair days are a universal experience for most black girls, as our textures require more “love and care” as my mom would say. Growing up as an African American girl, hair was always important. It was important to take care of it and protect it. I have always valued my hair as a piece of my identity. The amount of time and effort that went into my hair made it that much more special to me, and having a nonblack mother ( Puerto Rican and Filipino), it was also important for her because she wanted to learn and improve on caring for my hair. While it was important to me and my family, I did not see it valued as something special or beautiful in the world around me, and society in general.
When I was younger one of my favorite things to do while running errands with my mom was to flip through the magazines in the checkout lane. I always gravitated towards People, Harper’s Bazaar, or US Weekly because they were all about fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. The women on the cover were rarely Black women, and if so, they never had their natural hair out. I was always curious to examine what made most of the models on the covers so attractive to society. They were usually white women who had perfect skin, nice smiles, and always had long, flowing, shiny, silky, straight, hair.
These Eurocentric beauty standards were a constant in other forms of media I consumed as a child as well. One of my favorite movies was The Cheetah Girls. I loved it because it was one of the few kids movies during the early 2000’s that featured Black female actresses as leading roles and Black girls around the world loved it for this same reason. While their skin was melanated, their hair was always manipulated to fit Hollywood’s standards. The two black actresses always had their hair straightened with some sort of extensions/weaves. This symbolized that Black skin was something to be confident in, and accepted, however the hair should be assimilated to white standards. As seen in kids television, These Eurocentric beauty standards are imposed onto us at a young age.
Beauty standards not only affect who and what is worthy of “being pretty”, but they relate to far more important traits as well, such as, who is perceived as educated, professional, and successful. Dove’s Ad titled, “ As Early as Five, End Race Based Hair Discrimination” begins with a young black girl being denied entrance into her school due to their “hair policy”. The little girl then faces this discrimination throughout high school and her career. As the actress narrates she states how her dad has always told her that her hair is beautiful and that she should fight for it. The commercial ends by stating that hair discrimination can start in childhood and last a lifetime, and it urges viewers to help end this discrimination by signing the Crown Act. (Race). This commercial is pivotal because it relates to real world scenarios faced by so many black children and people. The Crown Act was created in 2019 by Dove and the CROWN Coalition, in partnership with the State Senator ( at that time) Holly J. Mitchell of California. Its purpose is to “ensure protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles by extending statutory protection to hair texture and protective styles such as braids, locs, twists, and knots in the workplace and public schools” (The). The ad illustrates how hair discrimination is a dark cloud that looms over African-American women in different stages of their lives. Meaning that Eurocentric beauty standards which correlate directly with hair discrimination, affect who is seen as competent, worthy, professional, and more.
The Ad is successful because it understands the target audience, and highlights their resilience while speaking out against hair discrimination, something that White America constantly fails to do. It speaks to an all too common experience and reality of many Black women. Hair policies in schools often ban unnatural colors, locs, braids, and hairstyles that are predominantly worn by black children. For adults in the workplace, many companies deem Black hairstyles as “unprofessional” or wild and ban them (The). Surveys conducted by Dove and the Crown Coalition found that 86% of black teens who experience discrimination have experienced discrimination based on their hair by age 12. 100% of Black elementary school girls in predominantly white schools reported experiencing hair discrimination by age 10. The trauma and shame that results from these encounters causes girls to stay home from school. The study found that Black teenage girls are missing up to 5 days of school per year due to being unhappy with their hair (Dove). In 2019, a Mississippi news anchor named Brittany Noble-Jones was fired after a supervisor complained about her natural hair and she refused to straighten her hair or wear extensions. Another example includes an unnamed woman who shared a video on social media explaining why she quit her job. She expressed that she quit due to the reaction from her White manager and colleagues, after wearing her natural hair to work. She received comments at her job such as, “What’s that?”, “Where did you buy that from?”, “I know underneath your wigs you are bald” (Agency). The video went viral and many comments were left by many other Black women who had experienced hair discrimination as well (Agency). It was evident that the issue of hair discrimination was not something that corporate companies nor white people at large planned to address, it was simply just another burden that Black women had to navigate. The attitudes and lack of knowledge from white people about Black hair are the results of White America seeking to force minorities to assimilate in all aspects and crown themselves as the standard.
Without realizing it at the moment, these eurocentric beauty standards affected the way I once viewed my hair. At the age of 11, I suddenly began to hate my hair. I no longer cared for the braids and the beads, nor the hundreds of curls that bounced on my head. I wanted it down like the white girls at school, and the characters in my favorite shows. I wanted it to be flat, straight, and everything it never wanted to be. At the age of 13 I got my hair chemically straightened, and I instantly felt like I looked better. I loved being able to look in the mirror and reflect societal standards of beauty with my new straight hair look. So many young black girls experience this same feeling and have a strong desire to ( or feel forced to) manipulate their hair in some sort of way in order to appease Eurocentric beauty standards that infiltrated our minds at such a young age. As stated earlier, manipulating your hair in a way such as applying a relaxer or straightening it, may offer a Black woman more opportunities or simply just allow her to be accepted or seen as educated and professional. These modifications allow Black women to be merely accepted and satisfactory in White America. Even then, we have to worry about what coworkers will whisper about or what classmates will assume. The beauty standards of the United States are based on proximity to whiteness, meaning Black women will never fully reach it. These standards reward features such as hair texture, to be smarter, more desirable, more competent, and more beautiful, due to their proximity to whiteness.
Works Cited
“The Official Crown Act.” The Official CROWN Act, www.thecrownact.com/. Accessed 6 Sept. 2023.
D’Ardenne, Kimberlee, and Emily Balli. “Study: Black Girls Commonly Have Negative Experiences Related to Their Natural Hair.” ASU News, ASU News, 24 May 2022, news.asu.edu/20220524-study-shows-black-girls-commonly-have-negative-experiences-related-their-natural-hair.
“Race-Based Hair Discrimination Starts Early.” Dove, Dove, 31 Oct. 2022, www.dove.com/us/en/stories/campaigns/as-early-as-five.html.
Robinette, Sabrina. The Imposition of White Beauty Standards on Black Women, 2019, cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1924&context=student_scholarship.
Agency, Clamp. “Why Are Black Women Experiencing Anxiety for Their Changing Hairstyles?” Lappthebrand, lappthebrand, 17 Jan. 2022, www.lappthebrand.com/blogs/perspectives/why-are-black-women-experiencing-anxiety-for-their-changing-hairstyles.
Dove. “Dove Launches ‘as Early as Five’ to Illuminate How Young Race-Based Hair Discrimination Starts in Ongoing Effort to Pass the Crown Act in Remaining 36 U.S. States.” DOVE LAUNCHES “AS EARLY AS FIVE” TO ILLUMINATE HOW YOUNG RACE-BASED HAIR DISCRIMINATION STARTS IN ONGOING EFFORT TO PASS THE CROWN ACT IN REMAINING 36 U.S. STATES, 27 Jan. 2022, www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dove-launches-as-early-as-five-to-illuminate-how-young-race-based-hair-discrimination-starts-in-ongoing-effort-to-pass-the-crown-act-in-remaining-36-us-states-301468335.html.
