Pressure To Grow Long Hair As Black Women Or Black Feminine Presenting People

Hi everyone, i'm pho and in today's video i'm going to talk about my haircut and i'm going to use my haircut as an opportunity to dive into a deeper conversation about pressures in black community for black people to have longer hair and often times for black women. To have longer hair, so let's dive right in so i got this haircut and i got bangs and i got the top area of my hair cut shorter because my hair is so many different textures and curl sizes. This this area of my hair here on either side as well as at the um, the middle and the bottom um it's the back. All this area is much tighter than the hair that at the the hair at the crown of my head, it's also a more coarse texture. So what was happening? Was this hair at the crown of my head, which is looser and a bit smoother, still tight wave, but it's looser and smoother than the rest of my hair was growing down and sort of running away from my tighter areas, um and i'll insert some pictures of What i mean by it looked like it was running away, so i got this hair cut into a bang and i got this area cut shorter, so my hair can look more cohesive and i have different areas where this hair type is sort of just hanging over The rest of the hair - and i know in doing that - i took away from the vertical length my hair having a look of growing more vertically over time, looking appearing longer this way over time. I took away from that, and i also know this haircut. I might have gotten more haircut than i wanted to um, but at the end of it all i had to consult with myself and see. Do i really care about having to have longer hair or having to hoard or hold on to every single piece? An inch of hair that i possibly can - and i realized that i don't care about that hoarding hair length or feeling like i have to hold on so tight to hair length. I don't care about that as much as i care about a great shape. Now i will for my next appointment. Let my stylist know what i think could have been better for this haircut but um. I also can't cry and pressure myself over certain standards to have longer hair lengths, and so let's talk about the origin of some of those standards, so i do think that there is an afrocentric standard or an african standard for having longer hair. So i was reading hair story as a part of my research by ayana byrd and lori tharps, and there was this discussion in the opening of the book about how some um, specifically west african tribes uh during pre-colonial times before white colonization um. Some of these groups appreciated and loved long hair, and i know that some of that that desire some of that cultural desire has stuck with us, those that are of west african descent, those that are living in west africa um. Those of us that have been through enslavement. I think that for some of us that standard has stuck with us an african standard of desiring longer hair um, longer thicker hair, but at the end of the day i cannot hold myself to that standard um. Even if it's an african one and feel like it's a failure, if i don't meet that standard, because i'm not i'm not at the time of the culture having all the tools and the knowledge and the understanding in which that standard for longer hair, that african standard Was developed so basically, what i'm saying is: how can i hold myself to, for example, an african standard for longer, hair, denser hair? If i don't have the tools for that, i can't hold myself to that standard. I'Ll give an example, the women of chad, the african women of chad, specifically that have that long, beautiful hair and they use the chebe powder for those women. Since those women were little, girls they've been taught a specific way of caring for their hair. That will result in their hair being extremely long unless something happens with their health or something like that. So it makes sense in that group for those women of chad to have that standard where they say. Oh, you know your hair should be this long and it's a marker of beauty and all these different things, because they have the tools and they have the understanding. But due to colonization due to an influence of modern white supremacy, i don't have all of those tools that my ancestors had in order to develop their standard for longer hair, and i see around me a lot of people, people of um nigerian descent, people that have That are, they were born and raised in nigeria and migrated here to america, people that are in my circle and even you know, african americans, people that i'm interacting with. I notice that a lot of them don't have the tools and the understanding to meet the standard that they're pressuring themselves to uphold, even if it's an african standard to have longer hair. So i want to make sure to emphasize that the african-american and the nigerian women that i interact with they do have a lot of rich information when it comes to hair care passed down from their ancestors. Information such as different types of braiding and different types of african threading, especially among the nigerian women, that i interact with so much information on different types of braids and threading and stuff like that and with the african-american women. I interact with there's so much information on braiding and also heat styling heat styling. That comes from the early 1900s on through into the um, i would say the use of hot tools, maybe the 1980s 1990s, so um such as straightening come and things like that. But in the midst of this education there are some gaps. There are some gaps in fulfilling an idealized standard, an idealized, afrocentric standard or african standard for long care that idealized standard it leaves out information such as a pre-colonial, afrocentric or african standard for lawn care might have included for those pre-colonial. African women, hair extensions hair additions. Some sort of natural hair addition some sort of fibers it might have included an understanding that they might be some hair loss, such as traction alopecia from the braiding that was consistently done, but that hair loss such as the moving back of the hairline from the consistent Braiding but the hair loss be considered a part of that pre-colonial, aesthetic for that particular african group um. So those gaps are um. They cause us to have um a lack of a healthy understanding of a sort of idealized afrocentric goal that many people are working towards when it comes to wanting long care. That'S not to say that there aren't new afrocentric goals for longer, denser hair and things like that, but with many of the new standards from, for example, west african stylists such as yellow cc or such as kimmy lewis, with their standards and striving towards long hair. They also provide tools and knowledge to get to it. So it's not like it's something: that's not feasible for those west african women that are referring to those stylists, and so it's just unfair. It'S um! It will be unfair for me to say i should have hair down my back um according to an african standard when that hair to that hair growing down, my back would have taken years for me to do, and throughout all those years i haven't had the tools. I have plenty of knowledge now to reach that standard, but listen long hair doesn't come overnight. So that's what i want to say about an african or an afrocentric standard for longer hair um. No, i just can't. I can't burden myself like that, so also um. It'S warm in here so also and you're a eurocentric standard for longer hair or a standard based on white people and white supremacy um, where people think that long hair on women is more beautiful and long flowing hair on women is more acceptable. It'S more is a showing of femininity and someone being gentle and all these other things now that originates with the enslavement of um african people as well as the so. I would say this, the initial enslaved midday, i would say, maybe the 1600s, a slight enslavement interactions. Um of white people with black people hair was a key part in white people, distinguishing distinguishing themselves from black people. Um saying that black hair was woolly and i'm looking at a book, i'm getting ready to hold up saying that black hair was woolly and smart snarled and all these other things and comparing black hair to animals um to live wild animals to or or domesticated animals. Such as livestock was a tool used for white people to distinguish themselves from black people, so white people developed some white people. People developed this eurocentric standard of beauty and humanity in terms of long-flowing hair. In order to emphasize how black people were so much more different than them, therefore, the enslavement and the mistreatment and the colonization of black people supposedly made sense based on features such as black people's hair. So i got that understanding of black people um supposedly having hair. That'S like wool closer in comparison to livestock, that being used as a tool of white supremacy. I got that understanding from this book and i'll make sure to try to leave a page number down below it's hair raising by no leeway brooks. But i understand within that euro-centric framework, why many black people are wanting to work against that eurocentric framework and demonstrate their humanity through growing long hair demonstrate their humanity, their femininity, their vitality um, how equal they are to other races through growing long hair and proving the Stereotype wrong that black people are so different and can't grow long hair. I understand that that exists. That desire exists to prove that standard wrong, but that standard is too heavy for me to carry, and i i can't do it. I can't do it. I can't worry about a euro-centric or white supremacist standard for me to have longer hair. I can't that is too heavy. That is too much of a space occupier of whiteness in my mind, and i have let that go, it's harmful, it's painful, and it's just not for me, and so i hope that me, explaining sort of a history of things is helpful to you all and maybe Could help some people figure out ways to navigate out of a toxic desire based on a eurocentric standard for having longer um hair? So i think that um oh yeah, so i also wanted to mention the emphasis there's emphasis currently in different black communities. Globally. There'S emphasis on longer hair um as a sign of femininity um, specifically in the west. Ingrid banks, i want to say in the united states, did a study in the 90s, where she found that a lot of black women were tying longer hair to femininity and honestly, i can't go for that either. I can't i can't pressure myself to have longer hair to demonstrate femininity. Whatever i decide is femininity, that's what's going to be femininity for me, whatever i decide makes me feel the most beautiful makes me feel the most valuable. That'S how i'm going to have to measure my standard, because all those other standards, the weight and the pressure i can never live up to them and then also, i can't wait. It'S gon na take me with how kinky how tight my hair is. How tight my hair is in this area? Um it's gon na. Take me like i kid you not like four years for my hair to maybe touch four or five years. I don't know for my hair to maybe touch here curly, and i can't wait another three years. It'S gon na be two years in december, since my big, my second big chop in 2020.. I can't wait another three years for me to be satisfied and happy with my hair feel like i'm fulfilling standards of femininity and beauty and all those things. I can't so i'm not saying that there's anything wrong with the desire to have long hair. What i'm saying actually is that i'm not going to pressure myself for any type of standard that i'm not able to feel or standard. That'S meant to harm me or standard that i simply don't have the tools, for i would love to see what my hair looks like longer in the shape as this shape grows out, but pressuring myself or feeling unhappy or feeling like i failed that doesn't serve me And i would hope that any of us as we explore our hair will let go of anything that doesn't serve us and that's harmful to us in terms of our hair um length. So there's that oh, i hope that i explained everything the way i wanted to. That'S gon na wrap up this video um comment down below what you all think about afrocentric eurocentric or even pressures among ourselves, as black people, to be more feminine, with long hair, more valuable with with long hair. All these different things. What do you all think about what we talked about today? Let me know please, like comment: share subscribe, bye,