Why Black Women Change Their Hair | Exploring The Politics Of Black Hair

Blackheads ugly, it is difficult to take care of. It is not good for beauty pageants, it is not good for TV and it gets really messy real, quick hi, my friend, and welcome back to my channel. My name is Serena and if you're new here, please make sure you subscribe right away, and so today I'm gon na be having a conversation about the politics of black hair black hair. In this context, or just like in this video, what I'm talking about this? It literally means the hair on on the heads of black people, so this, for example, it's back here and so as black people we think about. So we think about hair in so many different ways and we're going to talk about all the social constructions and various politics that have that come to play when talking about black hair now BAE mind this video does not exhaust everything that has to do with black Hair, because this is a conversation that we can really have and unfortunately, because it is her, we easily push this under the carpet and as black women we face double oppression. We face the oppression of racism and then we also face sexism in the context of race, but racism and sexism hair comes to play. So this video is going to be really interesting and important for both black and non black people, because for black people it helps us appreciate our hair and understand the politics behind our hair and for non black people. What we would do would be to help you understand black hair and the politics around black hair and the representation of black a so please make sure you subscribe and sit down, get a cup of coffee or even just water, and let's keep moving b5 proceed I'll. Just like give you a very short story about my own natural hair, so I grew up in a country where, when you're growing up as a black girl you because of the educational system, you know in most public schools, for example. I do not allow you to braid your hair or anything, so you have to have short hair and that short hair is what you take to school. And a lot of young girls in senior high school or in secondary school look forward to finishing school and straightening. Their hair and relaxed in their hair and wearing wigs and weave ons. So it's something that culturally people like people answer recently. No people, never a lot of women, never really used to leave their hair on like this. So when I finished and just like any other senior high school sense, when I finished in high school, I I just I went to straighten my hair. I think I had relaxed here for like four years from 2009 to 2013 for years, and I then like in 2013, when I was in level 300, which was my third year at the University during my undergrad, I decided to go natural and I have been natural Since then to the past seven years of natural - and I think that the main reason why I went natural was because my one - it was really difficult to get a hair relaxer, which was good for my hair, and whenever I got one dollar I got excited about It would like on the second use, it would stop been in my hair, and it was really painful because my scalp wouldn't begin to burn and imagine that, after sitting in the relaxer and your hair begins to, like you, have all these bruises and cuts, probably from The relaxer bands, then, after that, washing it putting the water in it and washing your hair in itself, can be very painful because imagine when you have burns and then there's water like the porter and it gets really painful. And after that, then they wash your hair and you have to sit in the dryer for your hair to dry and then it's that's additional heat and it was just really painful and like irritates your scalp and for me I just went through that for a couple Of years - and I just decided that I wasn't going to do that anymore besides, to be honest, I really did admire the people that I saw in black hair and I thought look. This looks good. Why wouldn't I keep my hair the way, the way it is and be able to have healthy hair and just just not just stay away from relaxants really, and so I did that so my hands. He like this worked for the past 7 years and I wouldn't say I'm a pro and keep a natural hair, because not because a lot of us grew up in a way that you were taught or you are used to having your hair relaxed. You kind of know more about relaxed hair, the natural hair, which is why I appreciates these natural hair youtubers and all the people creative content around natural hair. So this dog is a little story about my natural journey and by the way, this is just by the way. What do you say like this is natural hair and then they're like when you relax over here? It'S not natural, hey. I think I feel like it's still natural hair. It'S just relaxed, like I said your natural hair in a different form, but your hair so natural, it's all your own hair, but I mean that's just by the way. So, let's get deep into the politics of black hair, who sets the standards of what is beautiful and what is not so it then takes us back again into Western constructions of beauty and also the media representations of what beauty is. Our beauty is not so just like colorism and how white skin or light skin is deemed to be prettier than black skin tones black hair is deemed to be ugly because of what the standards have been have been set to be so long. Hair is often depicted to be prettier than shots Kelly, not be kinky, hey one other thing that I find very important like very interesting is that it's something I'm going to read out to you and sorry, if I'm reading too much, but that's what happens when sometimes You research about some of these things and I think this Mirza, I don't know if it's built in my eyes at a and she says something that all right I'll give you the title of the book in the know just in this on the screen, and so She says something that I find really important and I think that people should pay attention to especially non black people. She puts it into perspective when she says that, in quote, not only has female Beauty been constructed to objectify women. The assumption of whiteness as the norm indicates that black and white women are objectified differently. So the fact that, like black black women, are seen not to be pretty because of how they look and say vitamin, for example, I seem to be the standard of beauty because of how they look. The fact that these two are different does not show that white women are not been objectified, it only means we are. We are all objectified differently, so you are objectified sort of in a positive light based on what society deems to be pretty, but you are still being objectified. The only thing is that we have been objectified negatively so like we are seen to be ugly and our hair. Isn'T nice and our color skin tone isn't good, but it doesn't mean that we are not been objectified. It means that even you are some high person. If your skin or your your height or your hair, texture is deemed to be pretty, it just means that you are being objectified but objectified differently. You know, so I was talking about beauty standard, so it's not about boosted the status. We all know that we live in the water and unfortunately, almost everything Western is deemed to be the standard, so to a point that even our bodies are so that their bodies and what it's time to be beautiful, is to being measured on those standards. So if you don't, if I don't have a skin tone or a hair texture that looks more close to a white woman, then I'm not deemed to be as beautiful. But if I also my hair or I try to change my skin tone to be to be as close as I can be to a white person, so it looks, it looks like um like I said there are stages right when so. Your blackness, for example, is down here and then whiteness is up here so that the more you you go all that the more you move to the top and look the white star you look or the more you look like a white woman, the prettier you become So if you are here, I'm probably here - I don't know if you are here like further away from a white woman, you're not seen to be pretty but the more you come. Maybe you change your skin tone or you change your your hair texture. So, the more the more the more the more the more you go up, the boy is seen to be beautiful and unfortunately we are all being objectified with our wives of black women being objectified differently. The media depicts women to a woman who are period to have certain kinds of bodies and wonder that that does that it doesn't construct like is socially construct an image of beauty. That'S what we are talking about social construction of reality, and it does two things. One of the things it does is that it makes everybody or a lot of people, feel like this as a standard of beauty. So black boys had, you know, meets certain standards of beauty. Secondly, it makes you internally feel, like you are inferior, so your hair type is inferior and for so long we see black men trying to alter their hair. I am not in any way suggesting that black women should not alter their hair. I think it's a it's. Absolutely your choice, but then, like I said, I'm talking about the politics of black hair and how these things have come down to be the way they are, especially in the early days of television. How many black women would be allowed to wear their hair? This tape, the minister at reform on TV that was not very common to see, and even today, we've had situations where people feel like their hair is not good enough, especially when you are waiting for certain occasions at an event so say, for example, you're going for An interview you would want to alter your hair. Imagine going with this head to an interview. I don't think I would be. I mean it depended on the panel, it's beginning to change really, but people still have terrible experiences going with certain kinds of health certain places and going to a beauty pageant, for example, would this be seen to be pretty hair, Miss Universe, 2019, 30 b2z from South Africa was um like she had a natural hair on in her own way. I'M sorry if I pronounced him wrongly, I believe that's the correct pronunciation. If not, please help me - and please forgive me so she had on her natural hair, we're like really proud of her and she won and I think, like a number of people have gone on to win pageants with the natural hair. But then it's now like we are beginning to try to change those standards, and so it's so difficult to embrace the natural hair in certain situations or certain context. I'M just really saying the society constructs setting images of beauty for us that we feel like we need to fit in, and so, if you are not a tickler, if you don't have a certain hair type, then you're not beautiful enough black hair. It'S like the best ever because you have an advantage where you can do anything you want to do, but your hair, so you can have straight hair, you can you can just you can check your hair anytime. You want, and unlike other kinds of hair, like, for example, you can to do like have very good dreadlocks, with some heck types or some other kinds of her like white hair and then, if it's called wise hair but yeah like that kind of her. It'S it's beautiful. Yes, it's beautiful in its own way, but like this isn't think you can do it white hair. You can't have you can't have my kind of hair from white hair, but I can straighten my hair and relax it to look like white hair and I can also go and, for example, twist my hair. I can do so many things that I could with my black hair that other people cannot do with your hair, which is the main reason why we need to be able to embrace a hair and embrace the strength that I hate. The advantages that I had gives us to be able to just explore and be ourselves because our hair as unique, not just beautiful but unique, this other perception that it is only non black people that see black hair to be ugly. I don't think so. I feel like because we have all been in depth of indoctrinated, or we have all been exposed to things that make us feel like we are different in the RAI hair. Isn'T beautiful enough, so it's not just non black people that think our hair is not beautiful. So some black people also feel like yeah is not beautiful, and I am NOT going to sit here and charge anybody make it look like. I know what you're going through and how you feel about your hair. But all I can really say is that you need to learn to get the beauty out of what you have and I'm not judging. Anyone like you can wear a wig if you want to, if that makes it much more comfortable. It'S probably because of the exposure, and also probably because of that hair ties and hair textures, because some of our hair types and textures can be really difficult to deal with. Admittedly, but then it's a hair and we need to find a way around it. We need to also call out few people who Seamus because of our hair types and because my hair is texture within the black community, maybe 10 20 years ago. If you still had your hair, no straightened, you were not deemed to be as sophisticated, maybe or exposed, and so this is like a kind of social stigma where you have to look a certain way. The commodification of black hair is one huge thing right, so it's probably this industry is probably worth billions of dollars, and this is where black man's hair have become a huge business, and for those of you who have watched self made of soft made on Netflix, you Would probably know that story of madam CJ Walker make the first female self-made billionaire in America, and she made a lot of money from her hair products that she made. Even today, like we still have the hair and beauty industry, especially when it comes to products for black women, making lots of money, because we have people. People know that, because of the beauty standards we want to change. So then they come up with products that not necessarily healthy for our for us and they know that we will buy them and it's just really funny, because when you go into the black community and I'm speaking about what I know, if you disagree, you can. Let me know, but when I go to the black community, like the kinds of hair that we buy like that, are very expensive. People are like Brazilian hair, Peruvian hair, Indian hair, and these kinds of hair are like really expensive and and they're like - and I am I am from Africa right. So I am like from a continent where I love a lot of us initially like a lot of us. Have our hair, like this, like naturally, but still we buy. We still so to can imagine where that exposure came from. Obviously, the media, and also just like society, societal standards, so brazilian hair, peruvian, her Indian hair and all kinds of hair like are very expensive, and what that does is that it puts you up on the social class. So if you were in a certain kind of hair you deem to be not just prettier but also classier, if I should put it that way, these manufacturers are not necessarily there because they know that they are doing it in your interest is because you know that's A market - and so they have commodified your insecurities, they have commodified the standards that Ivy said the beauty standards that IV said, and so they do not necessarily have to do anything or stuff. That would be in your interest, but they want whatever it is. That would make the money and I'm going to read you another quote that I find relevant to this point. And yes, I hope I'm not boring you with my course to I will put the the title of the book and also on the screen, but I'm just gon na read this Johnson says that there cannot be - and this is on page 76 - says that there cannot Be freedom until black women learned that marketers are actively targeting blacks, the big sites to make sales and do not necessarily have their best interest in mind. The way is best interest. They do not necessarily have our best interest in mind. They are there to make sales. So I cannot say we shouldn't use these products. All I can say is that this will know that we did not really have any securities. They know that we, the world, is me just make enough room to change our hair, but what you can do for yourself is that, when you're gon na buy a product, make sure that you read about the ingredients, make sure you read about the manufacturers and then Just by blindly, I don't know if you've seen India Rhys song, I'm sure you know where it's been like 6006 2009, the song - I am NOT my hair. I am NOT your expectation. That'S all makes me think about a lot of things when it comes to black hair. Anything. When you read Americana, I think my mother's book trauma and gauzy Adichie's book Americana. This conversation on black hair came up, so you may want to check out those and a lot of other literature or a lot of other books on black hair that you can read and guys. I wrote something like a scene in how to get away with Mara. It'S just like like three or four sentences. I just want to read it out. I think it sounds really good. Okay, it's not exceptional. The next said something huge, but I felt like, rather than beat around the bush like bits about the bush in a scene from television series how to get away with murder Viola Davis, who plays Annalise Keating a criminal defense lawyer after a long day, is shown pulling Off her wig and fake eyelashes you, this intricate interest in discourse of social media, about black woman's hair, is depicted on television and the general and easiness that comes in black women being vulnerable and showing their real selves behind their awakes. Not only did this resonate with other black women but sent a strong message on the politics of black hair in its representation on television. It also raises a question of whether it is a choice for some black actresses to wear wigs on screen or requirements, whether it's a choice or a requirement. But I just added one last one that I think I would just I'll just drop in here, because this is based on what I saw in the internet. So I didn't know if it was true that Gabrielle unis on one of the reasons why Gabrielle Union was was fired from America's America. America'S Got Talent, sorry, I'm not Americans anyways, I don't have to be Americans know. So I add that it is interesting to note that American actress Gabrielle Union quit her job, as judge from America's Got Talent amid controversy surrounding a lack of diversity, including what is reported by news for South, including the BBC, as her hairstyle being said. To be true. Black for the show's audience, this clearly shows that the politics of hair and television is not really that a politics of hair and televisions, not really one of the past at its my sin, so it looks like even in 2019 2020 black heads like issue and the Politics of black hair super taint. This is exactly why we must have this conversation. Let'S let friends, especially children, know that their hair is beautiful. Black girls, black boys know that their hair is beautiful and if you are interested into the media, especially in the television, please let encourage diversity. Let people with different kinds of hair. Please pretty! I don't know why y'all are hatin like. So, let's encourage this kind of diversity and encourage people being a true selves on TV and yes, even in modeling or whatever representation that we want to show less, encourage people to be themselves and just one thing: if someone I swear, if someone doesn't want to wear Their black hair, which is ultimately their choice, but it's another thing if you are forcing them to have done hair like if you are forcing them not to have their natural hair on this is why I like intersectionality, and for me, we intersectionality, basically in very simple Terms Mesa like when we are advocates, and we need to consider different and different groups. We should include people from different age groups, race, religion, different parts of the world, just make sure that you don't only speak for you yourself, which is my issue by issue. Is that if you're speaking for diversity, we have to encourage diversity in various homes, diversity and people been allowed to be who they are? Like? I said guys this is a very conversational video, so the second part of the video is to have a conversation of whether black women should wear wigs um. I did it sounds a bit cheesy. It'S not about me having to determine whether or not black men should wear wigs, but this is conversation about natural hair, girls and then women wear wigs, and this will sometimes like conflicts when it comes people discussing these issues - and I just thought I should weigh in On that a little bit since I'm talking about the politics of black hair, I have a couple of thoughts that I want to share on this subject. 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