Why Hair Will Never Just Be Hair For Black Women | Rosaline'S Untaming (Ep 4 - Vanessa)

So what style am i doing for you girl, i'd love to have some box braids with some beads? Oh, you know me i'll hook it up, for you today sounds good. The process for black hair is so long yeah, but it's, but it's beautiful. You know what i mean the fact that you get to come here and have this process transformation transformation if we can come out looking like beyonce, but at the same time it's like it can be really inconvenient yeah. It'S time you know you just like you wish. You could just get out and, like i feel like that's, why hair will never just be here for black women like it's it's a process, it's an art form, it's expression for sure it is it's from africa. It'S from our people. I love your necklace. Thank you. The african pride is real hard forever forever. African pride is just such a spiritual thing to me: it's almost ingrained in our dna, our blood, just knowing what our ancestors went through everything they went through was for us to thrive now and being in australia is a privilege, and i i think about that. Every day and how i can push forward and push black african culture forward here in australia, the black lives matter. Movement is a very emotional one because i think for most black people we're very protective about blackness and protective of our existence and the constant fight and the constant defending and the constant teaching is exhausting we're in 2020. It'S it's not enough to say i'm not racist, and it's not enough to say i wasn't aware, so i think it's everyone's problem now: it's not just a black people's problem because we've been fighting this fight literally our whole life. So i'm happy to see the outrage by everyone. I just hope and pray that it continues to be a driver that everyone cares about and it doesn't just fall off after there's a new hashtag, because even after all, of those things pass we're still black right. Do you ever wear your hair braided to work? I actually haven't oh yeah, why my go-to is a wig purely for convenience, yeah, but also, i think, there's a an initial reaction. When people see a black woman with braids in the workplace, i just feel like black people, don't have the luxury of going into work and not being questioned about their hair or touched. But i am in a transitional stage where i do want to wear my natural hair or natural hair styles to work. It'S just putting in my head that i'm going to probably need a bit more tolerance and patience, because it is okay to ask questions. I know it's intrigue, but it is a lot. It'S such a small thing that people probably think is insignificant. If you just think about how many times you get asked yeah the same question, it's a lot. How do you feel about the cultural appropriation of brains? I think people really underestimate how deeply rooted braids and hair is to our culture, our traditions, our history, our identity. Although it does look so amazing, i don't think it was designed to be a fashion statement by the masses. Till this day there are still children that get suspended from school or people are let off from their jobs because of a hairstyle that is culturally identified to them and is literally designed to protect our hair. So i feel like until there is racial equality, any non-black people that wear braids are doing it from a place of privilege. I think it just really comes down to understanding the roots of what you're borrowing things have been just taken from us constantly. Honestly, that's what colonization is yeah just taking from us and i feel like we. We almost never have anything to keep for ourselves, braids, it's very heavy in our culture yeah and there are certain tribes, as you know, that have specific hairstyles to be able to identify certain groups of people even in the slave trade. There'S so much history behind braids and it's so much more than just hair as you're doing my hair. Now you see the craftsmanship, it's not something that you can just pick aspects of black culture, because it's cool being black, comes with a lot of burden and a lot of hardships, but it's also an amazing thing to be like. I wouldn't want to be anything else. I think it all comes down to just respect my name's vanessa ocanti, i'm from sydney, australia. I was born and raised here, but i have roots that hail from ghana. I'M a traveler, i'm a wanderer constantly seeking new and exciting creative adventures, i'm the queen of finding hidden gems and i'm all about the promotion and celebration of black people. You