On a much lighter note this week, this one is for all you beautiful Black women.
This is a call for self definition. Our whole lives we are raised with Eurocentric standards of beauty. We are taught that long, straight hair is beautiful by our parents, beauticians and the media - even outlets geared toward Black people. Many of us were subjugated at a young age to make our hair straight by getting a relaxer. Some have experienced the repercussions of these practices, such as split ends and broken, fragile or brittle hair.
In a world where hair is bought, sold and made, we should have the right to own our hair; the right to define and defend our image. Showing pride in our natural appearance is the greatest form of resistance against a Eurocentric society.
Patricia Hill Collins, president of the American Sociological Association Council, says in her book Black Feminist Thought that resisting by doing something 'not expected' could not have occurred without Black women's long-standing rejection of mammies, matriarchs and other controlling images. She adds that when combined, these individual acts of resistance suggest that a distinctive, collective Black women's consciousness exists.
The standards of beauty we try to meet by taming our hair are controlling. When we fall into the trap of exuding these images, we give the ownership of our tresses to a culture that doesn't know a thing about our hair texture.
Some could argue they still do own their image after relaxing their hair to a bone-straight mane - I once was a huge supporter of this area of thought. However, we have to realize that internalized oppression and hegemony work because after a certain point, we think like our oppressors and oppress ourselves. So what can you do to own your image? Go Natural!
Interested? How could you go natural? Well luckily for you there are some options:
1. Do the BC! BC stands for Big Chop. This consists of cutting all the relaxed hair. It is one of the fastest and easiest ways to go natural. However, you have to remember the amount of new growth you have will be the length of your hair, which can be hard for some women. This is the method I chose and I LOVE the simplicity of short hair as well as watching my curly tresses grow.
2. Lock it! Sisterlocks also is a great way to go natural! They are small and in some ways resemble micro-braids; a good style choice after doing the BC.
So you don't want to cut it?
3. Braid it up! There are tons of braiding styles that do not require the BC. You can have your hair braided or have extensions braided in. Some popular styles are kinky twists and micro-braids. You can wear these braided styles until either you are comfortable enough to let go of your relaxed hair or it falls out. An advantage of this method is braiding stimulates hair growth and prevents damage to the new growth.
4. Another alternative is to wait it out and keep both hair textures until you feel ready to make the BC. These styles include straw, roller and some twist sets that need minimal heat to style.
How NOT to Go Natural:
1. There is only ONE bad way to go natural - flat-ironing, hot-combing or using other forms of direct heat to press your natural, growing hair to resemble the chemically treated hair. This can cause severe breakage and permanently ruin or stunt the new growth, leaving parts of natural, growing hair unalterably straight. This includes blow drying!
If I haven't convinced you to go natural yet, I won't be surprised. After all, this is an opinion piece and I can only do so much. However, seeing more natural beauties in this world would be enlightening. How long will we allow other people to define beauty for us?
Aisha Upton is a senior studying African American Studies and columnist for The Post. Send her your method to self definition at au173107@ohiou.edu.
4 Opinion
Aisha Upton
