I relaxed my hair at age 16; this is the name for chemically treating it to straighten out the natural curls and coils of an afro...
In my late twenties and thirties my hair was the best it has ever looked, it flowed in the wind, it was perfectly straight, people used to ask if I was wearing a wig or a weave (a compliment for many people straightening their hair, as it was evidence that you had achieved your goal of perfectly straight hair!) If someone has told me that ten years later I would have natural hair again, I would have laughed in their faces and told them they are mad. Such was my conviction on the idea that I would be chemically treating my hair forever.
Then a bad hair stylist changed all of that. My hair began breaking all over, was course and brittle and obviously could not take any more chemicals until it had been repaired; this was my incidental journey to natural hair. I would like to say I had an awakening or that I finally found myself or that I bought out of the European ideal of beauty, but I can not, my journey to finding another part of my natural self was forced as well as accidental.
BACKGROUND TO RELAXED HAIR
For many people that I know with Afro hair, the road to getting it ‘relaxed’ the term used for straightening it permanently, is one that we pursue from very early on. Nowadays children as young as five are having this treatment. It is basically a cream like chemical that alters the curl pattern of your hair, thereby giving it a straight appearance, especially after also being blow dried and often additionally straightened with hair strengtheners.….. which also gives it the nickname “the creamy crack” and sees some refer to it as “creaming your hair”.
Most people can testify to their first relaxer leaving their hair looking ‘beautiful’ this look may even last for years, but for most people I know, I have seen their hair get thinner and dryer and lighter in colour over years of this treatment.
I can’t say for sure what the drive is and was to get your hair relaxed. Some people talk about the European ideals of beauty that create a beauty ideal of straight hair, in addition to all of the other ideals such as being a particular small and petite size, having light skin, and so on. For those that prescribe to this school of thought they will link it to how nappy hair was seen as ugly and unruly during the transatlanctic slave trade, and that convincing women of this ugliness was a further way of robbing people of their identity. Some people buy into the idea of it being more manageable. Whereas others simply say it’s simply a choice.
Women with Afro hair have for centuries experimented with our hair. Added things to it, bantu’ed it, plaited it, locked it, changed it texture with oils and bands and moisture, even changed its length by how it is straightened and curled, wearing your hair natural and the things you can do with when it is in this state is another one of those choices. Although I realise the importance of history in understanding where we are today, I do not want to begin the argument by framing it with a Eurocentric view, after all Africans and black people all over the world will have seen their hair as beautiful way before they came into contact with people with different hair to them, and millions have continued to see this beauty. Some of us were just lost in an unreality, a matrix, for a little while …
When I was small my mother and the mothers of many of my friends had an age limit of when they would let us finally relax our hair, because although so many of us had it in the end, everyone knew that it was ultimately damaging to your hair, so no one was allowed to relax their hair too young. How crazy is that once you think about it? We had a limit put on when we were allowed to chemically damage our hair!?
What I can however say about my drive for straight hair was that many of my friends had straight hair, they were white and Asian, I did obviously have black friends but they were in the minority. Most of my family members around me also had their hair processed in one way or another, so natural hair was rare within my circles. It was embarrassing explaining certain things about what I had to use on my hair, and how I had to maintain it and so whereas it seemed that friends with straight European hair could just wash and go! I ultimately wanted to fit in! Being an 80s child yes there was a lot of big hair around Whitney Houston, etc. but there was much more big (but straight hair around) En Vogue, Oprah, …. So these were the people I aspired to be like.
Looking back on it now so much of the language used around relaxers and the ‘need’ for them frame Afro hair as a problem, relaxers are needed to : “tame wild hair”, “tame unmanageable hair”. Even the term ‘relaxer’ has a connotation attached to it. I can imagine this all contributed towards the views of many on Afro hair. The age old psychological and sociological argument of, if you tell someone something enough times, they will come to believe it.
THE JOURNEY BACK
The tide is definitely changing with regards to how women of African descent view their Afro hair. There seems to be a pivotal change of women wearing their hair natural and proud. For many years women with natural hair were often assumed to be Christians (in some Pentecostal churches it was frowned upon to process your hair and not be happy with what God gave you, so Christian women could often be identified by their natural hair) but this could not presently be further from the truth. Celebrities from every popular, fashionable and credible areana are turning to natural, big, beautiful, curly, coily, natural styles. Celebs such as Solange Knowles and Janelle Monae are sporting their natural hair with pride. Other celebrities are even sporting Afro wigs to achieve the same look.
I’ve no doubt that for some people it is a simple choice, for others a fashion statement – here for this season but maybe gone next, but for some women it is also an important political statement. A statement that is saying, I’m happy with who I am, my hair is not stressed or unmanageable or in need of taming, so it does not need to be relaxed. A statement that says this is the hair of real black women, most of us are not born with natural straight long hair and we do not need to buy into that unreality to feel beautiful, womanly, professional, fashionable, intelligent and sexy and all those other things most of us want to feel. That may sound like a strange list to some including things like professional etc. but there have been surveys showing that women with natural hair are considered less professional that women with processed straight hair / weaves etc!!
I love my curls. I also loved my straight hair. I do not see one as inferior to the other. But I am happy in the fact that I feel I have found myself and not the woman the media wants me to be or shows me I should aspire to. And that’s not even to say that I was ever a sheep that simply followed the crowd, but honestly, even at a subconscious level, we all can’t help but buy into what we are fed every day, even if it’s just the tiniest bit. I feel I have found myself because I now know that I can choose to wear my hair however I want and feel exactly the same.
I knew others that were on the same journey, some earlier on in the path, others further on, and everything in between. So I wanted to do my part in challenging some of the negative issues surrounding natural Afro hair. The imagery around beautiful and sexy women with straight hair is plentiful, just think about any female celebrity of African descent… The list is not difficult to compile. And yes there is a growing list of women celebrated for their natural Afro hair.
There are also a number of hugely popular blogs sharing tips and celebrating the beauty, as well as Natural Hair events bringing experts, bloggers and women together.
I want to show how beautiful and versatile natural Afro hair is via a portrait project. How we all wear it differently, how women of all ages were embracing it, and I wanted to capture some of the stories of womens' journeys. I am all about people feeling proud of whoever they are, whether that is based on weight, age, body type etc and showing how diverse we are as humans. I am also about doing my own little part in issues I see as important. I have a background in training on various issues of inequality and oppression, so when I became a photographer it was important to me that I continue challenge and inform but through the my new medium, the eye of the lens.
Nearly everyone has a story of sitting with relaxer on your hair, feeling the burn but being convinced it was making your hair straighter and silkier….
Our god given crowns are beautiful in whatever way we choose to wear them.
Many groups who experience an oppression or negative stereotype talk about reclaiming words that have historically been used against them negatively.
In this same strand of thinking, today I can say “Nappy and Proud”! If you are the same please be part of my project.
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