Don't Touch My Hair

Bing! The elevator door opened.

She stepped out into the office. Fresh curls perfectly cuddled her small head. They bounced to the rhythm in the steps of her bold red pumps. Office eyes followed her to her seat.

She took the long way to her desk. Her head raised high keeping her focus straight forward. With each step, the office silence sat in the spiral of every curl of her hair. She made it to her desk and let out a long sigh, it was just another day in the office.

​In 2019, the law for wearing natural hair (braids, fros, cornrows, knots, etc.) were passed in New York City. The law permits my fellow black sisters to wear their natural hair!

This means, we no longer have to mold our image as black queens for corporate America. No more adding two hours to our morning routine. Yay us right?

​Natural hair is one of the most admired attributes of a black woman. It is also the most neglected. The topic can be controversial when it comes to women with corporate jobs. For some odd reason, our hair must be “tamed,” “slicked back,” straight or how movies show us, a low bun.

Companies started to implement hair policies that were specifically made to suppress black women. Throughout history, black women have always been marginalized and scrutinized.

Starting in the 1920’s, we see women start to break out of conformities and society norms. In the fashion industry we start to see mini skirts and short hair cuts. Gender roles also started to become a question throughout society. It wasn’t until the late 60’s when black women began to highlight the “fro.” Just in sync with the start of the Black Panther Party.

The Black Panther Party(BPP) was a political and social movement. BPP took on the challenges in the black community that the government failed to do. They helped with afterschool programs, morning breakfast for children and families and even started the welfare program we see today. The party brought attention to the issues the black family faced. Most importantly, daily issues black women face..

The women in the party made the art of natural hair a normalized beauty standard for black queens. Black women admired the profile of women in BPP. Soon everyone wanted a big fluffy fro.

Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver, Assata Shakur and more women began to pave the way for other black queens. They refused for their voices to go unheard. Their voices carried themselves to our modern society, though some still don’t get the picture.

In 2016, the Butler Traditional High School banned natural hair. This Louisiana high school banned dreadlocks, cornrows, twist, and afros longer than two inches. It created a domino effect for other schools reaching Cincinnati, Nashville, Florida, Massachusetts, South Africa and the Bahamas.

In the same year, students in South Africa, protest over the discrimination of natural hair against young women. The place where it should be accepted the most it’s not. This speaks volumes to other countries because if you don’t respect natural hair where it is represented most, why should the U.S or any other country?

Students have become the main victims to the brutal outcome of hair restricting policies. In many cases, you see the student being told they can’t attend school or that they must cut their hair out. In the workplace, people lose their jobs.

In 2020, the video of a black high school wrestler, Andrew Johnson, went viral of Johnson getting his locs cut before a match. Johnson was told by a referee that he would have to cut his hair to play.

In the same year, the CROWN(Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act was passed. The act opens up a new doorway toward eliminating natural hair discrimination. Four states have passed the bill including, Colorado, Ohio, Minnesota and Virginia.

Progression and patience evolves in our society slowly. Us queens have been waiting for a breakthrough like this since the 1900’s. Now is our time.

So when white people ask, “Is your hair real,” “Can I touch it?” Guess what? The answer is absolutely not.

​I tell all my beautiful black queens, keep wearing your hair, your colorful headwraps and your protective styles. Don’t let anyone even try to convince you your hair needs to be ‘tamed.’ When you see the next black woman walk into that office with her curls bouncing to the sound of her own drums you let her be.

Salonge made it very clear, “Don't touch my hair, when it's the feelings I wear. Don't touch my soul, when it's the rhythm I know. Don't touch my crown!”

#blackgirlmajic #naturalhair #naturallyshesdope #befree #beyoutiful #blogpost #2020