Every six to eight weeks, Brandi Wesley s roots grew like clock work. And every six to eight weeks it was the same routine, shelling out $60 80 to have a creamy, white solution turn her kinky hair, silky smooth. She wanted to be accepted by her peers, men and society even if her declining hair health paid the price. My hair was so brittle and straggly, said Wesley, a 21 year old senior at Penn State studying bio behavioral health. I didn t think I was pretty at all. Four years later, Wesley s hair has restored back to its natural state after voyaging on a journey that changed her life forever. Wesley is just one of many African American women who made the decision to go natural. This trend is about women redefining societal standards of beauty. These women believe natural hair is about appreciating one s own hair texture with confidence, self assurance and embrace. To go natural is to connect with who you are, the way God made you, said DeeDee Black, a production hairstylist of 17 years and entrepreneur. Natural hair means having hair that has not been chemically processed, it is the hair that each person was born with without augmenting it, said Black. The creamy, white solution Wesley used to straighten her hair is often referred to as a relaxer. This is a chemical process that converts curled or coiled hair, bone straight. Relaxing the hair is a permanent process that cannot be reversed, said Black. The only way to get rid of relaxed hair is to cut it all off, or to grow it out. Black graduated Morgan State University in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in biology and has been researching natural hair within the African American community since 1998.
Relaxers are predominantly used in the African American community for women and girls who want to achieve a hair look similar to European women, said Black. African American women and girls have been using relaxers since the 1970s. Black said she was a freshman in high school when she first relaxed her hair, and Brandi Wesley said she was only five years old the first time she received a relaxer. I thought I needed a relaxer in order to be considered beautiful, said Wesley. I didn t fully love myself, I was striving to be a part of that European standard of beauty. Wesley said by her mother relaxing her hair at such a young age, the self esteem damage was already being instilled in her mind. If your hair wasn t straight, people would bully you in school, said Wesley. Wesley said that adolescent children would bully African American girls for having a kinkier hair texture. When she walked into her first period class, she was gaped with eyes of disapproval and confusion. Brandi Wesley s hair was no longer silky and straight, rather it was big, full of different textures and curls. One classmate told Wesley, she didn t think Wesley should wear her hair like that anymore because it doesn t look nice. Instilling that in a child at a young age, makes it so the child cannot appreciate themselves, said Wesley. It makes it seem as though, what I was born with is not good enough and I need to change who I am to match today s standards of beauty. LOCKS, Loving Our Curly Kinky and Straight hair, is an organization founded by Wesley at Penn State to promote and advocate about self appreciation through one's hair.
Wesley created LOCKS in order to create weekly meetings for students to share natural hair stories, discuss innovative methods of maintaining their hair and create a community where everyone can feel welcomed. It s really about appreciating everything you were born with and how you are created, said Wesley. I just feel like girls today have a stigma that our hair isn t acceptable. In 2010, Brandi Wesley went to Virginia Beach with her biracial best friend who was Puerto Rican and African American. When her friend s hair got wet, she said her curls were beautiful, long and bouncy. When Wesley s hair got wet, it was curly on the top and straight at the bottom. Her hair was heat damaged and relaxed, but she longed for her curls to flourish. That is when she began researching natural hair and how to care and for it. I didn t think I was pretty at all until I stumbled upon the natural hair community, said Wesley. I really started to appreciate who I am. In order to appreciate natural hair, it s important steps and considerations women should take in order to properly manage natural hair said Black. Some of these maintenance differences include not washing the hair with shampoo because shampoo strips the hair of its natural oils, said Black. Rather, co washing, which is a method of using only conditioner to wash the hair. Co washing is a method of applying conditioner to the scalp in replacement of shampoo said Black. Co washing allows the hair to be clean without using harsh chemicals that are often found in shampoo ingredients such as sulfates.
I buy inexpensive products from Wal Mart for about $15 total, that last me about six months, said Wesley. Prior to that, Wesley was spending nearly $240 320 every six months to maintain her relaxed hair. Other differences of managing natural hair is keeping the hair constantly oiled to avoid hair breakage or shedding. One way to achieve this is by deep conditioning the hair once a week, using homemade solutions with natural ingredients such as avocados and eggs to moisturize the hair follicles. African American women who serve as role models often times, reinforce the notion of needing straight or processed hair. Grammy award winning songstress, Beyoncé Knowles, is an African American woman who young girls and women idolize. She often wears blonde wigs, extensions and weaves opposed to her natural hair. Black said more representations of natural hair should be presented in the media, but slowly a change is being made. Black said just because the media doesn t show a lot of women in natural hair, doesn t mean women shouldn t pursue it or that it is wrong. The media not showing it, goes back to the confidence that women have, said Black. That confidence should first come from home, not according to societal standards. The media and music videos only show light skin women with long hair, said Aja Myles, 21, a senior at Stevenson University studying business communication. Myles said those type of women are more prominent in the media, which influences how women want to look and what men want their women to look like.
People try to fit an image of being from another country, rather than embracing their African roots, said Myles. African American women want to look exotic, anything but black. The desire for African American women to exemplify a look that shuns away from African features is not anything new. This type of self hatred stems from slavery, when slave masters treated lighter skin slaves better than dark skin slaves. This is because lighter skin African Americans are born with a higher percentage of European blood compared to darker skin African Americans. Having European DNA dilutes the amount of African blood, altering the concentration of African features such as kinky, thick hair. Meaning, a lighter skin African American is more likely to be born with a softer, looser curl pattern compared to darker skin African Americans. Kinky, thick hair often looks like an Afro and varies depending on the amount of hair. Slavery created a hierarchical system in the African American community, that those with lighter skin are perceived to be prettier than darker skin African Americans. Resulting in a cultural division of one group of people, that is still very evident in today s society. Men in our community often want the light skin, mixed girls with looser curl patterns, said Wesley. People are embarrassed to be African and people are embarrassed to look African, said Wesley. Being dark skin with kinky curls is seen as being ugly, while light skin with loose curls are beautiful.
In the natural hair community, there are four different types of hair with three sub categories. The hair types range from type one to type four, and the categories are a, b, and c. Type one hair is straight without a curl, and type four hair is the kinkiest texture of hair. The categories range from a loose curl pattern, category a, to tight coiled curls, category c. Looser curl patterns are typically found in lighter skin women, said Wesley. These type of curls are considered beautiful by societal standards of beauty. The type of curls Wesley is describing, are loosely coiled similar to a children s slinky toy or a bedspring. Society s consideration of African American beauty comes from misunderstanding, according to Nicole Walters, 30, also known as Naptural Nicole. African American women have spent so long covering their hair with wigs and weaves, people don t really know what our hair looks like, said Walters. When people finally see our natural hair, they re confused and uncomfortable. Walters has researched natural hair for four years. This research lead to her launching her own website, NapturalNicole.Com and becoming a blogger. The word naptural is a play on words for combining nappy and natural, said Walters. Nappy has been a word used for years to describe ethnic hair because of the coils, kinks and curls, said Walters. Walters said she believes employment can be affected by natural hairstyles depending on the industry. I ve had people come up to me after a meeting and tell me that I made a good presentation, but was more interested in how I maintain my hair.
I work in a very high profile industry, I don t want my hair to distract people because it s fabulous! exclaimed Walters. The US Army is one industry that has forbidden natural hair. This has prompted controversy in the natural hair community. The new guidelines of the US Army ban women from being allowed to wear certain natural styles while in combat. These restrictions include: any unkempt or matted braids or cornrows are considered dreadlocks and are not authorized, cornrows can be braided or rolled but not twisted, and hair's bulk that "exceeds more than 2 inches from the scalp" is forbidden. African American, natural hair is not maintained the same way that women of European, Asian or Hispanic descent manage their hair. The hair types vary in textures, length and health requirements. In corporate America or other employment environments, natural hair has ambiguous perceptions, said Black. She continued by saying small natural hair like academy award winner, Lupita Nyong'o is accepted. However, too much hair might not be considered professional. Such as singer, Solange Knowles. In the business world people want you to be tamed, said Black. And I do it too, when I see someone with a lot of tattoos or piercings, we all have a level of what is professional, said Black. But if you can efficiently do your job, people are already looking beyond your hair. Myles said she was hesitant to wear her natural hair at an internship after it was perceived the wrong way.
I think that it is a problem because we have no control over our texture of hair, said Myles. One woman made suggesting comments about keeping my hair straight to uphold the company image. Brandi Wesley continued using different methods of maintaining her hair without having to process or straighten it. Styles with braids, twists and curl rods. Today, she is a completely different person one with more confidence, who accepts herself for who she is. The person I am now definitely loves herself way more. Sources: Aja Myles, 21, Senior at Stevenson University, Baltimore, MD Myles.Aja@gmail.com Brandi Wesley, 21, Senior at Penn State, Wilmington, DE Bnw5073@psu.edu Expert DeeDee Black, 39, Production Stylist, Los Angeles, CA DeeDee.Black.1@gmail.com Expert Nicole Walters, 30, Natural Hair Blogger and Researcher, Baltimore, MD napturalnicole@gmail.com http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine 27626509