You Negroes and Your "Good Hair"
Black Hair during Slavery
In the book "Hair Story: Untangling the roots of black hair in America", Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps expose the roots of the shame that many black women have about their natural hair.
"...light-skinned, straighter-haired slaves - men and women- continued to curry favor with the Whites in power, a skin-shade, hair-texture hierarchy developed within the social structure of the slave community...White slave masters reinforced the "good-hair", light-skin power structure in two ways. By selecting the lighter-skinned, straighter-haired slaves for the best positions within his household he showed they were most desirable. At slave auctions, he would pay almost five times more for a house slave than for a feild slave... Blacks internalized this concept and within their own ranks propagated the notion that darker-skinned blacks with kinkier hair were less attractive, less intelligent and worth less than their lighter-hued brothers and sisters." (19 Hair Story)
Unfortunately, a racialized system of hierarchy of hair developed that allowed people with less curled hair to have economic and social advantages over those who did not because of the racist context of slavery. It is sad to see that this is what developed because during the pre-Slavery era, Africans took great pride in their hair.
According to Hair Story:
"Ever since African civilizations bloomed, hair styles have been used to indicate a person's marital status, age, religion, ethnic identity, wealth and rank within a community." (Hair Story, 2)
It is unfortunate that the brutality of slavery turned the most prized and beautiful posession of Africans into a curse.
Black Hair in the Early 1900s
And curse it was. Unfortunately for many African-Americans their hair seemed to be just another barrier that stood in their way of achieving a better life. The dominant white society looked down on them as inferior and their curly hair was just another justification for that. Some African-Americans began to believe that if they could be more like white people through straight hair and lighter skin that they could somehow escape a life of menial labor, discrimination and violence. Unfortunately, hair was used as just another means of expressing power against the black people by making them their beauty and worth and continually trying to look and be more like the white people around them:
"Life after slavery for many Blacks meant a continued obsession with straightening the hair and lightening the skin... Most black people were desperate in this time of potential prosperity, just to fit in with the crowd... firmly believing that a superficial cosmetic change could make a startling difference in the quality of their lives... Advertisers... took advantage of the idea to sell hair straighteners to skin lighteners that promised not just to enhance one's beauty but to improve one's station in life. " (Hair story 23)
For black people at this time hair had such a racialized and deep meaning. It had huge implications for people because many blacks at the time felt that since straighter hair was the standard of beauty they were making the race look bad by having curly hair. One ad exemplifies this perfectly:
"Amazing Progress of Colored Race- Improved Appearance Responsible. Look our best.. you owe it to your race." (30, Hair Story)
read the rest here
In the book "Hair Story: Untangling the roots of black hair in America", Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps expose the roots of the shame that many black women have about their natural hair.
"...light-skinned, straighter-haired slaves - men and women- continued to curry favor with the Whites in power, a skin-shade, hair-texture hierarchy developed within the social structure of the slave community...White slave masters reinforced the "good-hair", light-skin power structure in two ways. By selecting the lighter-skinned, straighter-haired slaves for the best positions within his household he showed they were most desirable. At slave auctions, he would pay almost five times more for a house slave than for a feild slave... Blacks internalized this concept and within their own ranks propagated the notion that darker-skinned blacks with kinkier hair were less attractive, less intelligent and worth less than their lighter-hued brothers and sisters." (19 Hair Story)
Unfortunately, a racialized system of hierarchy of hair developed that allowed people with less curled hair to have economic and social advantages over those who did not because of the racist context of slavery. It is sad to see that this is what developed because during the pre-Slavery era, Africans took great pride in their hair.
According to Hair Story:
"Ever since African civilizations bloomed, hair styles have been used to indicate a person's marital status, age, religion, ethnic identity, wealth and rank within a community." (Hair Story, 2)
It is unfortunate that the brutality of slavery turned the most prized and beautiful posession of Africans into a curse.
Black Hair in the Early 1900s
And curse it was. Unfortunately for many African-Americans their hair seemed to be just another barrier that stood in their way of achieving a better life. The dominant white society looked down on them as inferior and their curly hair was just another justification for that. Some African-Americans began to believe that if they could be more like white people through straight hair and lighter skin that they could somehow escape a life of menial labor, discrimination and violence. Unfortunately, hair was used as just another means of expressing power against the black people by making them their beauty and worth and continually trying to look and be more like the white people around them:
"Life after slavery for many Blacks meant a continued obsession with straightening the hair and lightening the skin... Most black people were desperate in this time of potential prosperity, just to fit in with the crowd... firmly believing that a superficial cosmetic change could make a startling difference in the quality of their lives... Advertisers... took advantage of the idea to sell hair straighteners to skin lighteners that promised not just to enhance one's beauty but to improve one's station in life. " (Hair story 23)
For black people at this time hair had such a racialized and deep meaning. It had huge implications for people because many blacks at the time felt that since straighter hair was the standard of beauty they were making the race look bad by having curly hair. One ad exemplifies this perfectly:
"Amazing Progress of Colored Race- Improved Appearance Responsible. Look our best.. you owe it to your race." (30, Hair Story)
read the rest here
posted by Oshun at
9/03/2009 11:20:00 AM
1 Comments:
Peace,
I grew up with a mixed mother (Native American & Black). However, it never dawned on me to see my family anything other than black...until I got older. I remember wondering why my mother and my aunts had this really dark, flowing straight hair but other black women didn't. I didn't dawn on me that genetics played a part. Then I would hear them recant stories about how the girls in the neighborhood hated them because of their "light brown smooth skin" and "good hair".
My mother was quick to shake that idea we had good hair out of our heads early. I got teased a lot as a kid BECAUSE I was dark skinned and had this straight/wavy hair. People used to call me "Wolfboy" or "Doghair" because they didn't understand how as dark as I was, I had straight/curly/wavy hair. I even grew to hate it at times, even begging my mom to let me get a S-Curl (this is the 80s lol).
I grow my hair out now, and yes, people comment on it. They don't readily know my heritage and I don't offer it. I am black, I am proud and like many others I am fond of saying GOOD hair is HEALTHY hair. I embrace the wide array of styles and textures and the like. I tire of this "good hair" argument. I even once had a woman tell me she wanted my child so the seed would "have pretty black hair". Disgusting.
Thanks for this post...someone I follow on Twitter RT'd it.
Peace,
Wise
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