It’s a Sunday night and your mother tells you to “get the comb.” Because you know what pain is in store for your scalp, you begrudgingly walk to the bathroom to retrieve the essentials: gel, a rat tail comb, and a homemade hair spray. You try not to shed a tear as you sit between your mother’s legs and apparently, “she doesn’t have all night.” Time passes and you look into the mirror; you know your braids will be a source of taunting from your peers the following day at school. Black hair has always been regulated as a means of assimilation and erasure of cultural roots since the first enslaved Africans arrived in the U.S. With the resurgence of the Natural Hair Movement in the 2000s, many Black people have started to embrace the complexities of their hair, redefining what Black hair is.
This short audio collage features students answering the question:
What does Black hair mean to you?
Maxwell, political science major and African American studies minor, drives a pick through his conditioned Afro.
“I was always surrounded by Black Men who perpetuate a standard that your hair isn’t something necessarily to be prideful of. It’s like, you have to cut it off…”
Saffy, a sociology major and African American studies minor, grabs a handful of her thick 4b curls.
“Pretty much up until the fourth grade I started getting my hair pressed…and that caused a bunch of heat damage. The rest of middle school into my first years of high school, that was kind of repairing my hair.”
Naomi, an undeclared science major, lets her 4c Afro speak volumes.
“I used to hate my hair when I was younger. I did everything I could to get it straight: relaxer, straightening it…then I tried protective styles and said ‘Why not just go natural?'”
Zana, a psychology major and music minor, lifts her Bohemian box braids to expose her side profile.
“I didn’t have a choice but to be natural. Sometimes I hated it because I would see these girls with straight hair like even when we went to the beauty supply and they’d have those pink boxes… with the Black girls with silk presses…”
Saffy smiles big with her moisturized layered Afro.
“I feel like I’m starting a new chapter in my hair journey. Just started to do more styles and protective styles, figuring out what I like…”
Maxwell is at peace as he continues to pick his hair.
“…after so long and cutting my hair…and even hating my hair, it’s like coming to love its beauty.”
Zana shows movement in her hair by confidently throwing one side in the air.
“It wasn’t until I was nine when I started thinking about my hair because we had crazy hair day at school… the next day my mom put two puffs in my hair and they said ‘Zana, crazy hair day was yesterday, not today,’ and that stuck with me…”
Naomi is all smiles as her thick Afro embraces her face.
“I started that journey junior year of high school, and up to now I’ve just been wearing it natural.”
A beaming Zana moves throughout the world with her animated braids.
“The Natural Hair Movement started when I was in middle school, so then I joined and I never went back.”
Detailed shot of Maxwell’s 4b Afro as his hand meets his pick.
“In this country we’re forced to kind of, I think assimilate into this Eurocentric way of living. But it’s like, bro, my hair is not straight.”
This post was produced for Magazine Writing, Spring 2023.
Sources:
Brown, Kiersten. “The Natural Hair Movement Through the Decades – Black Girl Nerds.” Black Girl Nerds, Black Girl Nerds, 6 Jan. 2022, https://blackgirlnerds.com/the-natural-hair-movement-through-the-decades/.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Janelle Frazier is a nationally recognized photographer, mostly known for her experimental images on 120mm film. While she calls Dallas, TX home, Janelle is in her first year at the University of San Francisco where she’s majoring in Media Studies and minoring in Film and Spanish. After graduating in 2026, she hopes to continue her darkroom work while developing her media production portfolio.
