On HAIR.

On Hair. Yes. Hair.

In my Envisioning the Body class, we had a full week lecture dedicated to the value of hair in our society and how that connects to femininity, race, culture and our own personal outward appearance. It got me really thinking about my relationship with my own hair, how it holds values in differing cultures and how that changes as we age.

Hair says so much without saying anything at all. Hair is a visual form of identity, thus it has the power to reflect class and race differences. In South Africa, hair is a symbol for activism and is seen as a marker of representation and defiance. It is a form of self-expression. Black hair is politicized by class and gender, but also racialized as it differentiates one as an immediate “other,” absolutely. This other, does not have to hold a negative connotation of displacement, which I feel like it usually does. The afro, for example, became a symbol of black self love and pride.

Hair creates an interesting link between feminism as well. It made me contemplate so much. Why do we as women shave? Wax? What makes it beautiful? There were two girls in my class who had a very emotional, open debate about this during our lecture. One was African American and one was white from South Africa. They had two different opinions on how hair is socialized and the white female felt like she struggled with it so intensely when she was a child. The black female tried to belittle her struggle arguing that African Americans have a way worse time with it in our white, male dominated world. It was truly interesting seeing these two women go off, in front of each other, in class. Our professor only got involved once the debate started really taking off. We all kind of sat there contemplating how we should react to this, but I enjoyed my own education.

Why does taking care of our body hair change so much as we age? Today it is often seen as uncleanly and unattractive for women not to shave, but where did this start from and why only women? And why only young women?

As we get older we are less sexualized. Society tells us that older people should cut their hair, should not pay as much attention to body hair and should let everything kind of go free. That value seems very prevalent here in South African society as well because the majority of older people I have interacted with have the same physicality, in terms of hair. This is such an obscure concept, but perhaps it is because our search for ‘good hair’ both on our head and off, is deeply rooted in a colonial idea of beauty. This ideal of beauty does value the sexualized older adult and it is the same in Cape Town.

Older people here carry that same value of short hair that is parallel to other parts of the world. Its crazy to me that something so miniscule like this, can be a universal social code.

What does hair mean to me? I don’t think about my relationship with it every day, but it so affects my wellbeing. My hair is a huge part of who I am and how I take care of it is a manifestation of my health.

“Why do you straighten your hair?” “Is your hair naturally curly?” “Can I touch your hair?” Questions. Being asked questions is the plight of any minority. I wouldn’t have considered myself a minority in any regard (except perhaps being a woman at times) but my professor explained that hair can be a marker of this. My minority is that of a girl with curly, light brown, dark blonde hair. There is something about being questioned about one’s appearances that names one an “other”.

It is true- I am blessed with a full head of curly, rowdy, sometimes uncontrollable, sassy hair. There is this huge controversy of the beauty standard, in terms of hair,- set by the white, straight-haired, blonde, thin, “ideal” woman. To have ‘natural beauty’ is to have naturally straight hair- reiterating how our notions of beauty are entrenched in the colonial idea. Straight hair holds that beauty in many different cultures, but I like to identify with many. As much as I agree that straightening my hair may rightfully reinforce this universal beauty standard, I also enjoy the freedom of my own choice without question.

I LOVE my curly hair. But I also LOVE my hair straight. What I love most? Having the freedom to exist with my hair in whatever form it may be in without question in whatever place I want!