Hair of a Nation by Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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About Afro Archives

Afro Archives explores heritage and identity within UK society. It investigates images of black women through promotion of self-expression and confidence to be who we naturally are. This project seeks to promote and celebrate afro hair by having inclusive discussions about hair and hair-related experiences with people of all ages, backgrounds, cultures and creeds.

Big Thanks to Wandsworth Radio, in Battersea, for hosting us. Wandsworth Radio is a local Community Radio Station. It covers Battersea, Putney, Balham, Southfields, Earlsfield, Wandsworth Town, Roehampton and Tooting. The Station exists to celebrate the borough’s greatness. “Over 300,000 people call Wandsworth home and they deserve a community radio service providing local news and other content showcasing the people who live here”.

Creator Ayesha Casely-Hayford is an actress, award-winning voice artist and employment lawyer of Ghanian descent, born in London and raised in Kent. With her roots in law, specialising in discrimination, and as former chair of the board of trustees for The Act For Change Project, a charity campaigning for greater diversity in the arts, she is uniquely positioned to see the social, performative and legal issues facing black women in the UK today.

Photo credit: Helen Murray Photography

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Show Eight Transcript 22 June 2018 Guest: Adobea Janet: Hairdresser and Beautician based in Accra, Ghana. Readings from: https://www.waterstones.com/book/hair-power-skin-revolution/nicole-moore/ 9781848763937 Readings from Hair Power Skin Revolution - a collection of poems and personal essays by Black and Mixed-Race women edited by Nicole Moore.

Read More: https://ayeshacasely-hayford.com/wandsworth-radio/ Listen: https://www.mixcloud.com/ayeshacaselyhayford/afro-archives-on-wandsworthradio-with-ayesha-casely-hayford/ Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKIJpUA_vJKNXoi6iN5cpQuOuej1-2nsD

Transcript:

[Faaji intro] ACH Hello and welcome to Afro Archives, I’m Ayesha Casely-Hayford. We’re on show 8 and I’ve titled this show “Hair of a Nation”.

We’ve been gathering lots of information over these past Afro Archives weeks, from women whose ancestral roots are all over the world, from Uganda, to Haiti, Cuba, Ghana, Israel, and of course England. What has been prevalent as we compare stories and experiences is that hair, is a endless discovery, a way of self-expression. It can take © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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time, it can be covered for religious reasons, or just to give us a break and change of image.

We spend a lot of money on it. and we use it to get creative.

In Ghana, I had this sad feeling when I felt natural afro hair was not being embraced. As I learnt more about what chemicals do to natural hair, I go upset at the damage women were potentially doing to their hair and I wanted to know why. My little cousins told me stories of combs breaking in their afros when they are a child. It is also custom for all chilrden to have their hair cut very short when they go to boarding school, it’s like part of the uniform. Giving less distraction and less chance of nits and so on spreading.

But, hair is just one aspect of it. No matter what we’ve got, ww’re trying to change it. be in your hair or other parts of our bodies. This goes for all of us, wherever we come from. It’s nothing unique.

Afro hair has thrown up some deep rooted issues that we’ve tried to tackle on the show, such as European standards of beauty and feeling lesser than. We’ve discussed the need to promote and advertise natural hair in mainstream media to make it less of a topic we have to keep talking about, to normalise it. We’ve also discussed the very current topic of grooming codes. Of instances in the States and the UK where black women have been asked to change hair styles in order to get a job. These battles are still being fought today.

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We’ve also discussed maintenance, the time and cost and how we may adjust our hair, or wear wigs, simply so we can get on with our lives. This gets even deeper and more serious when we put it into the context of affecting livelihoods.

For our first song today, I’ve picked a woman who was rocking her afro in the mainstream in the 90s, and I love her. Here’s Macy Gray:

[Song: “I’ve committed Murder” Macy Gray]

Hello I’m Ayesha and this is Afro Archives, the show today is titled “Hair of a Nation”.

We’ve been reflecting on all the things we do with our hair and why. Self-expression is a big part of it. No matter who you are or where you’re from, your hair can speak for you. What becomes sad is when we start getting into debates about what is desirable hair and what is not. Hair from India and China gets flown around the world for others to wear, and flick. Whilst those with straight hair are busy trying to hold a curl in place. It’s endless.

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Nicole has afro-caribbean and British heritage. She brought together a collection of poems and personal essays by Black women and Mixed race women and her book, which she edited, is called “Hair Power Skin Revolution”. I’m going to share with you some of the voices in that book. First, because we’re talking roots, here’s SZA, with Babylon:

[song: “Babylon” SZA ft Kendrick Lamar] [Reading: “Growing Roots” Patsy Antoine see Hair Power Skin Revolution p5 for extract or listen online]

[song : “Fruit” ABRA]

That was ABRA with Fruit and before that I was reading from Hair Power Skin Revolution an extract called “Growing Roots” by Patsy Antoine. That’s from a book edited by Nicole Moore and I couldn’t really continue without reading from the voice of Nicole Moore herself. Nicole’s extract is titled “A Journey to Natural Hair”. I’m gonna give you a little read of this to take us up to the news.

“A Journey to Natural Hair” by Nicole Moore.

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[Transcribed with permission from Ms Moore]

When I reflect back to the time when I felt the most natural and free-spirited it was the seventies and eighties when I wore an afro hairstyle. There was no need to spend endless hours at a hairdressers - the thought never entered my head. With the minimum fuss, my natural hair grew free and all I used in between weekly washes was an fro comb, Vaseline hair lotion and oil sheen on my tresses. I kept my hair in this natural style for many years.

Fast forward to the twenty-first century and like most women, I have been influences by fashion trends from the likes of Jjeri curl, which meant my hair grew lengthways which kept the long hair look that I liked but didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t last for longer than a couple of months, and relaxing, which I now realise was the most unnecessary, hazardous and risky route my hair embarked upon. A breakthrough came when I discovered that instead of such a harsh way to straighten my hair, I could blow dry my hair instead of resorting to using chemicals.

I think experimenting with different styles in the pursuit of fashion can be creative as you explore different looks. However, hair and identity are intrinsically linked - whether you think you are just wearing a hair style your hair style does say something about you.

It has been over three years since I last combed my hair. In September 2006, after a lot of ÂŠ 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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thought and consideration, I decided to embark upon locsing my hair. I remember my first visit to the locs hairdressers was much more than an appointment. As I sat discussing this next stage of my return to natural hair with my loctitian, the scenario around me of women and men who were getting their beautiful locs re-twisted and styled was enough to inspire and reinforce my decision to locs my hair. There is no doubt about it, many black and mixed race women are embracing their natural hair with pride, and challenging these Eurocentric fashion trends that seek to influence their lives. They are discovering that black hair is beautiful left to its own devices.

I never intended my locs to be a fashion statement. I was returning full circle to an authentic and liberating hair style. It was a commitment - a natural and cultural expression of pride in my ethnicity first and foremost. Author, Alice Walker, who has worn her hair in locs since the eighties, once wrote, “Bob Marley is the person who taught me to trust the universe enough to respect my hair; as he shook his lion’s mane, the confidence, the love, and the sheer commitment to Blackness and to Jah was in his every moment”.

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only to my head but also to my African Caribbean cultural heritage and history. However, having said that, they mean less to me in terms of Rastafarianism - although I respect Rastafarian beliefs - and more in terms of spiritual and personal freedom. Wearing locs is a way of freeing me both figuratively and literally from the dictates of western European Fashion.

[song: “I wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free” Nina Simone]

Thank you to Chloe bringing us the news. I’m Ayesha Casely-Hayford here on Wandsworth Radio and that was Nina Simone with “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free”.

Now, we’re going to Ghana now. When was last in Ghana I discussed hair and changes in hair styles with my aunt’s hairdresser, Adobea. Adobea has worked for many years as a hairstylist and beautician and has her own mobile business in Ghana called Adobea’s Touch:

ACH: So, in Ghana, have you noticed that people are changing their styles to more natural styles?

AJ: Yes I’ve noticed for a while. I’ve noticed people are changing their permed hair to natural hair. At first people don’t know how to handle their natural hair, they don’t have the styles to do but now a days we have different styles to do natural hair. You can do your own natural hair. You can style your natural hair to do weddings, and different occasions, you can twist it, you can do different things. But the reason why people are changing perming hair to do natural hair, some of them they don’t have time for their © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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hair so their hair breaks a lot. And some of them don’t have a good hairdressers to do their hair for them or they don’t have time to go to salons and the relaxer is too harsh for them. Some of them when they use the relaxer it burns their scalp so they have different kinds of problems so it’s ok. Now we have different styles for natural hair, so let me change to natural because I’m an African lady. so I will do natural, that’s the reason why now people are changing to natural hair. and you can do a lot of it. I have different styles that when you see it, you would love to go to natural.

ACH: Why didn’t people know the different kinds of natural hair styles before?

AJ: Oh, at first, let’s say, now we are in the 21 Century and you can go to the internet. And when you’re doing it, you have to think, you have to do your own ideas, you have to be creative. At first people are not creative. In Ghana they don’t value hairdressing. But now they value it, they have upgraded. Now people go to internet, they have Google a lot, they learn a lot about hair. Now we have different kinds of products you can use for natural hair and your hair will be nice. © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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ACH: Do you think then before the only images were European style, which didn’t work for natural afro hair?

AJ: Please come again?

ACH: You said now people can go online and they can see options. And is that because before, the only things in the mainstream, images they would see, were more kind of white style hair, straight hair, so relaxed hair?

AJ: Yes. At first when they see the white people, their hair is long, so if some people do natural hair, cra, when the person goes to salon they say, I can’t do it, it’s too hard for me. But now they have realised when you do the natural hair, it’s good, so they don’t care about the straight hair. A lot, now you get 80% are doing natural hair, 20% are doing perm hair. A lot of people are going to natural right now, But because of the things that you can do to the natural. At first, you don’t have styles, you just leave it, but this, you can twist it, you can do it different ways.

ACH: Thank you so much.

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[song: “After The Storm” Kali Uchis ft. Tyler, The Creator, Bootsy Collins]

I’ve definitely learnt a lot since stopping relaxing my hair. I went through a phase of doing so many different things to it, putting so many different thing sin it. Right now, it’s the easiest thing in the world. It’s the shortest I’ve ever had it, I let the curls be free and I get it wet in the shower every day, freely. And a lot of the good feelings and confidence I have about my hair is thanks to the people around me. And on that note I’d like to give a very special thanks to Tashomi Balfour who is absolutely rocking his own afro. Tashomi, this is for you:

[song: Grandma’s Hands (unknown artist)]

I’m Ayesha Casely-Hayford and this is Afro Archives. We were just listening to Grandma’s Hands with much respect to all the ancestors that have gone before us. I’ve been reading extracts from Hair Power Skin Revolution edited by my collaborator Nicole Moore. And as we end in our last few minutes here on Afro Archives I wanted to share with you a poem and it’s called “Me and My Fro” and it’s by Gennett Aku Agbenu. After that I’ll be handing over to the lovely George Talbott with Evening Wandsworth then the last couple of tunes we’ll have our signature piece “Don’t Touch My Hair” Salonge and then just ‘cause she’s a don I’ll leave you with more Macy Gray “Still”. [Reading: “Me and My Fro” Genett Aku Agbenu - see Hair Power Skin Revolution p133 for extract or listen online] [song: “Don’t Touch My Hair” Solange] [song: “Still” Macy Gray] Bed Music: Intro from Lo-Wu https://soundcloud.com/lowusounds © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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References & Links: https://www.waterstones.com/book/hair-power-skin-revolution/nicole-moore/ 9781848763937

ÂŠ 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford