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Embracing their roots
features
Black women are becoming more confident in wearing their natural hair, fueling a wave of positivity on social media platforms BY ALMA MARTINEZ AND SHARON FLOREZ, STAFF WRITERS
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UE TO AN EXTENSIVE HISTORY of racial discrimination and oppression, many black women have felt conditioned to alter their natural hair to conform to white beauty standards. Westernized societal standards, that categorize beautiful hair as straight and long, similar to Caucasian hair have led many of these women to believe that their natural hair is unprofessional, and must be changed to be taken seriously in their workplaces, educational institutions and communities.
These beliefs have trickled down for many generations and have normalized the damaging processes done to chemically alter their curl patterns. Hair relaxers—a lotion or cream generally used by people with tighter curls to break down their hair strand and make it permanently straight—have become a staple in the black community despite their detrimental effects on both the hair strands and the scalp. Black women have thus felt pressure to eliminate entire hairstyles from their normal routines—including certain braids and afros—
for fear of getting socially penalized for them. Nonetheless, as a result of an increase in social media movements and the overall increase in the acceptance of black hair, women are beginning to leave these damaging processes behind, instead choosing to embrace and celebrate the hair they were born with. In doing so, history teacher Porsha Albury and students Savanna Tiffany and Rebecca Abraham share the obstacles they have encountered in coming to embrace their natural hair.
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Raised in an African-American household, history teacher Porsha Albury inherited a passion for her culture that is reflected in her interest in learning and teaching about her family’s battles with segregation and racism. In between spending several hours a week with her aunt and the exchange of oral tradition from her grandparents, Albury began to learn a lot about her culture and where she came from. Hair, often being at the forefront of their conversation, was a struggle which she
could personally relate to through the trials and tribulations she has faced in her journey to embrace her natural hair. From birth, her mother always complimented her curl pattern, describing it as “high fashion,” she taught Albury how to twist and braid it in cornrows. As Albury reached elementary school, her mother began advising her to refrain from using otherwise damaging hair products to preserve the beauty in her natural curls. “My mom was very fashionable, she styled my hair so many ways and convinced me that voluminous hair was too awesome for me to feel insecure,” Albury said. The older she grew, the more she started to notice the hairstyles she had come to know and love were being viewed as “childlike” or “not appropriate” for wearing out in public. For years, Albury avoided wearing braids given society’s perception of the hairstyle being too “ethnic” or not “appropriate” for award ceremonies, formal events and job interviews.Though she has never been personally penalized for wearing a certain hairstyle at work, Albury still felt pressure to style her hair a particular way in order to be taken seriously given that it is common for women to be deemed inferior
for
wearing their hair naturally. “As I got older, I think my mom worried about how such styles would be perceived by mainstream America. There is a saying that when black hair is relaxed, white America is relaxed,” Albury said. Looking for ways to express herself and show off her hair, Albury struggled to style her hair in a way that would maintain professionalism and keep the public happy. It was through social media movements promoting natural hair that she was able to attain the confidence to welcome her curl pattern. “I love seeing images of people like me. I love that a commercial with a black woman will now have a black woman with natural hair,” Albury said. After years of experimenting with different products and methods, Albury has found what hair treatments and washing methods work best and which hairstyles make her feel most comfortable and confident. Given the copious amounts of effort she put into discovering what is best compatible with her hair, Albury serves as an inspiration and role-model for students and colleagues to wear their hair naturally regardless of the opinion of others.
