2013-14
Mitra FAMILY GRANT Recipient
“Wanton Ringlets”: A Tangible Medium for Identity and Power
Monica Thukral, Class of 2014
Wanton Ringlets:
A Tangible Medium for Identity and Power
Mentors: Mr. Mark Janda and Ms. Meredith Cranston
April 14, 2014
Monica Thukral 2014 Mitra ScholarFor centuries, curly hair has defined womanhood and has held messages about culture and identity. What separates hair from other physical manifestations of race is the ease with which it can be disguised and manipulated. In comparison with other racially defining characteristics like skin color, height, and nose proportions, hair is malleable; its texture, length and color can be altered as desired. As an innate part of the human body, hair must be assessed separately from other means of cultural assimilation such as clothing. A part of one’s identity, hair is a birthright as opposed to a costume. Choosing to alter one’s hair to match that of a certain culture—particularly straightening curly hair—indicates conformity and is widespread in the United States today.
The phenomenon of hair as a symbol of social oppression of both women and of minority groups will be traced within the context of the United States after World War II. Hair is the most tangible means through which this oppression can be understood. The historical origins of stereotypes and negative attitudes toward curly hair in the United States stem from both an ethnic minority power struggle and a requisite for women to fit within socially accepted values, creating a culture that shuns anomalies because of their ability to stir controversy and change.
Historical Account of Hair Discrimination
Discrimination on the basis of hair texture can be traced from Medieval times in Europe to the present day. When various non-white immigrant groups came to America throughout the past 400 years as minorities, they integrated themselves into American culture. Because these groups would have been treated as substandard and put into lower paying jobs and communities as a result of their differences, the minority groups began to emulate the Americans. By altering their names, languages, cultural practices and
appearance in order to fit in, a cultural blending occurred. This survival tactic led to a loss of ethnic identity as the groups amalgamated and became more conventionally American.1
This discrimination can be traced back to the Bible that includes tales that indicate a preference for long, straight locks. For example, the Curse of Ham that was used as a means of justifying African American slavery reinforces biblical discrimination toward black peoples.2 As a basis of substantiating racial discrimination, the Curse extends to discrimination on the basis of hair. Another Biblical tale, Corinthians 11:14-15 says, “If a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her.”3 Because these preconceptions are rooted in the Bible, the assumption can be made that these Biblical claims affected the thoughts and outlooks of many Western peoples and their culture and beliefs. Western civilizations would have the innate perception that long hair is superior to shorter hair, and would therefore consider straight hair to be better than curly hair due to shrinkage.4
The inferiority of curly hair continued to be evident during the Middle Ages, when the French referred to the Germans as “curly-haired,” alluding to barbarism.5 Linking curly hair with a lack of sophistication and with cruelty, the negative connotations of textured hair began to spread.
Furthermore, Martin Luther, a 16th century leader of the Protestant Reformation affirmed this belief that long, loose hair is superior. "[T]he hair is the finest ornament women have. Of old, virgins used to wear it loose, except when they were in mourning. I like women to let their hair fall down their back; 'tis the most agreeable sight," was published in his 1569 collection of sayings, Table Talk.6 Suggesting that letting one’s hair down, as was customary of Western European civilizations, signifies youth and
contentment, Luther conveys to his readers that this is how they should wear their hair to not look like they are in “mourning.”
Additionally, consider this excerpt from Milton’s 1667 epic poem, Paradise Lost, in which from his description of Eve, the interpretation can be made that Western civilization perceives curly hair to be impure.
Shee as a veil down to the slender waist
Her unadorned golden tresses wore
Dishevell’d, but in wanton ringlets wav’d
As the Vine curls her tendrils, which impli’d
Subjection, but requir’d with gentle sway,
And by her yielded, by him best receiv’d,
Yielded with coy submission, modest pride,
And sweet reluctant amorous delay.7
In this excerpt describing Eve’s physical appearance, Milton links her exterior with the quality of her purity and devotion to religion. With the word choice “wanton” to describe her curly locks, Eve is pinned with connotations of immorality, wickedness and promiscuousness. By linking curly hair to promiscuity and depravity in a text that was widespread among Western civilization, the sentiment of curly hair as inferior would have pervaded. Furthermore, as Eve’s hair curled, she became “subjected” or helpless to the power of man, and began to “yield” to Adam. In addition to implying that curly locks are inferior to straight hair, Milton also evokes the perception of men to be superior to women because of this change in hair.
Once the North American British Colonies began to import people as slaves from Africa to work on their plantations, racial segregation developed. Even though natural hair was a source of pride in West African culture, it turned into “a badge of racial inferiority” in America.8 Prior to slavery, hair was a symbol of age, profession, clan and status in African communities.9 As a result of miscegenation of slaves by plantation owners, an array of varying hair textures and colors in addition to skin colors existed.10 Those with “bad hair”—more kinky hair—would have been assigned more laborious field work since they were farther from their white masters’ blood.11 Kinky hair refers to the texture and width of the curl pattern in hair. Eventually, African American barbershops arose and became hubs for culture, music and gatherings for the community once slavery began to ebb.12 According to the African American Registry, a non-profit organization devoted to preserving the historical and cultural heritage of African Americans, “In response to the propaganda in black communities to accept the European standards of beauty, the black hair care market expanded.”13 This market referred to those products that aimed to remove curls from people’s hair in order to emulate the European appearance.
While enslaved peoples on plantations wrote songs about their condition, people wrote and sang similar songs in order to chide, mock, and degrade the slaves.14 As their mockery was often on the basis of their hair, African Americans continued to work to emulate natural European hair. A pattern in many of the songs includes the use of the words “nappy, kinky, or wooly” in order to feel superior.15
Consider the lyrics of the song “When They Straighten All the Colored People’s Hair” written by African-American Gussie Davis in 1894.16 By marketing songs to white people, Davis was monetarily successful:17
Oh, you jolly little "nigger," you make a funny figure.
For your wool kinks up just like the letter "o."
And you seem to be happy, although your head is nappy.
But then never mind, 'twill always not be so.
They have a new invention, and they say it's their intention,
To experiment on darkeys everywhere.
Oh, your face it may be dark, but you'll be happy as a lark--
When they straighten all the colored people's hair.18
Historian Lester points out that the narrator of the song believes that nappy hair is unattractive and unfavorable, which promotes the inferiority of curly hair.
It is telling that proponents of equality for all races like Booker T. Washington also stood for natural hair. Washington was a late 19th century and early 20th century African American leader who negotiated the Atlanta Compromise in 1895 to alleviate segregation.19 Blaming the straightening product companies for promoting straight hair as superior, he banned them from his Tuskegee Institute and from the National Negro Business League, institutions established to promote trade and commerce for the African American community.20 Similarly, Marcus Garvey, a leader of the Back-to-Africa movement, said, “don't remove the kinks from your hair, remove them from your head."21 Garvey worked to unify African Americans during his lifetime and attempted to reunite them with their ethnic heritage.
Around that time period, however, black churches and organizations chose their members by the discriminatory brown paper bag test to check skin tone, and by the finetoothed comb test to check hair texture.22 Churches and universities used the brown paper bag test as a measure of skin tone: if one’s skin were lighter than the bag, they would be admitted.23 Similarly, the fine-toothed comb test was used to determine hair texture: At the front door of an institution hung a comb. If the comb could pass easily through one’s hair, you were admitted.24 These unspoken requirements to be admitted to certain groups such as the historically black Hampton University indicated discrimination even within the African American community.25
Subsequently, racist authors such as Richard Dorson, Harvard professor and “father of American folklore,” published books like American Negro Folk Tales. In the mid-20th century”26 One of his tales is entitled, “Why the Negro has Kinky Hair.”27 A NWSA journal article "Nappy Edges and Goldy Locks: African-American Daughters and the Politics of Hair" summarizes this tale as follows:
Because blacks were late--they were devouring watermelon--when hair was being given out at the world's creation, ‘[t]he only hair that was left was what the other people didn't want--they stepped on it. [Gesture of twisting foot into the ground.]
So the colored people had to put on kinky hair . . . while the other people, Chinese and Jap[anese] and whites, put the hair on and smoothed it down.28
As racist texts were written, the negative perceptions of curly hair pervaded. In response, Eldridge Cleaver satirized Eurocentric beauty ideals in “As Crinkly as Yours.”29 From the perspective of a man in 1962 amid political statements in regard to racial equality, his charged tone gives insight to the degree to which appearance affected
people during that time period. He draws attention to mundane details of everyday life such as how European beauty ideals are written into books and movies that African Americans read.30 Additionally, the generic terms “white people” and “non-white people” hint at a preference for or idealized notion of white people.31 He points out: “Notice the different connotations when we turn it around and say “colored” and “non-colored” or “black and “non-black.”32 Arguing that all peoples have their own beauty standard and the true problem lies in African Americans yielding to the European standard, he makes a call to action regarding “this indoctrination” for African Americans to cease conforming to European standards of beauty.33
Legal Oppression toward Textured Hair
A preference for straight hair is not limited to slavery and stories. Legal attacks upon textured hair, particularly African American hair, within the last 50 years indicate the tendency of society to confine people to a certain accepted standard of appearance: that of the Europeans.
Court cases that rule against textured hair are often related to and based upon the
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act banned discrimination in the job market on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.”34 When courts use Title VII in their deliberations, however, some discord has often arisen when it comes to the premises of personal grooming and personal appearance standards.35 It calls to question what the norm is and whether that differs on a case-by-case basis.36 According to Erica Williamson who wrote in the Duke Law Journal, “Recent courts have struggled with the interaction between grooming and appearance standards and the use of sexual stereotypes as evidence of sexual discrimination.”37 She describes three approaches taken
by courts to Title VII: The first, the “per se approach,” claims that grooming policies that differ by gender are innately discriminatory. The second approach, the “employer friendly approach,” claims that grooming policies that differ by gender are legal because they do not impact equal employment. The third, the “Price Waterhouse stereotyping approach,” claims that policies that differ by gender are only legal if they do not compel sexual stereotypes.38
In the 1981 court case Rogers v American Airlines, braided hair was banned in the workplace of American Airlines.39 Renee Rogers is a black woman who wore braided hair and claimed that banning braids discriminated by race and by gender.40 Ruling that race had to be distinguished biologically and culturally, the court ruled against Rogers.41 The court also claimed that racial discrimination and discrimination on the basis of gender must be considered exclusively.42 The three reasons they gave for denying her claim were that banning braided hair extended to both men and women and therefore was not sexist, the policy did not discriminate based upon an innate gender characteristic, and that the banning of braids did not infringe upon a fundamental right.43 By comparing the banning of braids, an ethnic tradition, to banning speaking Spanish in the workplace in the 1985 case Garcia v Gloor, the court continued to rebuff the racism claim.44
Paulette M. Caldwell explored this interaction of race and gender in her article entitled: “A Hair Piece: Perspectives on the Intersection of Race and Gender.”45 She contends with the fact that “Rogers proceeds from the premise that, although racism and sexism share much in common, they are nonetheless fundamentally unrelated phenomena.”46 As one of the black women that she identifies as the group that falls within both of these categories, she realizes that lifestyle choices such as hairstyles are
made upon the assumption that sexism and racism are mutually exclusive.47 48Clearly, examining racism and sexism as separate entities leads to a loss of essential issues affecting the people in this case. About the Rogers case, Caldwell poses the following questions:
But what is America’s conception of a business-like image? Why are American [Airlines] and Hyatt—top companies in the United States—afraid of black women in pageboy hairstyles? What role does sexuality play in determining the proper grooming and image of women? And should we distinguish between an employer’s fear and repression of black female sexuality in general, albeit a sexuality constructed to reflect proper notions of the ideally-beautiful, sexual— but not sexy—woman?49
In other words, these court cases reveal that conventional American businesses and peoples have an innate aversion to culturally black hairstyles and to female sexuality. These questions posed by Caldwell are the backbone of the court cases and reflect upon the American standard of conformity.
In the 1981 court case Carswell v Peachford Hospital, beads in braided hair were banned.50 Carswell was fired from Peachford Hospital for wearing cornrow braids with beads in her hair.51 The district court did not find it to be racially discriminatory, however, because the braids were not an innate part of her like hair texture or skin color, and her claim of racism was denied.52 Beads and braids must be considered in the scope of natural hair because of their heritage and practicality to more tightly curly and kinky hair. Braids and extensions have been customary since Ancient Egyptian civilization in 3000 BC. According to Dr. David H. Kingsley of the Institute of Trisologists, a hair loss
clinic, curly hair is dryer than straight hair: with fewer strands of hair, fewer sebaceous glands produce oil on the scalp.53 The lack of moisture in combination with textured cross sections of hair strands creates finer and more fragile hair.54 With such tight coils, African hair is particularly fragile; preserving it in braids maintains its strength and vitality as it is in a period of “rest.”55
Travis Sumter, a student at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law, wrote a notice titled “Attention Black Applicants: Be cautious of “unequal” opportunity employers and how racially motivated stereotypes and grooming policies can impede your employment outlook.”56 In this paper, he described the history of Title VII, racism, and past discriminatory cases.57 He ends the paper by recommending a means to amend discrimination: a combination of determining whether employers were discriminating on an overall or an individual basis and to receive a hiring report from employers.58
Beyond cases that have been taken to court, prejudices against natural hair are evident. The Huffington Post article, “Black Women Worry that their Natural Hair could affect Job Employment or Retention” anecdotally explores various cases of discrimination.59 The journalist Wilson finds that even in the present day, it is necessary for men and women with curly hair to make conscious decisions about how to present their natural selves based upon how people around them will judge them. Hampton University, a historically black university founded during the Reconstruction period, banned cornrows and dreadlocks for male business students, the editor of Glamour magazine was probated and resigned after recommending to a law firm that afros were inappropriate for the workplace, and KTBS meteorologist Rhonda Lee was fired for
wearing natural hair.60 These instances indicate the residue of discrimination that remains somewhat hidden yet innately ingrained in our society.
Social Instances of Rebellion through Hairstyle
The unspoken expectation for people, particularly women, to appear a certain way makes room for those opposed to social customs to be heard by means of their looks. When their controversial looks begin to stir change, however, their look becomes more commonplace and blends into the convents of American culture after achieving its initial purpose.
Immigrant Assimilation
As immigrant groups move into American society, a conflicting concept of selfidentity often appears. Especially in the professional sphere, in which tacit rules define how one is to appear, speak and dress, identity dissonance and cognitive dissonance result.
The term identity dissonance was coined by Carrie Costello of the NWSA Journal to represent the process by which professional students from various countries assimilated to American clothing.61 She defines the term as follows: “the disconcerting internal experience of conflict between irreconcilable aspects of their self-concepts.”62 In the past, the term “cognitive dissonance,” referred to conflicts at the cognitive level and the term “identity dissonance,” referred to individual feelings of discomfort with identity. 63Costello differentiates what she studies by explaining that often identity dissonance is not something that people are aware of; on the subconscious level, “it exists in emotional identities and in habitus—the nonconscious and embodied level of identity.”64 In other words, she studies a phenomena in which people have conflicting ideas of who they are,
but are not aware of this subconscious clash. She describes a South Indian girl Laksha who entered law school wearing a traditional salwaar khameez and bindi and within a few weeks began to wear slacks and a sweater.65 As a generalization, women at law school and social work school dressed “androgynously.”66 Costello refers to Eliot Friedson, one of the first sociologists who studied professionalism, who said “the internalization of professional norms and ethics in professional identity allows professionals to regulate themselves effectively, assuring that they do not abuse the autonomy they are granted.”67 This suggests that a professional student must act and dress the part in addition to harboring the skill set in order to be successful in his or her professional identity. Implying that particular professions are better suited toward a certain gender and ethnicity, appearance becomes emulated. The example of clothing is directly proportional to the process by which all women end up adapting their traditions to meet social expectations.
Hair as social control/defiance
Hair is a means of social control. For example, soldiers and prisoners’ hair is shaved in order to indicate their allegiance.68 The US Army just issued a ban of hairstyles that are often worn by ethnic women, ruling out things such as twists, hair that “extends more than 2 inches from the scalp” and “loose, unsecured hair.”69 By banning styles that are natural and customary for African American women, the rules constrict them more than they do other women. According to Troy Rolan, a public representative for the army, the restrictions were put into place to encourage “neat and conservative” hairstyles.70 Suggesting that naturally ethnic hair is not neat and conservative but rather,
“unkempt,” the policy has led many people to petition against the policy because of a racial bias.
On the other hand, hair can also be a tool of social defiance, utilized by rebellious groups like the hippies and often, women.71 Women’s “radical” hairstyles are a means of social change, used to challenge power structures that have been established.72 Rose Weitz, author of Women and their Hair: Seeking Power through Resistance and Accommodation claimed in Gender and Society that radical hairstyles such as “Afros, dreadlocks or visible lesbian haircuts” are a means to spur social change.73 She argues that while in the short run they make a splash in the media and in society, they become a mundane part of culture in the long run.74 As the hairstyle becomes well known, more and more people adopt it until it no longer has a shocking affect and becomes ordinary. However, the purpose of spurring change is met. Radical hairstyles “have only temporarily utility as tools for social change because of the inherent instability of fashions,” she says.75 She goes on to argue that as more and more people wear the style, it loses its initial meaning. Thereby, it is in important step in making other identities that are initially novel into acceptable ones.
Hair in the workplace
The issue of whether to wear natural hair in the professional workplace was broached at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies of Georgia State University in February of 2013.76 By inviting various professionals and employers to a conference, they discussed the scope of the impact of black women wearing their hair naturally in terms of job retention and public image. 77 One panelist, James Bailey, the CEO for the Atlanta Market of global non-profit Operation HOPE said, “The harsh reality is that as
long as you are working for someone else, [you are in their culture].”78 Suggesting that when someone or some organization becomes one’s source of income and livelihood, acquiescing to their culture and expectations is necessary. According to Dickerson who reviewed the convention, attendees felt as though negative connotations of natural black hair was circumvented and “skirted around a bit.”79
Cheryl Thompson, a writer for Michigan Feminist Studies wrote in the article
Black Women and Identity: What’s hair got to do with it? “For young black girls, hair is not just something to play with, it is something that is laden with messages, and it has the power to dictate how others treat you, and in turn, how you feel about yourself.”80 From her personal account, it can be deduced that social inferiority of textured hair extends to create a psychological effect upon young women as well.
Political Hairstyles in the Mid-20th Century
Women today struggle with the choices that must be made about assimilating or setting themselves apart on the basis of hairstyle. New methods of hair care emerged and were spurred by leaders such as Madame C.J. Walker who created a system for black hair. Her company sold a product and hot comb that facilitated the straightening process, making her the first female American millionaire. Although “Afro” hairstyles were popular in the 1960s and there was a resurgence of the tradition of braids in the 1990s, relaxed hair, chemically straightened hair, has become more prominent within the last 15 years. 81
Rooks said, “Hair in 1976 spoke to racial identity politics as well as bonding between African American women. Its style could lead to acceptance or rejection from certain groups and social classes, and its styling could provide the possibility of a
career.”82 Even through the late 20th century, hair was a defining factor of one’s place in society. To decide which jobs and career paths they would be suitable for, the appearance of their hair was a determining factor.
Caldwell argues: “Because the appearance of hair and some of its characteristics are capable of change, the choice by blacks either to make no change or to do so in ways that do not reflect the characteristics and appearance of the hair of whites, represents an assertion of the self that is in direct conflict with the assumptions that underlie the existing social order. Such self-assertions by blacks create fear and revulsion in blacks and whites alike.” 83 Arguing that the choice to appear alternatively to the European aesthetic ideal somewhat undermines society, Caldwell believes that hairstyle holds vast potential for change.
Contemporary Culture
Despite nominal legal efforts to end racial discrimination on the basis of appearance, society still holds an innate preference for straight locks. As remnants of racial discrimination are slowly mitigated, however, appearing unconventional is becoming more accepted.
A 2010 article from Elle Magazine discussed the pros and cons of wearing curly or straight in the workplace.84 Ashley Javier, a celebrity hairdresser said, “women with straight hair are often perceived as being more serious than those with curls.”85 Della Grazia added, “Women with curly hair are seen as risk-takers—people that are prepared to go out on a limb for the company.”86 The article reinforced to the public the assumption and negative connotations of curly hair being perhaps juvenile.
Related to the messages being sent through beauty magazines like Elle, take into consideration the lead females in some of the most influential movies of the last ten years: Hermione Granger of Harry Potter and Mia Thermopolis of The Princess Diaries
Through the movies, these girls develop into “sophisticated” and “mature” women as their hair straightens out. Current society has associated words such as sophisticated and mature with straight hair, pressuring those with curls to conform to those standards. These criteria for being “a woman” are instilled into the minds of young children from a young age.
Mintel, a consumer spending market research firm conducted a study regarding natural hair and the sales of relaxer kits.87 Between 2010 and 2011, the number of black women with natural hair rose by 10% from 36% to 46% and between 2006 and 2011, the number of relaxer kits sold dropped by 17%.88 As relaxer kits and treatments can costs hundreds of dollars, this decrease in the quantity demanded of relaxer kits may not be attributed to a commitment to be more natural, but rather to an economic decline.
However, between 2006 and 2011, the US GDP rose by 12.094 percent, suggesting that the decrease in relaxer kit purchases may truly reflect a change in preference toward natural hair.89
Avant-garde Eve Mayer, curly-haired CEO of Social Media Delivered, believes that the time and expectation for conformity is now over. “I consider myself to be an artist […] I think that people’s perception of creative people, they expect them to look a different way […] I think that it’s a physical representation of who I am,” Mayer said. Mayer explains that she considers leadership to be her form of artistry. As a means of social rebellion, Mayer embraces her unique role as a woman executive by perhaps
looking the part as well. She chooses not to try to fit the masculine standard and embraces her natural appearance to demonstrate her confidence in her beliefs.
Mayer’s viewpoint is becoming more widespread and embracing one’s natural and innate physical qualities is becoming conventional; however, these phenomena will most likely not facilitate an increase in the exhibition of naturally textured hair. Before textured hair will become commonplace in society, perceptions of both women and ethnic people as inferior must first be broken down in all communities.
Notes
1 Carrie Yang Costello, "Changing Clothes: Gender Inequality and Professional Socialism," NWSA Journal (Project Muse), [138].
2 Curse of Ham, last modified March 17, 2014, accessed March 25, 2014.
3 Neal A. Lester, "Nappy Edges and Goldy Locks: African-American Daughters and the Politics of Hair," NWSA Journal (Project Muse Database) 24, no. 2 (2000): [201].
4 Ibid.
5 Christian Bromberger, "Hair: From the West to the Middle East through the Mediterranean (The 2007 AFS Mediterranean Studies Section Address)," Journal of American Folklore 121, no. 482 (Fall 2008): [379], accessed October 2, 2013.
6 Ibid.
7 Sparknotes: Paradise Lost: Important Quotations Explained, accessed March 25, 2014.
8 Ingrid Banks, Hair Matters (New York and London, US/GB: New York University Press, 2000), [7].
9 Ibid.
10 "Black Hair and Culture, A Story," African American Registry, accessed September 13, 2013.
11 Lester, "Nappy Edges and Goldy," [201].
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
19 Tracy Owens Patten, "Hey girl, am I more than my hair?," NWSA Journal 18, no. 2 (2006): [24], accessed June 18, 2013.
20 Ayana Byrd and Lori Tharps, Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, [38], accessed March 25, 2014.
21 Patten, "Hey girl, am I more," [24].
22 Jarett L. Carter, "Bringing Back the Brown Paper Bag Test to HBCUs," The Huffington Post Black Voices Blog, April 11, 2013, accessed March 25, 2014.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
26 Lester, "Nappy Edges and Goldy," [201].
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid.
29 Eldridge Cleaver, Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel, ed. Alan Dundes, [9].
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid.
34 Erica Williamson, "Moving past Hippies and Harrassment: A Historical Appriach to Sex, Appearance, and the Workplace," Duke Law Journal 56, no. 2 (November 2006): [681], accessed June 19, 2013
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Paulette M. Caldwell, "A Hair Piece: Perspectives of the Intersection of Race and Gender," Duke Law Journal 1991:365, no. 2 (1991): [365], accessed June 19, 2013.
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid.
42 Ibid.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid.
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid.
53 Lorraine Massey, Curly Girl The Handbook (New York, USA: Workman Publishing, 2002), [14].
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.
56 Attention Black Applicants.
57 Ibid.
58 Ibid.
59 Julee Wilson, "Black Women Worry That Their Natural Hair Could Affect Job Employment Or Retention," The Huffington Post: Huff Post Black Voices, last modified March 25, 2013, accessed June 18, 2013.
60 Julee Wilson, "Hampton University's Cornrows And Dreadlock Ban: Is It Right?," The Huffington Post: Huff Post Black Voices, last modified August 23, 2012, accessed June 18, 2013.
61 Costello, "Changing Clothes: Gender Inequality," [138]
62 Ibid.
63 Ibid.
64 Ibid.
65 Ibid.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid.
68 Ulmer, Constance. "Beauty Matters Book Review." NWSA Journal 13, no. 2 (2001).
69 Abdullah, Halimah. "Army's ban on dreadlocks, other styles seen as offensive to some African-Americans." CNN Politics. Last modified April 11, 2014. Accessed April 11, 2014.
70 Ibid.
71 Constance Ulmer, "Beauty Matters Book Review," NWSA Journal 13, no. 2 (2001): [196].
72 Ibid.
73 Rose Weitz, "Women and their Hair: Seeking Power through resistance and accommodation," Gender and Society 15, no. 5 (October 5, 2001): [667]
74 Ibid.
75 Ibid.
76 Emma Dickerson, "Review: Black Women, Their Hair and The Workplace," Georgia State Signal, last modified February 27, 2013, accessed August 9, 2013.
77 Ibid.
78 Ibid.
79 Ibid.
80 Cheryl Thomson, “Black Women and Identity: What’s hair got to do with it?” Michigan Feminist Studies 15, no.1, Fall 2008).
81 Aisha Sylvain, "Natural hair still on the rise despite some discrimination," The Famuan, last modified March 22, 2013, accessed September 18, 2013.
82 Thomson, Michigan Feminist Studies.
83 Caldwell, "A Hair Piece: Perspectives," [365].
84 Emily Hebert, "Is your hair holding you back?," elle.com, last modified April 26, 2010, accessed June 18, 2013.
85 Ibid.
86 Ibid.
87 Mintel, "Hair Straighteners Making Waves- Over a Quarter Million Women now can't live without them," marketresearchworld.net, last modified February 2011, accessed april 20, 2013.
88 Ibid.
89 The World Bank, last modified 2014, accessed April 11, 2014.
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