Not your mother’s hair

and views as well.

BY MCKENNA NEEF

Although 65-year-old Verna Laboy was raised to use a pressing comb to straighten her hair, 16-year-old BreAnna Clark has never touched one.

Hair trends come and go, symbolizing changing styles and new fashions. Across generations, Black women are embracing hair autonomy and wearing styles that best fit them.

Styling their hair is not about conforming to Eurocentric standards, but rather reclaiming aspects of previously suppressed African American culture — and doing whatever they want with their hair.

Embracing the natural Natural hairstyles for Black women gained significant traction during the Black Power movement in the mid 1960s and ’70s. However, chemically treated hair remained common during and after the decade for Laboy’s generation. Now, for Clark and her peers, natural styles are the norm.

Bridget Williams, 44, is the owner and head stylist of Artistry Salon, previously under the name Peace of Mind Salon and Spa. After being a hairstylist for 22 years and a salon owner for 16, Williams has seen firsthand the changes in Black hair trends among her female clients.

Laboy, Williams’ longtime client and friend, once had chemically treated hair.

“I come from an era when we were beginning to integrate and get good jobs,” Laboy says. “We wanted to fit in and not scare anybody.”

About 15 years ago, Laboy decided to embrace her natural hair both in texture and color. “I’m embracing every strand that comes out — every antenna that comes out of my head — the way it is, and I’m loving it,” she says.

But this decision didn’t come without its struggles. When Laboy began her natural hair journey, she was working for a local insurance agency. She remembers the pressure she felt to keep her hair “small” in order to avoid judgment. “I had to ease into letting my hair expand because I was the only person of color in the company,” Laboy says.

Identities shift

Hair’s role in identity often varies for Black women by age group. This comes to life in the conversations between Williams and her daughter, BreAnna Clark. Williams explains that as a 44-year-old woman, her identity is closely connected to her hair.

“When you feel like your hair looks good, you feel good, and it just makes you radiate confidence,” she says. “It kind of introduces you before you even open your mouth.”

However, Clark, a sophomore at Battle High School, views hair differently. “I feel like it contributes, but I don’t feel like your hair is your identity,” she says. “It gives you that confidence boost and everything that you need, but it’s not you because it’s not your personality.”

Hair transitions

For many years, natural hairstyles were pushed aside by Eurocentrism and white supremacy. As explained in a 2021 Refinery29 article, “Smoothed, straightened hair became very desirable, and it’s evident in the trends we see throughout history.”

Williams used relaxers for years. However, after a chemical in the product — sodium hydroxide — burned her scalp one day, she decided to make the move to natural styles.

Williams says she knew the dangers of relaxers and, as a result, never advised her daughter Clark to use them. Instead, Williams has long helped Clark embrace her natural hair by showing her products and practices that promote hair health.

“It’s just evolved to where like 90% of my clients are all-natural and embracing their natural textures,” she says.

When Williams and her clients took interest in natural hair styles, the only platform for her to learn how to do them was YouTube. “I started getting names of women that were the pioneers of the natural hair movement,” she says. “I started to follow them, and then a lot of them were on the forefront of introducing the natural products.”

BreAnna Clark (from left), Verna Laboy and Bridget Williams embrace their hair in different ways. Their hair journeys speak to the trends and norms experienced by each generation of Black women.

Coif That Crown

In addition to finding supplies at local hair salons, these stores specialize in hair products.

Sally Beauty 27 Conley Road, 875-5944

Lux Beauty Supply 705 E. Business Loop 70, 441-1118

Now, Williams has noticed wigs, extensions and color treatments growing in popularity. It’s a trend among Black women known as hair autonomy: embracing their hair by choosing to wear whatever style they prefer, whether it’s protective styles that promote growth for Black hair such as locs, braids and sewins or just their natural fro. A 2021 New York Times article describes it as being in full command of one’s own aesthetic, because, “while society has yet to imagine a Black woman full of possibility, it’s a reality she has envisioned for herself.”

Fighting false perceptions

When it comes to shifting perceptions surrounding Black hairstyles, the mother-daughter duo share the same belief: Clark and Williams chose to not conform to society’s Eurocentric beauty standards and will continue to reevaluate what “beauty” looks like in hair. “It’s not fair to just say one culture is the ideal beauty,” Williams says.

Laboy echoes a similar sentiment. “I just think when people present themselves as their full, authentic selves, they’re not hurting anybody,” she says. “They’re doing life, enjoying life. What’s the big deal about hair?”