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Hair, I Am

                Is it just my imagination or does it seem that an overwhelming number of brothers and sisters are sporting natural hairdo’s?  Be it a fashion statement or an affirmation of the individual’s level of consciousness, alarming numbers of men and women in our community are getting rid of those perms and twisting, locking, dreading, or braiding up their hair.  And it looks beautiful.   I saw a sister downtown with her head shaved.  Sister had her nose pointed towards the sky looking proud and confident.  From the expression on her face, I would assume that she was very comfortable with her decision to get back to her roots.   But I wonder how Corporate America feels about this sudden trend?

                 It wasn’t long ago that I remember a story I read about a sister in Washington, D.C. that lost her job because she was wearing braids.  Unfortunately for the company she worked for, she sued and was successful at convincing a judge that the way she wore her hair in no way affected her job performance.  But is society ready to embrace a new emergence of the dreaded brother or the sister that wraps her head?  With so many recording artists and people in the entertainment business sporting locks and head wraps, it is hard to ignore the influence, “what we see, we do”.  It is now chic and acceptable to be “nappy.”  Adults and teenagers alike flock to salons with pictures in hand of how they want to look.   Erykah Badu has shed her locks and her head wrap and opted for a beautiful, baldhead.  Brave girl.  (I am waiting to see how many sisters go to that extreme.)  Allen Iverson is as popular for his skills on the court as he is for the unique braid design he sports in and out of the sports arena.  It is a new day for the new black man and woman.

                 I know a brother who refused a job with a marketing company here locally because he wouldn’t cut his locks.  I also know another brother that has long hair he normally keeps neatly braided, but the company he works for will only allow him to pull it back into a ponytail.  No braids allowed.  It is unfortunate that we can’t be who we are without meeting opposition.  If a person is qualified to do a job for a particular company, it shouldn’t matter what hairstyle they have as long as it is tasteful.  The question is:  Who should determine whether it is tasteful or not?  I wore a head wrap at my job from time to time, always in good taste.  There was never anything in the handbook that told me I could not.  Yet I still received strange looks from my superiors.  Hair is an extension of who you are.  It doesn’t define you, it accentuates you.  Personally, I have toyed with the idea of crossing the threshold into “hair freedom”, but honestly,  I do worry about how it will affect my career opportunities.  Within my own peer group, I have several friends that give me all sorts of reasons to support going natural.  They tell me how I am hiding the true me with chemicals.   But I feel how I wear my hair is uniquely “my” decision.  A head wrap or a natural do is not going to make me any more conscious about the world around me, nor will it make me any less qualified to perform a specific duty or task.   Acceptance is a powerful word, but it is something that society obviously has difficulty embracing.  Ya feel me?

                                                                                   by Bridgette Hogan
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      Email her if you would like to respond to this subject at: soulflower@blacksonville.com

Bridgette is a contributing writer of Blacksonville.com