Semester Project: Hair is Art

My Art:

The Tools

The History:

• Elaborate hairstyles go back to Africa
• From the Diaspora we lost the culture and religious aspect to styling of the hair
• As slaves we covered our hair for protection and lack of tools to style. Therefore, we covered unkempt hair.
• Eugenics and other studies started to categorize us by our hair and skin colors.  It was categorized as  being similar to wool.  Our skin and hair were unattractive.
• Eventually, after slavery Madame CJ Walker creates styling products and begins the use of the hot comb. African Americans begin to straighten their hair.  Many scholars believe this is the link between our obsession with a white standard of beauty. Bell Hooks states in regard to straightening the hair, "it represents an imitation of the dominant white group's appearance and often indicates internalized racism, self-hatred, and/or low self esteem." (Hooks, 2).
• In the 1960's and 70's there was a discourse on authentic and inauthentic Blacks.  If you embraced your natural hair you were "authentic." These discourses arise during the Civil Rights Movements and subsequent Black Power and Women's Movements.
• Today: Do what you want..

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My Story:

I grew up with parents who believed that your hair must be done all the time.  I went to the salon every two weeks. My hair was natural at that time and I wore my hair in varying corn row styles or ponytails up until I was 15 years old.  I decided to relax my hair myself without my mother's knowledge.  I did this because I didn't want my hair styles to mess up when it rained. An easier solution would have been to cover my hair and to have gotten an umbrella.  My hair had grown from a shorter to longer length over the years that I wore it natural but also continued to do so when I began relaxing it.  I have been blessed enough to have had no significant issues with my hair due to using chemicals on it.  I cut my hair when I went to college right out of high school because my boyfriend said he thought it would be cute. It was cute but very difficult to manage.  Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that hair is art because no matter who you are or how you wear it, it can be changed.  Hair can be created, re-created, added and taken away.  It can be colored, shortened, lengthened and many other variations.  Art can be a process and styling hair and what gets created is an art project for some of us everyday.

My Natural Hair, My Homage to

Adrian Piper

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The ATL Hair Shows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxI8lYb-GEw

Challenging Theories:

Many Scholars believe that African American Women who wear their hair straight are adhering to a European standard of beauty.  This standard states that you must have straight hair which allows you to move more freely and easily through society.  Cheryl Thompson of McGill University, Montreal interviewed African American women to get their take on why they have or have not straightened their hair. Many contributed it to the ease of relaxed hair versus natural hair.  Others admitted that it was aesthetically more pleasing to look at straight hair versus "nappy" hair.  The issue in the African American community has become "why people compare themselves to societal standards when assessing their own behaviors." (Thompson, 838).  The truth is when I asked my co workers, friends and family many related that they had never given it that much thought.  Many of us just simply followed the paradigms of our mothers and grandmothers. If they wore their hair straight nine times out of ten so did we.  Of course, as many of us matured and made our own styling choices, the choice of how to wear our hair changed either very little or was the total opposite of how we were raised.

Choice: My Hair is My Choice

This is my hair, this is my choice
My hair will not stifle my voice
My hair pinned, my curls, my comb and brush
Nothing you or society can say HUSH!
Natural, relaxed, short, long..I've been there
Does my hair have any fear?
My hair does sometimes because I dared not show
That part of me that is not whole....
My world my hair is my crown
A queen that is, so I don't frown
When asked is this really my hair
REALLY, why do they care?
This is choice, the way I wear my hair
Freedom to choose, is what I dare!!!

Resources and Works Cited:

1. African American First: Famous, Little Known and Unsung Triumphs of Blacks in America by Joan Potter.
2. A History of African American Hair by Allison Joseph.
3. A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America by Darlene Clark Hine.
4. Hair in African Art and Culture: Museum for African Art and Culture New York, NY February 9-May 28, 2009, reviewed by Christine Mullen Kreamer.
5. The Politics of Hair by Lori S. Robinson.
6. Bronner Bros. Hair Show Atlanta
7. Thompson, Cheryl. "Black Women, Beauty and Hair As a Matter of Being." Women's Studies 38.8(n.d): 831. EBSCO EIT (XML). Web.22 Nov.2013.
8. Samuels, Alison. 2009 "Chris Rock." Newsweek 154, no. 13:69. Readers' Guide Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed November 9, 2013).
9. http://www.zcommunications.org/straightening-our-hair-by-bell-hooks.html
10. http://adachchristopher.blogspot.com/2009/07/peter-gasser-african-tribes.html
11. http://thirstyroots.com/black-hair-history/african-american-hairstyle-history/tumblr_lgfq9p8maj1qfu6z3

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