Female hair has been source of power and dispute throughout the ages. Even today, there are several cultures who consider a woman's power of persuasion to be found in her tresses, requiring hair to be covered.
Although hair is a universal commonality amongst women, black women in particular, have an interesting relationship and cultural connotation that exists with their hair. Some choose to straighten, others to wrap, while many braid or dread. But often times, it's not just a matter of mood so much as it is a cultural and/or political decision.
Getting “good hair” often means transforming one’s tightly coiled roots; but it is also more freighted, for many African-American women and some men, than simply a choice about grooming. Straightening hair has been perceived as a way to be more acceptable to certain relatives, as well as to the white establishment.
“If your hair is relaxed, white people are relaxed,” the comedian Paul Mooney, sporting an Afro, says in the documentary “Good Hair,” which won a jury prize at the Sundance film festival and comes out in October. “If your hair is nappy, they’re not happy.”
SOURCE: Catherine Saint Louis for THE NY TIMES
Writer Catherine Saint Louis goes in-depth about what politics and cultural innuendo are involved in a simple choice - how to wear your hair as a black woman today. Included with this article is a multimedia where 9 women discuss their tresses.
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