Decolonizing my hair, unshackling my curls: an autoethnography on what makes my natural hair journey a Black feminist statement

ABSTRACT

There is unquestionably a buzz in US Black women’s communities about a trending “natural” phenomenon. Sales of chemical relaxers (sometimes dubbed “creamy crack” among the US Black community) have dropped 34 percent since 2009, while sales of “natural” hair care products that promise to non-chemically enhance or beautify “natural” curls are up exponentially. Corresponding to the rise in sales of “natural” hair care products are beauty blogs, YouTube instructional videos and supportive social groups—such as “natural hair” meet-ups, which have organically emerged for, and been mostly created by, Black women as a tool to support and nurture women as they take this journey. In this article, I use Black feminist P.H. Collins’s work because her understanding of the relationship between knowledge, consciousness and empowerment provides a framework or point of departure for grasping my own lived experience of going “natural” with regards to modes of oppression and methods of resistance.

KEYWORDS:

• Natural hair
• autoethnography
• Black Feminism
• Africana

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the University of Cincinnati Charles Phelps Taft Research Center for Faculty Release Support, and gives thanks to her special flowers that grow north of the woods, west of the river. And finally, in loving memory of my godmother and first beautician, Aslee Neal, I dedicate this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Carolette R. Norwood is Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Her research interests include exploring the simultaneity and particularities of feminism(s) in the African diaspora within and across geographical and glocal contexts; sexual health disparities at the intersection of gender, race, sexuality, place and space; stress, trauma and mental health well-being among African American women; and spatial distribution of HIV. Dr Norwood also researches interracial intimacy with specific focus on interracial (or biracial) fertility.

Notes

1. I suggest readers see Banks (2000), Byrd and Tharps (2002), Craig (2002), Patton (2006), Rooks (1996) and Thompson (2009) for relevant background materials.

2. Redbone is an expression commonly used in Louisiana to describe a person of mixed ancestry whose skin pigmentation is fair to light brown with reddish undertones. See Wikipedia for additional information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbone_(ethnicity).

3. See Gwendolyn Brooks (1953, 53) discussion in Maude Martha who is described as having “coco straight” skin and abundant hair but falls short of “pretty.”

4. See Harris-Lacewell (2004) and Nunley’s (2011) reference to Hush Harbors.

5. See Nyali 2015 for a discussion of the Feminist Stokvel.