Black Women and Their Men: The Hair and Beauty Debate

“Men and women God made us as his perfect creation, he made no mistake when he made us black with kinky hair…Now take the kinks out of your mind instead of out of your hair” (Marcus Garvey).

For black women, issues of hair and beauty have long since been problematic. Even before the issue of skin bleaching or whitening came to the fore, black women have had to grapple with the notion that straightening one’s hair might be viewed as a rejection of one’s natural self thus denying their identity and admitting (whether consciously or unconsciously) that whiteness and long silky soft hair are the standards by which beauty is to be judged. Some women have had their hair permed from they were little girls by their mothers and or guardians and so have never questioned “Why do I straighten my hair?” A lot of other women have said that straightening the hair makes it more manageable to deal with and yet others have said “it makes me look more beautiful, softer and more refined”.

Added to these reasons and responses from black women are the opinions of our men. Black men have for a while now encouraged and supported the post slavery idea that having ‘nappy’ or kinky hair is unacceptable and have promoted and paid for their women to straighten their hair. In doing so, black men have (without admitting it, and for some, without realizing it) acknowledged that whiteness is the accepted norm by which beauty should be assessed. Black women have taken this phenomenon further with the buying of hair and wearing of wigs which copy the styles of white women. Over the years, as black people we have come to allow ourselves to be defined by something outside of ourselves rather than what lies within.

It is from this context that Marcus Garvey spoke when he said ...now take these kinks out of your mind instead of out of your hair. For blacks, the shade and tone of our skin and the way we wear our hair, have over the years, become political statements. It is political as it is complex because it encompasses gender politics, identity issues and beauty anxieties (the social concerns). Additionally, the politics of beauty is made complex within the issues of racism. The issue is multifaceted and complex, and has over the years become a heated on-going debate among black people in general. Ingrid Banks in Hair Matters purports that “Hair shapes black women’s ideas about race, gender, class sexuality, images of beauty and power” and Noliwe Rooks in her book Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture and African American Women shared that although her mother was staunchly against her wearing her hair anything but natural, her grandmother believed that “hair spoke to acceptance from a certain class of African Americans but had relatively little do with white supremacy, Africa or self-esteem”(4). Rooks recalled that at age thirteen her reason for wanting to straighten her hair was not to disturb her mother who had raised her to be proud of her ‘Africanness’, but that she had recently started a new school, “and absolutely no one there wore their hair in a natural except me. I was determined to fit in with my new classmates” (3).

It is funny, uncanny and even ironic that ‘black’ magazines, the ones with articles upon articles encouraging black people to be strong and to find their inner self, advocate for, advertise and promote soft straight silky processed hair as the epitome of women’s beauty. When Marcus Garvey wrote and spoke about taking the kink out of your minds instead of out of your hair, he lived what he preached because “in his newspaper the Negro World, Garvey refused advertisements from companies which promoted the straightening of black) hair as well as the lightening of (black) skin" (Rooks 77). In her defense arguments to her mother’s restrictions about straightening her hair, Rooks used the black magazines which advertised and supported ‘whiteness’ as the benchmark to reinforce her point. “As I prepared my arguments and worked on getting up my nerve, I cut out a number of magazine advertisements to show her the styles that interested me. Because majority of my examples came from African American publications (Essence, Jet, Ebony, etc.)” (3).

So it might be true to argue therefore, that both black men and society in general have over the years supported the re-valuing of beauty, by making ‘whiteness’ with its soft silky hair, light skin and green, blue, grey eyes the centre of beauty. Thus making the issues of race, gender and beauty, political in nature. Therefore, although issues of hair and beauty are dynamic and have evolved over the different generations to mean different things both politically and socially, from black pride to stating and accepting one’s Africanness; to being able to become accepted and promoted in certain careers and organisations and or class structures (within the same black society); to one’s acceptance or none acceptance that whiteness is not the standard by which beauty is to be judged; to a freeing of one’s self mentally by taking the kink out of our minds instead of out of our hair and focus on the real important issues in life; the larger issue I have argued, has to do with gender politics. It has to do with black men’s promotion and idea of beauty and consequently their acceptance or rejection of how black women purport that beauty.

Black men, need to discover their ancestry and find themselves by emanating into a consciousness and acceptance that ‘whiteness’ is not the standard by which beauty is to be judged. After this is achieved, then the society, including organisations which they lead, such as the banks and other businesses will not look down on, prejudice, or refuse to accept black women with ‘kinky’ hair or natural hair styles into their organisations. Additionally, black women too, need to come into their own consciousness of why they do what they do. No doubt, power, sexuality and acceptance play a large part in the hair debate but women need to focus on the more substantial issues such as knowing who you are, what you believe in and what are those things that make you happy.

Kayann Henry December 12, 2012