Whether natural or extended, Black hair represents strength, struggle, love, and perseverance.

By Anthony Payton, Columnist, Granite State News Collaborative

At eight years old, my daughter loves to have her hair fashioned in ways that suit a young Black girl full of expression. She’ll have long braided extensions that range in colors from blue, to pink, to purple. They’re bright, bold, and a bit sassy, just like her. It swings freely, and she can style them as need be.  Sometimes she’ll have her natural hair braided, and other times, she’ll wear a head wrap when she’s in a rush or busy. (Yes, the hectic and busy life of an 8-year old). She’ll have hairpins, the best smelling hair products, and hairbands to keep everything up to her standards.  Her hair is important. And as the dad of a young Black girl in New Hampshire, I make sure that she knows she’s pretty and smart even if she shaved all of her hair off.  She’s figuring out which hairstyles she likes best, and I love hearing about her latest choices and thoughts.  I don’t even get upset when she shoots down my suggestions.

There’s more than what meets the eyes regarding Black hair. It’s an expression, it’s pride, and it’s a showing of our culture. Most of us aren’t born with the silky texture that blows in the wind like those shampoo commercials on television. What we have, we wear with pride; through it, we display the heritage and roots we were born with.

But the topic of our hair too often is the source of office gossip and bias in professional settings. Oftentimes, there’s a general stereotype about Black hair.  People tend to feel as though afros, braids, and dreadlocks may be dirty or unprofessional.  I’ve heard from friends who’ve been asked how come they didn’t just wear a “regular” hairstyle like their co-workers.  Black people, women in particular, learn to navigate around those microaggressions. Admiration and curiosity can become intertwined with unintentional but subconscious bias. So those questions of, “Can I touch your hair?” Or, “How long does it take to get like that?” can become tiresome; one can easily become frustrated.  I don't think that a work colleague should have to hold a press conference about her hairstyle.

Talk to just about anyone who sports natural hair in a work setting, and you’ll probably hear stories about how they were made to feel dirty, different, and out of place. What was once celebrated in our culture sometimes has to be hidden or compromised in the name of professionalism and conformity. 

From a very early age, Black people were taught –by society, media, and sometimes their own families– that their hair was unruly and needed to be tamed.  Even today, a person in the Black community with hair that isn’t as coarse is said to have “good hair.” And again, this is said and demonstrated by society as well. 

Once upon a time, in many Black homes, women would go to extreme measures to straighten their hair with harsh chemicals and hot combs.  Old school hot combs would sit on a burning stove until red hot, and then it was used to comb and straighten hair.  I can still remember the smell of burning hair, all in the name of trying to meet a eurocentric standard of beauty. 

Whether natural or extended, that hair represents strength, struggle, love, and perseverance.  It represents generations of pride amidst the gravest circumstances like the civil rights era.  It represents the intimacy of friends and family braiding each other's hair with their hands. It represents the strength of a young college student, athlete, or hip-hop artist in the community.  It’s bold enough to say that our culture and hairstyles will be celebrated in our communities if not by society.  

Let’s be honest, folks; America has a long history of Anti-Blackness. It’s why the darker-skinned enslaved people were sent to work in the fields while the lighter-skinned enslaved people worked in the master’s house. It’s why Jim Crow laws were a way of life. Anti-Black sentiment spread throughout churches, the military, and every American institution. This history of anti-Blackness isn’t just exclusive to America, nor am I speaking for everyone.  

Sometimes it feels as if for every step of progress that we make regarding race and inclusion, a situation arises that puts us two steps back.  It’s 2022, and we are still having these conversations about Black hair.

Examples of this are found in workplaces, schools, even job fairs. 

17-year-old Asia Simo was kicked off the cheerleading team because her hair was too thick for a “half-up, half-down” requirement. De Andre Arnold was told that he couldn't walk at graduation unless he cut his dreadlocks, and his school cited culturally insensitive regulations and policies as the reason.

 A young high school wrestler, Andrew Johnson, was forced to cut his hair in the middle of a match. He was told that his hair was unnatural and too long and had 90 seconds to cut it before being disqualified. So he had it cut in what I feel was an alarming video. He was clearly emotional during the haircut and reportedly depressed afterward.

You don’t have to look too far to see us being left out, dismissed, and forgotten. Take the most recent situation with the N.H Job Corps. (As our friends at N.H.P.R reported) Students of color were turned away from a professional hairstyling event(held by the N.H Job Corps)because stylists didn’t know how to work on their hair. This would ultimately lead to the firing of a staff member and turn into a hornet’s nest of allegations of a discriminatory culture within their organization.

We are just beginning to see lawmakers addressing hair discrimination. The C.R.O.W.N(Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural hair) act has passed in more than a dozen states. As of this writing, New Hampshire, H.B 359 would make it harder to discriminate against a person based on hairstyles relative to a person's ethnicity.

Did we really need to take it to this level? We’ve read this book before, and you know how this story goes. If you consider yourself an open-minded person, regardless of social views or political stance, you know this unfair bias exists deep down.

If you didn’t know that Black hair and natural hairstyles were such a topic, I welcome you into this conversation, and I hope you walk away from it with some clarity and understanding.  

To all of those beautiful women and girls with unruly hair…You've been lied to, and your hair is gorgeous.

Anthony Payton is a freelance writer and father living in Manchester. He can be reached at anthony.payton@collaborativenh.org. This story is part of his project, The Common Ground Initiative which aims to highlight the diversity of our communities with stories of people the average Granite Stater might not get to see or meet. The goal is to clarify misconceptions and find the threads that bind us all together as one New Hampshire community.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative as part of our race and equity project. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.