Gentle, thick, defiant, art, luscious, loud, and mine. These are the words that a group of current and former Indiana University Northwest students used to describe their natural hair.
The students spoke on a panel Wednesday afternoon at the university to discuss their natural hair, highlighting its significance as a personal and political statement.
“My hair is my hair,” sophomore A’Reya Davis said. “My hair’s going to do what it wants to do, and I have to be OK with that. I have to be OK with how my hair looks when it’s fresh out the shower. I have to be OK with how my hair looks when it’s dry … or if I have it slicked back. … It’s normal, and I’m supposed to love it.”
At the “Black Hair & Storytelling as a Form of Social Activism” event, students shared their intricate relationships with hair, and author St. Clair Detrick-Jules presented video clips and excerpts from her book, “My Beautiful Black Hair,” which chronicled the hair journeys of 101 Black women. The book was borne out of Detrick-Jules’ desire to showcase the beauty of Black hair to her younger sister, who’d been bullied by her classmates over her Afro.
In recent years, Black hair has been brought to the forefront of national conversation as activists and lawmakers nationwide work to enact laws prohibiting race-based hair discrimination. To date, 24 states have passed the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act, known as the CROWN Act, which accomplishes that goal. Indiana hasn’t, despite two versions of the bill being introduced in January during the most recent legislative session.
One of the themes during Wednesday’s event was self-love, which Detrick-Jules prompted the audience to think about. She asked attendees to identify one thing they loved about themselves and another they were learning to love.
When it comes to loving their natural Black hair, some of the student panelists felt it was more of a “love-hate relationship” with generational and societal attitudes affecting how they’ve embraced it.
Davis said she didn’t know how to manage her natural hair while growing up. She never saw her mom wear her hair naturally, and it was Davis’ stepsister who encouraged her to start rocking natural styles. Today, despite becoming more comfortable with her hair, she said, “It’s still a constant struggle.”
At the event, sponsored by the student-led club My Sister’s Keeper and IUN’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs, students, faculty, and community members sported diverse natural hairstyles.
From puffs to braids to locs to braids over locs, the versatility of Black hair was on full display.
“I think the beauty of our hair is that we can do so much; we can straighten it … we can curl it, we can loc it — we can do so much, and that should unite us,” said Sandra Carr, IUN’s diversity specialist.
But the process of accepting natural Black hair is only made more difficult when factoring in texture and style discrimination from others. Davis said she was given dirty looks by co-workers and customers when she showed up to a job one day in long blue and purple braids.
Elizabeth Downey, a pre-nursing student and event coordinator for My Sister’s Keeper, said she was recently reprimanded for sending her daughter to school with beads and barrettes. The school in Dyer, Downey said, pointed to a policy on “distracting” hairstyles and asked her to not use beads in her daughter’s hair, but she stood her ground.
“I asked them, I said, ‘In what way is her hair distracting? In what way is it different than any other student?’” Downey said.
Advocates for the CROWN Act say it’s needed to protect Black people at work and in school, as the perception of Black hair being unprofessional remains pervasive.
Davis feels like the legislation addresses some of the damage that’s occurred due to that labeling. She said it lets Black people have more control over how they choose to wear their hair.
“I definitely think that this law will open doors for the Black community and make people comfortable with having their natural hair out,” Davis said.
