My own hair journey has been a rather interesting one, I cannot remember when exactly my hair was relaxed but I do believe it was at a tender age. Someone we could claim and represented ‘us’. Better known as Mel B (Scary Spice) finally, a racially ambiguous young woman who was neither black or white but who still possessed ‘black hair’ unlike her other female counterparts in the girl band. Finally, there was a brown girl with a full head of glorious curls that was sometimes teased out in an afro.
It was the year of 1996 when Spice Girls hit the music scene with their infectious song Wannabe. It was more than hair, this was me questioning my identity as a child in a world where your looks are heavily scrutinized. I rarely saw images of natural hair represented in the media, yearning for straight hair I vividly remember putting t-shirts on my head and swinging it from side to side pretending I had long beautiful hair such as Disney characters we adored like Rapunzel or Jasmine from Aladdin.Īs hilarious as it sounds, it is horrifying to think now why I believed or was made to believe my own hair was not seen as worthy or pretty.
Deeper than hair skin#
Beauty was categorised as having a lighter skin tone and straighter hair was the ideal. From TV programmes, adverts and in the school playground ‘being different’ was rather complex. The indoctrination of believing straight hair was far better and signified beauty. The misconception was in order to have desirable hair, it had to be bone straight and long. Growing up as a young black girl, I constantly saw images of beautiful girls with long, straight hair.
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