Before I go any further, let me acknowledge that “natural” means many different things depending on the context and the person doing the defining. So to help you follow my train of thought, I want to be clear about how I define natural hair. These are my criteria for natural hair:
1) hair that contains no straightening chemicals, or chemicals that loosen the curl (or even tighten it), such as texturizers, relaxers, perms, etc.
2) hair that grows from the head of the person donning it (no wigs, weaves, synthetics, or the like)
Others may define “natural hair” differently, but the two criteria I’ve listed above is how I will use the term “natural hair” throughout this post, and in any other conversations until otherwise noted.
When I first “went natural” I labeled every woman wearing natural hair as a natural woman. Years later, I’m beginning to differentiate between women who merely wear their hair natural and women who are natural in many aspects of their life. I began to notice a lot of women going natural for a while only to revert back to unnatural hair styles when they got bored with or tired of “managing” their natural hair. I noticed women only agreeing to go natural if their hair could “look like that,” referring to a another woman’s style. These phenomena baffled me at first until I realized that not every woman with natural hair has embraced a natural lifestyle.
The woman who merely has natural hair but doesn’t have a natural life style might also wear makeup every day, wear false nails, wear 50% or more of her income in the form of purses and shoes, occasionally switch it up by wearing weaves or wigs, only wear her natural to achieve a certain look, or only go natural if her hair is “good enough.” For this woman, the natural hair is only a part of her efforts to achieve a particular outward appearance. For this woman, natural hair is just a part of fashion, merely a style that’s cool for a while, something different to try. This is a valid approach to hair, and many woman take this approach.
Taking an equally valid approach, but perhaps less common, is the woman who embraces naturalness for it’s deeper implications. She may like her natural hair for aesthetic reasons, but those aren’t the only reasons. She would probably make comments like “it’s so much easier,”and “I feel so free,” rather than comments like, “I just don’t know what to do with it.” She’s probably aware of, even want to rebel against, the historical pressure for black women to conform to European standards of beauty (or these days, the “anything but black” standards for beauty). She probably believes that natural hair is healthier. She’ll probably be comfortable going places without makeup. This type of woman is more likely to appreciate all hair textures, rather than elevating one type as “good hair.”
I used to be of the camp that said you had to be natural to be cool, especially when I was in high school. I soon learned that wasn’t correct, for as my observations show, what’s on the head doesn’t always correlate with what’s in the head. Michelle Obama, for example, is one of my favorite women, and no amount of hair straightening will negate how awesome she is, even though I dislike chemically straightened hair.
I don’t believe different automatically means better or worse, so by differentiating between women’s attitudes about natural hair, I’m not advocating that one attitude is better or worse. I might be implying it, but I’m definitely not advocating it, at least not here in this post, though I might in another post. As I get older (and after reading The Art of Happiness with insights from the Dalai Lama XIV and Howard C. Cutler), I hope that when I do judge, that I do so with compassion, understanding that we are all merely doing the best we know how at any given time.
So if you wear natural hair, why’d you chose to do it? If you would consider natural hair, what would your attitude be? Is it just another hair style? Or does it mean something more to you?
Another S. L. Writes post about hair:
Woman in the Mirror: A Reflection on Hair Length
More about hair from Essence.com and one of my favorite contemporary writers, Demetria L. Lucas:
Viola Davis Wears Natural Hair to the Oscars
Related articles
- How Do You Define Natural Hair? (thediaryofanaturalgal.com)
this is a brill set of questions.
first started wearing my hair not pressed about 20 years ago. mostly because i looked at my hair when after it was just washed and didn’t understand the need to press it to put curls back into it. also i was very young and didn’t appreciate the fussing that older black women would make over hair. it became not a big deal to me. i also had some close family friends who had a lot of african statuary and academic insight that didn’t make the idea of not pressing my hair seem like a big deal. i also cut all of it off. then grew it back and go thru phases of pressing and not pressing. i feel the most chic when i have a banging haircut anh my hair is nappy. i feel the my most fashionable self and most confident when my hair no matter the lenght is curly but only with a really great cut and together. now much older, i appreciate the beauty of well groomed and healthy hair and do find some joy in the notion that a woman’s crown is her glory…and also see that weaves while fun can be addictive and destroy a hairline and a spirit when they’re gone.
Your specific story speaks to the fact that, in general, we go through phases when it comes to our hair, personal style, etc. I definitely think hair should be fun and not a burden.
I like the notion of being defined as natural the way you define it – as a lifestyle rather than a phase. I think that while there may be a ring of hair-choice-centrism in the discussion, there is also a lot of truth about the way women see ourselves. I have worn makeup maybe about 4 times in my life and I felt as if I was hiding when I did. I paint my toenails myself, and my fingernails once in a while (I’ve had a bad experience at a nail salon) but that is not important to me either. My hair has been natural for over a year now and I appreciate its freedom in the sense that I save both time and money, but more so, I am showing the most true side of myself to the outside world. This underlying current behooves me to be my truest self in all aspects of life and changing my hair inspired to to change my eating habits and sedentary lifestyle. Natural hair is just one aspect of being a natural woman. Most people don’t take the time to question their motives for following a fashion.
Thanks for the comment. That sounds like me. I don’t deal with the makeup and nail polish. I do believe that women often deny having a negative view of natural black hair by playing up the choice issue.
Great post. It reminds me of how I felt about the reggae music following when I moved to CA. It seemed that people here followed reggae music and wore dreadlocks as a trend and not necessarily due to a deeper appreciation of the music/culture. I don’t necessarily agree with your definitions but, I do appreciate that you have defined “natural” for your own purposes. My somewhat of a disagreement would only be in how the definitions don’t allow for much of an overlap. For example, I began wearing my hair natural about 15 years ago. It has, at any point been somewhere between completely bald and about 5 inches long. I wear it without straightening because I don’t buy into the idea that straight is what it needs to be. I have worn it bald because I don’t buy into the idea that my hair defines me. Yet, I do like to wear makeup albeit not everyday, I do like to dress up with my heels and bags and designer jeans (they fit much better than the cheap ones I spent a lifetime wearing). So, as much as I am comfortable as I was made, I am also comfortable made up sometimes.
“So, as much as I am comfortable as I was made, I am also comfortable made up sometimes.” I like that idea a lot. It allows us to have fun with our appearance. I know I could never attempt to define any woman other than myself, but I basically realized someone can have natural hair and still not be comfortable in their own skin. However, your comment also reminds me that some women avoid getting dressed up because they’re insecure about drawing attention to themselves. I don’t think we should shy away from being glamorous. We should embrace that, as long as it’s on our own terms, and not based on what we think people expect us to look like.
Thanks for the insightful comments!