Indian actress Sobhita Dhulipala, who is currently starring alongside Dev Patel in “Monkey Man,” was recently featured in a New York Times article that made me think about my own journey with natural hair.
In the article, Dhulipala discussed feeling like an “outsider” in Mumbai having been raised in South India, as a Telugu speaker in Hindu-speaking Bollywood, through her movie roles featuring characters living in the margins, and stylistically through her clothes and hair, which she notes “set her apart.”
Not unlike here in America, Dhulipala explains that many people are constantly on a journey trying to maintain culturally acceptable hair that’s blown out and straightened, so she describes embracing her naturally curly hair as an “act of rebellion.” She goes on to explain how straightening her hair was a journey, which I could appreciate.
The lack of awareness and the dismissal of the actress' is privilege. It’s also a lack of understanding and sympathy for the challenges that millions of women have faced for centuries.
I have spent most of my life straightening my hair, first with perms, then blow outs before transitioning to silk presses; however, within the last couple of years, I have sought to add a little variety to my look. I have tried braids, flat twists, and wash and go styles. I have also tried twists outs, which I am finding I am fond of as they're quite a complimentary style. Despite this exploration and the positive results, I feel most comfortable with straight hair.
Comfortability with straight hair is something that is not uncommon, as Dhulipala expressed, this is because straight hair makes it easier for people of color (P.O.C.) to assimilate. However, the desire to blend in is something that’s changing with the times.
Back in the 1600s during the slave trade, black women had their heads shaved in attempts to completely remove traces of their culture and to humiliate and dehumanize them. In the next century, some black women were required to cover their hair to comply with laws enacted to suppress their natural features. Moving forward in history, black women encountered the beauty standards that still afflict women and children of color today.
Eurocentric features have been and are currently still considered favorable. Television and movies depict their main characters as beautiful, thin, fair-skinned, and straight-haired. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with women who fit this description, the prevalence of characters who look like this and the scarcity of characters who don’t speaks volumes. It’s not just the tv and film industry either, ads and toys reiterate a preference for such features. Young children of color still are inundated with images that seem to indicate these preferences and wish, from a young age, that they looked more like their doll or the pretty woman on tv rather than being happy with how they were born.
So, while in in the past decade or so, we women of color have embraced our natural hair texture which has led to acceptance through social media, tv, and in the workplace there is still more progress to be made. Part of that ways to go is educating people who haven’t faced these thoughts, feelings, and challenges on why P.O.C. even have these journeys from constant straightening and conforming to embracing our natural selves.
Our hair is beautiful, complex, exciting, interesting, and versatile. It doesn’t always cooperate, flow, grow, or give what we want but having it is a privilege and learning to care for it and love it is a reward.