IT IS 2017 and natural hair is in vogue. When I say natural hair, at least at the first use in this column, you can take it to mean the natural textures of women of African descent.

For women like me (who had their first relaxer, the chemical straightening of our hair, as pre-teens or sometimes younger), the return to natural is almost a rite of passage, just as straight hair came with training bras all those years ago.
Back then, to be a teenager meant an end to puffy plaits and weekly comb-and-brush torture sessions and cornrows.
But what did that rite of passage mean for little African girls, who never saw their kinks as beautiful? What did it mean for self-image and esteem? What really did it say about us, that from as early as we knew what we thought to be beautiful, we aspired to the long plaits of our dolls and all the prettier girls in our schools were the ones with the long, straight, wavy or curly hair? Hair might be considered a superficial thing to be concerned about, especially as adult women. But consider the ‘othering’ of the standard of beauty and its effects on young women.

Truth be told, the standard of what is beautiful in countries like Guyana is impacted by a little thing we call cultural imperialism. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica contributor, Theresa Weynand Tobin, “Cultural imperialism in anthropology, sociology, and ethics is the imposition by one usually politically or economically dominant community of various aspects of its own culture onto another, non-dominant community.
“It is cultural in that the customs, traditions, religion, language, social and moral norms, and other aspects of the imposing community are distinct from, though often closely related to, the economic and political systems that shape the other community.”

This imperialism is sometimes deliberate, but is often just a latent result of top-down information flow, where the media is both the power and the weapon. Basically, what that means is that when a people ingest much of their information, news and entertainment from a dominant media market like the United States, it regularly impacts and changes local culture over time. This means that if in the dominant media market, there is a narrow definition of beauty, though imperialism is just one factor, it stands to reason that it will influence how consumers of that content view themselves.

OUR COLONIAL PAST

Of course, we cannot ignore the effects of our colonial past and how that might have also influenced beauty standards and how we see our hair, skin and other features, but I argue in these pages that it is the same cultural imperialism that has, in part, influenced the way we see ourselves when we look into the mirror that has initiated a local movement that has seen so many women of African descent answering the call to return to natural. I don’t say go natural, because this is where we started.

Women of African descent in the United States and other parts of the world have, over the past decade, embraced their natural tresses, and, frankly, just as relaxed hair was once big business for beauty service providers, natural hair is raking in ‘the green’.
According to Makeda Easter in an LA Times article, “With 71 per cent of black adults in the U.S. wearing their hair naturally at least once in 2016, according to research firm Mintel, natural hair has now hit the mainstream.” These consumers are now spending an estimated $2.56B on hair-care products.

This means you are seeing more women with natural hair in mainstream media as advertisers try to get in on the big bucks. Last weekend, the Promenade Gardens was transformed once again into a veritable natural-hair heaven and haven. Curl Fete, launched in 2016 under the name Curl Fest, though only in its second year, has become the main natural-hair event annually, with many looking to big chop, show up with the biggest afro and finally feel as though they have a place to celebrate a wider ideal of beauty.
Curl Fete, started by entrepreneurs Tamika Henry and Denisha Victor, while initially no doubt styled after Curly Girl Collective LLC’s natural hair expositions in the United States, has become an animal with its own stripes. It is distinctly Caribbean, and has made steps to move away from just being an event which caters to only women of African descent.

THE REALITY

Let’s be real. We cannot replicate or model a new beauty movement that celebrates us with an exclusive, narrow definition, especially in a diverse country such as Guyana, where we celebrate our multiplicity of cultures as a thing of beauty. In fact, girls of Indian descent, Indigenous girls, girls of Portuguese descent and girls of Chinese descent, if they have not been exposed to the ‘nappy head’ culture of shame, initially may well wonder: What is the big deal? Why all this excitement about natural hair?
My hair has always been natural. I have actually been told some version of the above on several occasions. I understand the sentiments and natural-hair movements must be careful not to suggest that natural African textures are more beautiful than any other. I am not here for the reverse hair shaming.

This is why Curl Fete must press forward with their push to engage all textures of natural hair. Representation is important; and every little girl deserves to see herself on the national stage, on television, and at major national events on beautiful women who are embracing what is natural about them, regardless of race and ethnicity. Curl Fete hosted, as part of its activities, a panel discussion which featured participants ranging from bone-straight to curly hair, and representing diversity across religion, sex and sexuality.
Tamika Henry, in a comment to Talk that Talk, said that the consensus of those discussions was that hair should not be used as a divisive tool. She said panellists felt “that it should be used as something that we each celebrate about each other; that we highlight our differences, yes, but we also celebrate and embrace those differences.”

Another point coming out of those discussions is that everybody has faced some kind of discrimination with regard to their hair and other physical attributes, whether it was fear of perception or discriminatory job restrictions.
Yes! It is 2017, but employers still have a say about what hairstyles are deemed appropriate and which ones are not. But perception at the personal level is also an issue. Panellists discussed the issue of hair and sexuality, questioning the often expressed assumption that a woman with a “buzz cut” is a lesbian, or that a man with long hair is a homosexual.

STEREOTYPICAL IMAGES

Inherently, we know that neither hair texture nor style have gender or sexual orientation, but it seems that stereotypical images of how people believe a gay person looks still persist.

Hair, it seems, is a natural form of personal expression that is often a significant part of defining personal identity. Everyone wants the freedom to express themselves and to feel as if they have a place where their unique beauty can be celebrated. While the event was a beautiful sea of black girl magic, it still attracted patrons with their own diverse beauty and self-expression. Henry described attendance as much more diverse than last year, with a good representation of different ethnicities. “There are so many different types of natural hair and curl textures, and we try to include every group in that. So, it is not just an Afro-Guyanese event,” she said, adding that the focus of the marketing and hosting of the event was expanded to include overall, the well-being of all, and to ensure that a wider cross-section of people could see it as something they could enjoy.

Beauty is expansive; it does not have to be a narrow thing. Girls who believe they are beautiful, who are taught they are valuable inside and out, and who feel equal in the national conversation make better decisions for themselves, and are less likely to settle for less than they deserve.

As a woman who grew up hating my hair because it was too short and kinky; who didn’t like my skin mainly because it is prone to blemishes; hating my body because I was too ‘bony’, I value the importance of inculcating self-love in young girls. No decision a young girl makes should be allowed to come from a place of insecurity. Expanding the standards of beauty is more than skin deep; it is about raising a generation of women who feel empowered, and who like what they see when they look in the mirror.

Let us use events such as Curl Fete to validate that feeling of personal value for all girls of all hues and of all hair types.

OTHER CHOICES

But what of women who choose to wear their hair straight, or who love weaves and braids? Let me be clear: not all decisions to abort the natural hair ship come from a place of low self-esteem. African women in certain tribes have been adding length and shape to their hair, using various materials and objects for generations. The women of Namibia’s Himba tribe sport dramatic locs fashioned from using goat hair, butter and mud.

According to the Trip Down Memory Lane Blog, in an article headlined, “Hairstyles in African Culture.” the writer describes the hairstyles of the Zande women of the Democratic Republic of Congo as involving “braiding their own hair along with “foreign” strands in the shape of a disc. This coiffure, called “bagbadi”, was in fact a fan-shaped wig, but was rarely taken off. The disc was attached to the hair with a few loose knots.”
Diversity among women of African descent is a thing to be celebrated, and we must note as well that weaves, extensions and wigs are worn by women of all races. While I am happy that more and more women are beginning to embrace natural hair as a beautiful option, I defend every woman’s right to wear her hair in a way that makes her happy.

Going natural five years ago, for me, I often say, was not a back-to-Africa moment. I was part bored, part ready for change, and part rebellious of all the things that defined me at that time. But I will admit that going natural at a time when less women were inclined to go this route made me acutely aware of just how ugly many people like me considered this hair that naturally occurred from our scalps.
Can you imagine, in our own eyes, this crown we have been blessed with was seen as a thing of ridicule? For some, it is still seen as something to ridicule. Women who rock natural hair still have to field questions like, “What are you doing with your hair?” Or statements like, “Natural is not for everybody,” and all manner of negative comments.
Thankfully, times are changing. Hopefully, we are becoming more open-minded as a people, even beyond hair, and we are learning to see beauty in everything.
That, my friends, is the real rite of passage.