Inescapable Judgment: Black Women and Hair

“Who in this audience has been judged by their hair?” the host of “Black Women OWN the Conversation” inquires. An overwhelming amount of the Black women in the audience raise their hands. “When I have my hair in long braids, (white customers) won’t speak to me,” an audience member who works in luxury retail attests. “(White customers are) shocked that I can hold an intelligent conversation with them…they assumed I would be the hoodrat girl that happened to be working in luxury retail.”

Black women who wear their natural hair versus wigs in professional settings are more likely to be deemed as less professional. Chastity Jones, a Black woman and young professional, was offered a customer service position in Mobile, Alabama. During the interview, Jones, who wore her hair in dreadlocks, was told that her hair interfered with the company’s grooming policy. Despite her education, impressive background, and overall qualification, Jones’ professional future solely relied on the styling of her hair. In order to receive employment, Jones was instructed to style her hair in a different fashion. Upon refusing to change her hair, Jones lost the job offer.

Minda Harts, a career development expert, was attending a gala luncheon in New York City when she began speaking to a job recruiter, who was a white woman. The job recruiter discussed her difficulties with seeking and recruiting Black women. Harts interrogated the recruiter and asked her to specify the exact type of Black woman that she seeks to recruit. Specifically, Harts asked whether a Black woman with natural hair or straightened hair has a higher chance at being recruited. The recruiter responded that a Black woman with a “clean-cut” appearance, translating to unnatural, has a higher chance. “I’ll be honest with you: I wear my hair straight probably 99 percent of the time because, being in corporate America, I’ve seen how clients who have braids and natural hairstyles can be looked upon,” Harts reveals.

1 in 5 Black women experience pressure to straightentheir natural hair for professional settings, in order to avoid any negative labels or be subjected to racist treatment. The hot hair-straightening comb, which was adapted by Annie Malone nearly a century ago, made it easier for Black women to straighten their hair. The small but mighty comb moves throughout the hair, moves over the natural curls, and transforms them into straight strands of hair. Consequently, natural hair, the signifier of Black womanhood, is removed and replaced by an attempt to conform to whiteness. Nowadays, the hair straightening comb has been reproduced and manifested into more advanced hairstyling technologies. It is now easier, and arguably more widely socially instructed, that Black women opt out of styling their hair naturally.

“We are judged by everything we do, have, wear and speak,” YouTube user Ms. Nola responds to the OWN video. Before a Black woman even gets a chance to speak for herself, her hair and its styling determine the outcomes of both her minor and major interactions. Jobs lost, opportunities unavailable, and assumptions of inadequacy hinder Black women from wearing their hair naturally and instruct them that straight hair, resembling that of white women, ensures higher rates of success.