by
Elle D.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, feminist author and the new face of Boots No7 cosmetics, recently sat with NY Mag for an interview and as always, she did not disappoint. She was interviewed about her take on beauty as it relates to feminism. I always find what Adichie has to say thought provoking. Particularly when she spoke about hair as it relates to race;
“Hair is something we see, but we don’t understand what’s behind it, kind of like race. It’s the same way that something seems obvious, but it is really complicated and complex. For example, to see a middle-aged white woman who has highlights is not something everyone in the world necessarily understands, especially if it’s because she struggles to cover her grays. Or if you’re a black women, sometimes the way that your hair grows from your head isn’t considered “professional” by people who don’t know black hair. I don’t think it’s that people are malicious, I think it’s just some people don’t know what the hair that grows from the head of black women actually looks like.”
She also spoke about her own relationship with her hair;
“I don’t think we have enough time to talk about this. It’s interesting because I can say very excitedly now that I absolutely love my hair and I wouldn’t change it. But, it’s a relationship that has its ups and downs. There are times when I just don’t have the time for my hair and I let it be a matted mess. And there are times when I think of my hair as this glorious gift from God in all of its kinkiness. There are times when it’s frustrating and I go through a phase of having such a difficult time keeping the damn hair moisturized — it’s utter frustration. And there are other times when I’m having a really good day with my hair. I’m still looking for the perfect hair moisturizer.”
Ladies, what do you think?
26 Responses
I don’t think it matters the reason or intentions of Whites. Who cares. They need to stop being racial bullies and leave Blacks be without their prying, judging, negative eyes.
Yeah? Really? … my answer to her is ‘Dream on’. Who is she trying to kid? … Possibly not even herself by the sound of it.
Yeah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie should just stop talking. It looks like the mouth is running ahead of the brain here…or so, I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt.
We (meaning all people on planet Earth) are unique individuals. We (yes – each of us WITHIN our different races) have different skin tones, color and hair textures. Therefore, Hair is of an individual basis/relationship. Only the owner of the hair can truly know their hair – disappointments and joys alike! We all are going to style our hair according to how it can be handled and managed— meaning — our individuality. Let’s not mistaken a “healthy head of hair” for “a pleasing style” (probably to the unappeasables). Professional hair should properly be defined as a CLEAN head of hair, free of bugs, free of odor and a little combed. And that goes for everybody!! Thank you.
Where did she say that natural hair is bad?
And to add to the complexity of our hair. It’s a conflicting space to have a love/hate relationship, learn our hair, understand our coils/curls, all while its natural state is constantly questioned, mocked, and appropriated. In addition to the burden of convincing the world our hair’s right to exist. Lordddd. I’m still learning to love my shrinkage and I’m suppose to convince you its value. Bye Felicia.
I had my black woman manager ask me to wear my hair in a bun or get my hair straighten, but then circled back with–probably because she thought of HR and being politically correc)-“-I think your natural hair is beautiful, but keep it tight” tight being wear a bun everyday…and she also told me I need to look more like them, because when you do, they trust you more. She said that my performance, attire, professionalism, and everything elses was great, but my hair was not, and if I got that hair thing under control, “sister girl, things could really take off for you.” Lastly, she made sure to mention, if my projects doesn’t go well, “don’t say I didn’t tell you so.” meaning my hair would make all the difference in my success.
Lookahere, I have been very successful in my career. Granted, my hair hasn’t always been natural, but that shouldn’t matter and I’m sure it didn’t matter at the time. The funny thing is when I wear my hair in twists out, they are bomb and I always get compliments from my non black and black coworkers like “you should wear your hair like this all the time…” I use to wear it out more in twists outs and Bantu knot outs, but I’m not going to lie, my manager’s comments have made me be a little insecure when I do, however my nonblack coworkers and black girl magic powers have allowed me to not give a f….about her comments. I sometimes want to tell people, well thanks for the compliments, but I’ve been instructed not to wear my hair like this by _________. It’s hard for me, because I know she thinks she trying to be helpful, but it’s a blow, not just to me, but to all of the black women out here rocking their natural hair. And the thing is, every woman isn’t going to push back the way I did…and will probably go back to a perm…because of the insecurities.
Damn it! We stilllllll have a lot to learn….I wish I could say I’m surprised but I’m not.
Part of me doesn’t want to be the bastion of natural hair knowledge, though. I’m glad to talk briefly about a style I have in or what I do, but I’m not going to be the sage of kinks or field questions about other black women. I can appreciate respectful curiosity, but you should extend that curiosity to finding out for yourself. No one ever asks white women what they do with their hair because it’s “average.” So is mine. There are hundreds of millions on the kink spectrum.
“Sage of kinks…” I love it!
Nope. I highly doubt that the majority of non-black people do NOT know what typical Black hair looks like. If anything it is a very small percentage. And even if she was right, when it is confirmed that the hair is natural, you never hear about someone saying… OH my bad! Here’s your job back!
This issue that black women often face in the work place is all about forced conformity.
So very true..be like us or get out or we will “find”a way to see to it that you leave us!!!….grrrrrr
*small comment* can you place the actual photo of Chimamanda on this article so that I can pin this please?
I’m sitting on a fence with this one because I do consider some forms of ignorance malicious when it comes to responding to blackness. For example, culturally speaking, if I move to a location that has little connection to the outside world (this includes technology-based connectivity) yes I understand that they might laugh at me or look at me with that side eye because of basic survival instincts that push us to act a certain way with clear-to-see “strangers”. Now for how white people from urban settings react to our Afro-textured hair or whatnot: I judge it according to age and background. In many cases I have noticed that some people have been exposed to it on many occasions but due to their subjective views, which they choose to have, they play the ignorance card in order to throw shade and look harmless. You can choose to be as flexible or inflexible as you want and in many cases they are just projecting their white ideals onto us and those ideals have NOTHING to do with us! These people are not harmless, I mean look at what happened to Lil Kim! If you are that clueless: EDUCATE YOURSELF. There is enough on the internet about our hair and its diversity; how long are we going to attempt to justify this nonsense!
Yes, SOME OF IT IS lack of education, curiosity, and some of it is being ignorant and malicious. That still doesn’t give people the right to poke fun of and make laws against our hair…neat, clean…sure no wild colors like blue and pink unless the work place allows that or you work at home….when will this stop?! (Sigh)
So they’re being ignorant, not malicious? Who knew!
LOL
She clearly meant some of the people, not all. You’re clearly taking her words out of context. The woman is obivously for natural hair and if you look at her other interviews she’s pro black.
She is absolutely right in some ways. My white boss is constantly asking the black women at work about their natural hair. There was a time when I was offended, because in a room full of people he said to me, “now what are you doing with your hair now?” I wasn’t annoyed at first. I just explained that unleashed my ‘fro. This was after I took out my braids. But later I was a bit annoyed. When I spoke to other black women at the office about it, women who’ve been at the job longer than I have, they said, that’s what he does. He’s curious and they believe he likes it and finds it intriguing. He hasn’t had the nerve to touch anyone’s hair which is a good thing, but he’s eager to learn about the wonders of our hair and how we are able to change it so often.
I feel two ways about it. It’s annoying because I feel like black people know so much about white women and their world. So I don’t agree with Chimamanda about a white woman and her highlights. I think the average black woman (in America) knows about the process they go through (because many of us have done the same things to our own hair or extensions). We know that they wash their hair pretty much everyday and we know why. We know how their texture feels. We know them more because they are “mainstream” and they are the “standard.” But still in 2016 they don’t know us. They only come into our world, if ever, in ways that are convenient for them. If there was more INCLUSION on their part in so many areas of life, there would be less CONFUSION about who we are.
But I also feel that some of them do want to know us and they probe us, but it starts to feel like they are treating us as if we’re “exotic” like animals, or other, rather than human beings with a different hair texture.
Most white women do not wash their hair everyday. Unless their hair is very fine and oily, 2 or 3 times a week is much more common and white women with curly hair stretch it out longer than that. My own white husband washes his hair once a week as its curly. We don’t know as much about each other as you might think… There are assumptions and confusion on both sides which is the point of the article.
First off, most white people do not have curly hair. You can look up statistics to see just uncommon to is. Secondly, just because your husband is white, you now know what every white person does with their hair? Have you actually asked any of them what their routine is? After being around a lot of them growing up, I can attest to many of them washing their hair daily.
Not sure if the tone of your response to @london was necessary.i mean the same way her white husband doesn’t make her know everything about white people neither does your having white friends either
The point she was trying to make still stands it is inaccurate to believe ALL white people wash their hair everyday as this varies depending on texture oiliness and personal preference. Some wash everyday, some twice a week or once a week etc
All of you are wrong. It has to do with their bathing routine NOT hair texture. Also I had white friends who washed their hair daily, but not take a bath. Others who bath weekly. Some monthly if they were more ‘European’.
I basically said that not ALL white people wash their hair everyday which is the salient point and gave a range of reasons including texture , oiliness and PERSONAL PREFERENCE , so if the white people you know have a personal preference to wash their hair once a year .once a month or whatever then that is covered in my post ( see also the meaning of the word etc ) …..
it seems people on here are slow to read with any comprehension but are quick to try and correct people rudely and unnecessarily
White people as a group bath once a week. It has NOTHING to do with hair texture. I found THAT out the hard way.
We dont need to tell them anything. We are not petting animals nor exhibit portraits for them. Theres something wrong with both wm and ww they simply cant leave us the F alone.
I feel that the dominated groups know a lot about the lives of the dominant group, because it’s freaking *everywhere*, and you’re expected to abide by these rules (one example: have you noticed the number of makeovers in films where the white woman has to straighten her curls to be beautiful? First example that pops in my head is Mia Thermopoulos in Princess Diaries, but there’s many more. What does it say about frizzy or kinky hair?).
And in the same time the dominant group does not know the first thing about lives of the dominated group, which entails a lot of misconceptions, prejudices and generally very annoying situations. White man, we are not here to teach you! You want info on our hair? Google it and leave us alone, FFS!