I understand why you think this. It's an
easily digestible thought; sometimes I think it too. On those mornings when I’ve
snoozed all three of my alarms and have no time to lay my edges, I think it
too, “Oh it doesn’t matter—it’s just hair.”
The New York Times recently published an article saying that the state is finally putting laws in place preventing
workplaces from having discriminatory etiquette guidelines, particularly those
pertaining to traditionally black hairstyles: braids, dreadlocks, afros etc. Being
reminded that laws like this still exist, puts “It’s just hair” in perspective.
Hearing personal anecdotes from friends and family who’ve been told they look
unprofessional or being sent home from school for wearing their hair as it
naturally comes from their head makes it hard, rather impossible, to believe
that it’s just hair. Maybe it is to me, but the rest of the world doesn’t view
it that way. Is it “just hair” if it’s not suitable for a workplace?
There was also the ‘boxer braids’ phenomena.
In 2016 Kim Kardashian wore her hair in cornrows and was credited with creating
a style called ‘boxer braids’. Obviously, they are not braids, nor were they
invented by Kim Kardashian but as a budding young adult having seen my own
friends and family not being allowed to wear that very hairstyle to school and
their jobs, and then seeing Kim Kardashian not only praised for the style, but
credited with inventing it—I really do begin to ask myself if it is “just hair”,
who’s hair is it? Because it’s not Kim’s hair. Or Kim’s hair type that is the
problem. And it’s not the style, either. On Kim the style was chic and new. On
me, it was unprofessional.
So what about when people who don’t have
naturally straight hair wear straight hair? Is it just hair then? Not quite.
The issue is the origins. The attack isn’t on the style, it’s on the person.
When a specific type of person is disallowed from wearing their hair as it is,
what choice is there but to make it fit the type of hair that’s allowed?
That’s the difference. There’s no
historical ban or persecution of straight hair, or those who grow it. That’s the
hair that’s “just hair”. Not mine. My hair was never just hair.