I shaved my head! The statement doesn’t sound as dramatic as I thought it would, considering all the grief I’ve received for doing this one simple thing. This has convinced me beyond all doubt that that “the personal is political” as Audre Lorde put it.
I shaved my straightened hair and went natural for many reasons:
1. I hate salons and that nagging feeling I always got that the salonists were gossiping about me right in my face once they realised I don’t know luganda.
2. Going to the salon every other week is tedious and expensive! I was spending about 100,000 shillings every month on salon appointments and hair product alone on my broke student budget. Plus those hair straightening chemicals burn like (a bad word)!
3. Most important for me, I was finally ready to embrace and be the real me, the me that doesn’t cost a hundred thousand shillings a month, a burnt scalp and 30minutes in front of the mirror every morning to create. I didn’t (still don’t) see why I had to adhere to a standard of beauty- straight and shiny hair- that I had no part in setting, and that clearly isn’t natural to me. As if I am ugly and all these hair straightening chemicals and sheen sprays somehow made me prettier!
So I shaved my head! And the apocalypes began!
“Why would you do such a thing?” “treated hair just looks nicer!” “You look like a villager!” “Why are you trying to misrepresent your age?” “You don’t look presentable!” “you don’t look like a womyn anymore!” and finally, the cherry on the cake, “so are you a lesbian now?”
These are all things that have been said to me and questions I have been asked by grown-ass people, most of them womyn, because of my natural hair. It says alot about what we think of our natural African hair doesn’t it? we’ve been convinced (I don’t even know by whom) that our natural hair is ugly, a symbol of poverty and un-tidyness, and worst of all, that it is not feminine enough! Oh, and of course beware ladies, having natural hair will turn you into a lesbian…sausage* just!
Now, am not saying all womyn should go natural, after all we all have a right to decide what we think is good for us and our bodies and appearance (and not many of us can withstand the shitty questions and comments); am just saying that going natural is the best choice I have made for me! And we seriously need to interrogate why we hold on so tightly to certain ideals of beauty for ourselves and others that we are willing to bully and even try to shame others into adhering to them.
What I do with my hair is my business and what you think about it is yours, so please lets stay out of each other’s business while I express my joy at finally being able to walk in the rain without worrying about my new hairdo, finally being able to be completely naked in the shower and in bed (no shower caps or hair nets needed), being able to go swimming whenever I feel like it and not just the day before my hair appointment, and finally being able to play with and touch my hair anytime I want without worrying about messing it up or getting obscene amounts of oil on my fingers 🙂 .
Its also great to finally own all of me- I always felt that my hair belonged to the salonist, especially on those particularly bad hair days when I’d walk into the salon and she goes “what did you do to it this time?” as if I owed her an apology for ruining my head of her perfect hair, ha!
I especially love the feeling that am making a political statement every morning when I roll my eyes and say “yes mummy, I just combed” and then proceed to take my nappy-headed-village-lesbian-looking head to work,… every time I walk by that girl with the horrible weave who frowns at my hair, or the old lady who always advices me to “at least relax it to make it easier to comb”, or the silly boy who now calls me gangstalicious. To all these people I just smile and say, this is what African hair looks like and the fact that you have such a problem with it should be what bothers you, not what I choose to do to my hair.
Isn’t she lovely….
Plus, I feel and look as beautiful as ever 🙂
*sausage- generic term for all things that irritate me 🙂
godivasmarbles 