"I Got My Hair Straightened", and other Ways to Say the Media Wins This Round
CONTENT/ TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of racism, colonialism, sexism and mental health issues
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"I am not your expectations."- India Arie
Five days into the new year and I am thinking about new beginnings. A new beginning can be as vague and non-dramatic as changing your usual alarm time from 6:40am to 6:45am. Or, in my case, it can be as chemically charged and appearance-altering as permanently straightening your signature long, frizzy, thick hair. Yes. I am that overly concerned person when it comes to my hair, skin, clothes and really anything that is part of-or comes in direct contact with- my body. Someone once told me flesh is a prison, and we are all prisoners. If that's true, I want to decorate my cell with things that make me feel good. Or at least, make me feel less bad. The world is a negative enough place already. Call me vain or conceited, but human bodies are politicized structures and spaces. This is particularly true of human cis-gendered female bodies of colour. We are politicized from the moment we are born. As a person who, since birth, has ticked 'yes!' to several of these so-called 'minority' criterions, I think about my physicality a hell of a lot. How can I not. We are reminded, every day of our lives, even in the most subtle ways, that we are 'other' and 'alternative'. Never the default. 'Political' is only an umbrella term. There are subsections to this 'otherness'. Colonialism, imperialism, colourism, classism, sexism (specifically, misogyny).
Why did I straighten my hair? To make it more manageable. A simple enough reason. To me, a good enough one. And yet, as with most things in our communal Pacific societies, I had to answer a few questions from people who wanted to know whether my decision was a 'statement'. And by that, some of them meant to ask, have I given up 'the fight'? The fight, of course, is the 'resistance' that our region must put up in order to continue decolonizing our minds, bodies and natural environments. It is not unlike the resistance that formerly colonized peoples of colour everywhere have had to put up, and continue putting up, even decades after the end of political colonization. For women of colour who have textured hair, keeping that hair in its natural state is often regarded as an important part of resistance. We are, after all, resisting the editing, whitewashing and otherwise 'altering' of us into anglicized forms that comply with the dominant majority's perceptions of beauty and worthiness.
I don't consider the questions about my 'new' hair to be nosy, or overly inquisitive. I welcome them. They give me a chance to do something that I have always felt should also be an important part of 'the fight'- to speak FOR MYSELF, AS MYSELF. It is my belief that the constant over- homogenization of entire, distinct racial and ethnic groups drowns out the voices of the individual HUMAN BEINGS within them. It is yet another colonial ploy to keep us small and voiceless. We will never win that way.
And so...this is my answer. I 'changed' my hair because I wanted to. Because I'm busy and don't have three hours every morning to comb and brush and moisturize and wash and dry and gel and style my hair. I have less migraines now that my hair is lighter, and I don't have to go around everyday with so much moisture (conditioner AND shampoo) on my head. My hair smelled bad (fact!) and often felt bad too. I made a decision that gave me an easier, happier, less expensive life. It is MY decision, for my body, and it has served me the way I had hoped it would. If THAT is not resistance, I don't know what is.
