1. JOCELYN D JONES
APRIL 17, 2014
SO 499 A
BETHUNE-COOKMAN UNIVERSITY
SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT
2. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this study was to determine whether Black women who wore their hair
in the natural form experienced more negative societal reactions than Black women
who wore their hair in other forms.
By placing Black women at the center of analysis, using the combination of Black
Feminist Epistemology (BFE) and Strain/breakdown Theory, this qualitative study
contributed a unique viewpoint to the field of sociology.
3. Purpose of Study
To discover why black women choose to wear natural hair and other forms of hairstyles, thus,
understand why black women were stigmatized for choosing to wear chemically free tresses.
To give historical and contemporary information in order to gain meaning and insight about
natural hair, straight hair, and other hairstyles.
To gain a retrospective view about the genesis of stigmas developed historically during slavery
and an overview on how stigmas of the past influence the perceptions of African American
women’s body image in contemporary times.
My goal
In essence, my goal was not only to anticipate possible multiple influences on their decision, but
also fully explore the full range of the experiences of Black women who wore their hair in the
natural form from the standpoint of the women themselves.
4. • Black hair Care market
• Natural hair
• Straight Hair
• Negative Stigma in Ads and the Media
• Stigmas about Hair Texture
• Politics of Black Hair
Literature Review
5. Lit Review
Natural Hair
What is natural hair?
Frances (2011) defines Black women’s natural hair as “hair that is not
processed and not chemically altered”.
Historically, Africans have worn their hair in the natural form for various
reasons. “In early fifteenth century hair functioned as a carrier of messages
or was an integral part of a complex language system in most west African
societies” (Byrd and Tharps 2002:2).
African, hairstyles have been used to indicate a person’s
marital status
lineage
community or for naming
natural hairstyles as a connection to the spirit world
natural hairstyles in artistic African artistry
Historical Connotation of Natural Hair Stigmas
Good hair and bad hair concept -Good hair was a term used among
African Americans and understood as hair resembling European hair. The
term bad hair was a term used amongst African Americans and understood
as hair being kinky. Bad hair was considered as natural hair. “Generalized
and derogatory
Run Away Slave Ads in newspapers and Stereotypical cartoons Sambo
(American cartoon), Goliwog (British Cartoon)
The physical attributes of African Americans-their skin color, facial
structure, and of course, their thick, curly hair- were freighted with
negative connotations” (White and White 1995:56).
Scientific racism - the 1850s a scientist, Peter A. Browne claimed
that African Americans and White men must be from differing species
because White men have hair while African Americans have wool and
not hair on their heads” (Bellinger 2007: 64).
6. Natural Hair
“Black Is Beautiful”
“Black is Beautiful”
1960’s and 1970’s Era was a celebration of Black Self-Image and positive
Self-esteem. Embracing Black Hair and black hairstyles such as the Afro
and dreadlocks.
These styles were symbolic to the Black Power movement and worn by
powerful African American men and women such as Angelia Davis who
was apart of the Black Panther Party.
Dreadlocks were also a powerful , religious, and political hairstyle. A
famous political black activist who wore dreadlocks was Bob Marley.
Dreadlocks or Dreds are the most controversial hairstyle worn amongst
those of African decent (Davis 2001).
Presently, natural hairstyles are becoming more popular Afros, braids,
cornrows, dreads, two-strand twists are some of the natural hairstyles
worn by African-Americans.
Dickerson and Schley (2013) states, “For generations, the natural state of
African-American hair has been stigmatized as nappy, unkempt and
unprofessional. However, black women are owning their curly kinky locs- and
it’s trending”.
Why Black Women Opt To Wear Natural Hair
To overthrow the white beauty standards pre-
determined in society
Ethnic pride , self-consciousness, cultural/political
statements
To grow healthy hair without out harmful chemicals
Exploring versatile natural hairstyle options with
chemical free tress
“More black women are opting to go natural with styles
ranging from afros, braids, and locs to straightening with heat
and opting not to use sodium hydroxide and other harmful
chemicals for the hair” (Rudavsky 2011).
7. Straight Hair Weaves
Historical connotation of Straight hair
“During the 1800s, hair was an indicator of one’s slave
status; today hair is a marker of beauty norm in African
American society. Women with straightened hair are
still considered the beauty norm in African Americans”
(Bellinger 2007:65).
“Post emancipation African American culture did the
double duty of investing in two things to “fix” their
blackness their otherness. ‘Skin bleaching’ and hair
straightening were the dual remedies” (Stinson 2011:3).
Mulattos or bi-racial children of the slave master were more
privileged because of their European features specifically hair
texture or “good hair” than those of darker hue and kinkier
hair which caused stigmas amongst African Americans hence
the Hair Hierarchy.
8. Straightening Hair Techniques
Madam C.J. Walker was credited for beginning the first black hair care market
and millionaire in the early 20th century. She began and fine tuned hair straightening
techniques and hair care products. Many of the techniques are used today and more
technically advanced.
There are 3 main methods of hair straightening
9. Weaves and Wigs
What are Weaves and extensions?
What are Weaves or Hair Extensions?
Weaves were hairstyles created by weaving or gluing pieces of real
or artificial hair into a person's existing hair, typically in order to
increase or decrease its length or thickness
Weaves were created in the 1980’s to give an alternative look for
straight hair that wasn’t damaging to the scalp and eliminating the
use of harsh chemicals.
Using weaves have crossed racial lines and are used in for beauty
enhancements for celebrities and everyday persons
Pool (2009:6) said, It is evident that extensions and weaves are opt in
various races and ethnicities, but the major difference between other
races of females and black females is that when white women wear
extensions it is not an issue of self-hated, but for black women
choosing styles other than natural is a political act, self-hatred, some
deep desire to be white.
Why Black Women Opt to Wear Straight hair or
Weaves?
Assimilation and inclusiveness in mainstream society
The appearance of the hair texture is softer and straighter
Hair is easier to manipulate, easier to resist moist or wet
environments
Straight hair is considered more professional in business,
political, media institutions
Straight hair is considered more attractive than natural hair
10. African American Women’s Hair and
Negative Stigmas
Historical Connotations about Natural Hair Stigmas
Negative perceptions of natural hair began during slavery from
white slave owners.
The pejorative precision of the salient expression, ’nigga hair’,
neatly spells out how, within racism’s bipolar codification of
human value, black people’s hair has been historically devalued
as the most visible stigma of blackness, second only to skin
(Mercer, 1987:35).
Negative hair stigmas rapted towards African American women
began during the beginning of the African Diaspora.
The stigmas were associated with hair texture and skin color
caused a strain to many black women who do not genetically
have” good” or straight hair and lighter skin complexions.
The pressures of assimilating into European beauty standards,
imagery from magazines, media, family members, friends, and
other external forces that influence white beauty images to
women of color, it is very easy for African American women to
experience anomie.
Negative Natural Hair Stigmas in the Media
Historically, black stigmas seemed to append positions in
advertisements during slavery to exploit, stigmatize and seize
the deviant runaway slaves and as a continuous cipher; it is
presently represented in today’s advertisements and media.
Presently, the perception of straighter hair and lighter skin
being more beautiful than darker skin and kinky hair is still
present and is strongly represented in the media and
advertisement.
The ideology on subliminal messages through black media and how
the media shun natural black hair as attractive, black women have
been conditioned to believe that their natural hair is unattractive.
Today, this notion is still present for many black women. The
images in popular black media subliminally suggest and conceal the
ideology that natural black hair is unattractive (Thomas 2013:2).
11. Politics of Black Hair
“Black hair is not just biological, it’s not just racial, but black hair is political. Therefore, hair can
be seen as an indicator of gender, social class, sexual orientation, political views, religion and
even age”(Bellinger 2007:66).
Natural hair can also bring economic devastation or advancement. Unfortunately, there are
numerous cases where wearing natural hair such as an afro, braids, and other natural
hairstyles have brought economic devastation and loss of careers.
“Even around three or four years old African American children understand what “good” hair
means for themselves and the social hierarchy it can create” (Bellinger 2007:66). The ideology
of beauty, white skin and straight hair is embedded in the minds of very young black children
and discrimination does not have a respecter of age, gender, class, or race it can affect and
attack anyone at any time.
13. Theoretical Framework
There were two theories that fused and that
established the theoretical framework of this
research paper.
Black Feminist Epistemology
Strain/breakdown Theory
BFE /Strain
Strain
Theory
Black Feminist
Epistemology
15. Data Collection
The literature for this study was closely related to African
American women wearing natural hair and society’s
negative
Overall, the literature focused on the history of negative
perception on natural black hair, race and gender
discrimination, and black hair politics that African
American women have faced historically and presently. I
analyzed the data according to Glass’ (1981) analytical
approach.
I used Boolean searches on Google, Google Scholar,
ProQuest, EbscoHost, Bing, JSTOR, and Yahoo
In totality, I analyzed 254 pages of data from 34 published
and non-published scholarly journals, studies, short essays,
and articles that was used in the analysis.
The information gathered dated back from 1966 to 2013,
which is a span of 47 years of information
Data Collection
16. Data Analysis
Historical Hair stigmas
30 of the studies did include and/or reference historical and cultural connotations
about black women wearing natural hair and negative perception starting from
the African Diaspora , 20th century, and presently
African American Hair Politics
11 out of 34 studies correlated with African American stigmas and hair politics. Within
the studies were specific types of politics such as hairstyle politics, hair politics in
employment institutions, hair politics in relation to hair texture or the “good” hair
concept.
Negative Perception of Black Women in the Media
11 out of 34 studies examined for this study were about
negative perceptions of Black women in the media and
advertisements. Negative Perceptions Hair and Body Images
8 out of 34 studies bring historical views and negative perceptions of African American body image
which includes natural hair worn by African American women and the overall stigmatized African
American female body in society.
17. Results
3 Step Comparative Method
Black women
who choose to
wear natural hair
do experience
stigma
(A)Similarities
13 out of 34 studies
similarly agree that black
women wear natural hair
for
self-identity and
experience stigma
because of it.
(B) Differences
The differences that were
found in many of the
articles were the
importance or emphasis
when people regarded hair
as their identity.
(C) Uniqueness
There were several findings that were
unique. The strongest finding that was
unique to this study was that 11 out of 34
studies say that politics on hair texture,
(good hair /bad hair concept specifically)
represented the strongest findings.
18. Conclusion
Do black women who wear their hair in the natural form experience stigmas from society?
My study has evidenced that women who are brave enough to rock natural hairstyles face
many negative responses from their environment. Some stigmas grow from Europeans and
European standards of beauty.
Surprisingly, some stigmas rise up from other black women still another stigma and
perhaps the scariest come from inside the natural rocker herself. Also, inferences from my
research, evidence self-identity, gender, and race historically has and presently does affect black
women who wear natural hairstyles have to contend with on a daily basis.
