Natural Hair Discrimination in the Workplace

Why are African American women afraid or uncomfortable to wear their natural hair in the workplace? Is it the fear of judgement or unprofessionalism?

Only recently in the last couple of years have black women began to embrace their natural hair by wearing their natural curly hair over straightened damaged hair. For several years African Americans have been damaging their hair by putting deadly chemicals or treatments in order to make their hair straight.

As a young girl I grew up thinking that my hair was “ too Nappy- looking”, “Not cute”, or “Ugly”. These are only a few of very many negative words that are used to describe African American hair. At a young age I did not understand these negative connotations about my hair and how much it really affected me.

“ In the 18th Century, British colonists deemed African hair as closer to sheep wool than human hair, setting the model that white hair is preferable or “good”( Areva Martin). After the emancipation of slavery, several African Americans desired to straighten their hair in order to fit into society’s norm.

It was not until I was a freshman in college when I finally began to embrace my natural hair fully. It takes time in order for you to learn to feel beautiful through your natural hair, when you have simply been told for the majority of your life that it looks ugly. While I have truly loved embarking on my journey of loving my natural hair, I have encountered issues in my classroom dealing with my hair. Last fall semester I took a Video Production class and I was the anchor for the HPUNews Station. I was dressed professionally and had my hair in puff which is a natural hairstyle seen in the picture below. After the production of the show, the teacher talked to me and said, “ Next time don’t wear your hair like that, because we are not able to get all of your hair in the shot.” I did not tell the teacher how I felt about his remark about my hair.

My reaction to this was anger at first and someone who was not educated on my hair type. Black women do not have flat straight hair is what I wanted to say but I kept it to myself. Not everyone is educated on African American hair therefore you cannot expect someone to know what they say is offensive or not.

Although it has taken time for me personally to embrace my hair, the best decision I made was going Natural. Even though I have encountered criticism about how my hair looks or how I should wear it. I am fully confident in myself and my hair and going into the professional world, I know that I am going to face issues like I did in my class last year. I want to encourage every young girl to embrace they beautiful hair, although it may not look like everyone else's it is still professional and beautiful. You are not any less professional than your coworker who has silky- straight hair, always remember that.