For years the western world has pushed beauty standards onto women. But what most people don’t understand are that most of their beauty standards are implicitly rooted in eurocentricity and are a result of colonization. As a result of white supremacy, the entire world has been brainwashed to idealize and favor Europeanness. These eurocentric beauty ideals deems ‘Caucasian’ (or the closest thing to it) a universal touchstone for physical appeal and any deviation from it is seen as ugly or undesirable.
In terms of beauty standards, eurocentricity is the monstrous power that had us call our blonde, blue-eyed dolls ‘Cinderella’, and see our skinny, blonde barbie dolls as the epitome of “beauty”. Not to mention, we as humans are constantly bombarded with white and white washed images of beauty due to the lack of representation of black women and women of color in the beauty industry. This history of racism left a pervasive, prehistoric pandemic, for the entire world that none of us are immune too, including people of color.
As black people present the exact opposite of europeanness, our physical appearance goes against what the world and white suprecemy has deemed as beautiful and valuable. Instead of eurocentric features, we have afrocentric features, and no matter how much we deny it, we have been affected by what the world and society has slowly taught us about beauty.
It’s no secret that black women are physically different than the rest of the world. Our blackness is loud, and unless you’re physically racially ambiguous or biracial, it’s almost impossible to hide. One way that black people appear differently than every other race is our hair. Our hair texture is naturally curly unlike the rest of the world’s. For centuries black hair has been one of the cornerstones of black culture. It’s given us a way to bond and stay connected to our African roots though braids, styles, creating textures and patterns, and express our individuality while gaining confidence.
Although the natural hair movement has been empowering black women these two decades, it also has many bitter sweet moments, due to the history of racism in America.
In the early 1900’s the relaxer was created to help black women assimilate into white America and society. Instead of black women wearing their naturally curly hair, they used chemicals to permanently straighten it, to better blend in with white culture. Unfortunately this creation became a double edged sword in our community.
For many years, particularly in the 90’s black women used relaxers to chemically straighten their hair. Unfortunately, this became the “norm” and straighter hair became the “ideal” way to wear our hair. Therefore it slowly but surely became a beauty standard in our community.
However, in the early 2000’s we see black women begin to defy this beauty standard and expectation. We were tired of damaging our hair with relaxers and using chemicals to change our naturally curly texture. So we began to “go natural” or as I prefer to say we “returned natural”, and this empowered us.
However, due to our history, in this “returning to natural hair” we see anti-blackness come to life, even within our own communities. We begin to see colorism and texturism come into play, in which straighter hair textures and looser curl patterns are preferred. We see people praise looser curl patterns and “mixed” girls hair by specifically calling it “good” hair while simultaneously rejecting kinkier hair textures. We see a shaming of black women with short hair by seeing insults on social media, like “That’s why you’re bald headed” or “Keep your wig on, sis”, etc. In short, we begin to see a rejection of loud afro-centric features and kinky hair and an exaltation of whiter or watered down versions of our blackness.
And as a result of this, some black women have experienced this internalized sense of self-hatred for their hair. And if it’s not self hate, it’s a lack of confidence that comes about when we wear our hair in its most natural state. This leads many black women to “hide” their real hair using sew-ins, weaves, extensions, and other protective styles. Hair plays a huge role in self confidence, and when you have been conditioned to prefer a certain hair type (long, straight hair), this can challenge the way you view your hair and yourself. This is why some women (including myself, sometimes) feel more confident wearing a hair type that is different than their own. It’s because the “preferred” hair type is looked at more positively by society, which inherently instills a false sense of confidence in them. And this sense of approval for the fake version of themselves leads to many self-esteem issues.
However, fortunately, this is not where it ends. This is where education, empowerment, and Biblical standards should interject. God created black women, including our diversity of hair types for a reason, and we are all created in His image. And no matter how much you kick and scream, it doesn’t change that your hair type was intentionally chosen for you and His glory. Whether you decide to acknowledge it or not, these euro-centric ideas and feelings about hair are not due to a personal preference, they are due to racism and colonization.
Sisters, all hair is “good” hair. As black women, it is our duty to educate, empower, and take back everything (including our confidence) that both white supremacy and the enemy tried to steal from us, and sometimes, this simply starts with self-love, and loving our hair and the skin we’re in.