The Cultural Significance of Hair

Photo credit: Raymond Hawkes Panel discussion at Virginia Union featuring Tiffany Jana, left, Grace Blake, Yvette Smalls, Caprece Jackson-Garrett and Ancestor Gold Sky atrracted 75 people.

By Candace Moore
Black College Wire

Intense African drum beats bellowed throughout the hollow chapel at Virginia Union University.

“Hair is a touchy, diverse topic,” percussionist Ancestor Gold Sky proclaimed through the rhythms of the melodic beats.

“Yes,” responded Tiaja Bilah, an 18-year-old freshman, from the audience. “That is a touchy topic.”

This touchy topic affirmed by Bilah and many in the audience was explored Feb. 17 in “Beyond Image, Emancipation through Self-Discovery,” a program addressing issues of cultural awareness through hair in professional society, in self-expression and in beauty.

The interactive discussion, held in Coburn Chapel on the Richmond, Va., campus, attracted about 75 students, faculty and local citizens wearing locs, perms, Afros, weaves, wigs and other textures and styles of hair on an unusually warm February afternoon.

“This is a chance to bring about black culture,” said Patricia Green, CEO of WPG Marketing & Communications, Inc., the program’s production company.

Green, who wears her hair natural, said she pressed her hair into the 1960s because no one had ever told her her hair was nice in its original form.

She began to embrace her ethnicity in the 1970s as a VUU student after the advent of the slogan “black is beautiful.”

“Now we have a culture where we redefine what is natural,” she said. “It is seen through music videos and popular culture.”

In a survey of 152 black female students at Virginia Union by five psychology majors at the university, 67 percent agreed that hair plays an important role in the lives of African American women.

The dialogue featured a renowned panel including Grace Blake, executive producer of Spike Lee’s movie "School Daze"; Yvette Smalls, producer of the award-winning 1998 documentary "Hair Stories" and stylist to such celebrities as singer Eric Benet and poet Sonia Sanchez; Caprece Jackson-Garrett, co-creator of Nappy Collectibles, a line of wearables, accessories and novelty items; and Ancestor Gold Sky, percussionist for Stevie Wonder and Patti Labelle. The event was facilitated by actress Tiffany Jana. Like four of the five panelists, Jana has natural locs.

“Growing locs was the most liberating experience of my life,” she said. “It was a transforming journey. I started one way and came out totally different on the other side.”

Although Jana received self-affirmation by locing her hair, she has been asked to cut her locs in her professional life.

“Crossing that line is the hardest thing ever,” she said of facing that prospect. “I’m here to say know what you’re getting into, understand what you’re doing and how it’s going to affect you in the future.” She chose to keep her locs. In fact, she wrote a letter to one of her potential employers stating that she thought it was unfair for them to give her an ultimatum.

Jackson-Garrett, co-creator of "I'm happy, I'm nappy" collectibles, said she had spent time in South American countries and in Paris. While in these places she said she "felt a freedom for beauty" because foreigners did not focus on the same stereotypes -- emphasizing hair -- as Americans.

"They embraced me for who I was, not who they wanted me to be," she said.

Smalls said she began her quest to research hair after a bad experience in a salon during her college years left her questioning whether stylists really knew or cared about the health of their customers' hair.

"I was flabergasted," she said.

Now, Smalls, a stylist for more than two decades, owns a hair studio in West Philadelphia, Pa. She travels the nation using her negative experience of more than 20 years ago to share what she has learned.

"I'm promoting healing and self-awareness in a time where rejection [of natural hair] is a major proponent in this society," she said.

Gold Sky spoke upon about natural hair from a man's point of view.

He said many European women ask him, "Why don't African American women like to wear their natural hair?"

His response caused the most dialogue in the audience when he stated, "I can only reply because you," African American women, "want to look like them."

Said Blake, the producer, “It’s about time we start looking at who we are as people. We are a beautiful people no matter if we have straight hair, nappy hair or a bald head.”

Candace Moore, a student at Virginia Union University, writes for the VUU Informer.

Posted Feb. 20, 2006