Opinion Piece

Don’t Touch My Hair.

Spirals, Bundles Quaffs and Curls,
My hair surrounded by interest
They go and grab as if mining for diamonds and pearls!
But for the love of your fingers
Do Not Touch.

I wish a small Poem was enough to get my point across however I must inform and educate people on a situation minority women find themselves in: That being strangers and even acquaintances non-consensually touching their hair. This can seem like a harmless offence on the surface: “It’s just hair,” “It’s a compliment that someone is curious!” However, heed my warning that these reasonings have historically rooted implications as to why it is not just hair, nor should curiosity be taken as a sign of appreciation necessarily.
DISCLAIMER if my views oppose a close friend, colleague, relative’s view where they have stated it is not a big deal to them the key thing to remember is “to them!” and the same goes for my personal beliefs also; Ideologies tied to racially intertwined topics will always be unique to an individual and so one cannot take on one or two opinions and expect that to be acceptable for an entire population of people and so this piece is ultimately trying to promote having certain cautions by presenting historical facts that relate to the topic of black women’s hair.

It’s Just Hair.

To begin undermining hairs value to humans is shortsighted to say the least. Culturally hair has all sorts of different meanings of importance, for the Yao ethnic group in China women would never cut their hair and would care for it with rice water. In 18 century, Europe hairstyles were influenced and imposed upon by the Rococo aesthetic. Having large extravagant hair with fruit as accessories became a sign of wealth and power. The 1960s saw an era of Iconic hairstyles like the beehive held by hairspray. So globally and throughout the time we see their has never just been hair; it has molded along with fads, values, and purpose and in Africa, it can be said that hair played one of the most purposeful roles as it legitimately saved lives. During the slave trade, African and Caribbean people were transported from their homes to Europe and America against their will to be slaves. They were transported by long ship rides in terrible conditions where they would be barely clothed and have no belongings. Most of the time food supplies were extremely sparse, to avoid starvation African and Caribbean women would hide grains of rice of seeds in their hair or their children’s hair before they were potentially separated. They did this through the hair technique known as cornrows.

It’s a compliment when someone is curious.

Curiosity and interest in black hair are two different things. Interest comes from an awareness of the culture surrounding afro hair whereas curiosity implies there is a certain disillusion with the value of black hair and this can make the difference between whether you ask to touch someone’s hair or if you just go for it without any permission. Curiosity also has an unpleasant routed implication are things like freak shows where black people would often be exhibited, these shows were too kept relevant due to the public’s curiosity but they are widely accepted as a cruel chapter in history.

Whilst these connections can seem extreme they do exist what isn’t so extreme is thinking before you act, educating oneself on those who are not like you and respecting boundaries that should be seemingly natural.

And so I ask politely DONT TOUCH MY HAIR.