Black women’s hair: A story of culture, health and empowerment

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In honor of Black History Month, 10TV wanted to speak with a roundtable of Black women in the community about their hair.

So, we enlisted the help of the local non-profit Black Girl Rising, Inc.

The group’s self-described mission is “to place Black girls at promise by serving as a catalyst for change that improves outcomes for African American girls and their families.”

Our panel included eight women from across four generations. And very quickly in the conversation, it became clear that womanhood is not a universal experience.

“What was the [popular hair] style growing up?” asked 10TV Investigates Reporter Rochelle Alleyne.

“When I was younger, it was like four braids and my momma did them,” said panelist Fatmata Ly.

“If it wasn’t dyed and layered or asymmetrical, you really wasn’t cool,” said panelist Tress Augustine

“Afros. In my era, we wore afros,” said panelist Priscilla Tyson.

“When I got into high school in the late 90s, it was sew-ins. Everyone wanted straight hair,” said panelist Ta-Leah Smithers.

But even with all of that versatility, we found that there were still common experiences for Black women.

“Do you guys remember a defining moment or was there a time when you recognized ‘my hair in and of itself may not be what’s in or what’s accepted?'” Rochelle asked.

“When you go to apply for a job, you have to fit in to get in,” said panelist Alice Porter.

“I remember my first job four weeks in, I’m probably three hairdos in,” said Delena Scales. “My supervisor comes to me and she’s like ‘Delena, I searched for you on the most wanted because you change your hair so much’ and I was like ‘Hmm?'”

To assimilate, many Black women, including those on our panel, turned to a treatment called a relaxer to straighten their locks for many years. However, we found that health concerns surrounding that same treatment are now turning many Black women off of it.

“In 2013, I decided there were no more relaxers for me,” Scales said, “Because me, my first cousins, we all been doing relaxers since we were 8 or 9 years old. And all of the females that I just named have fibroid tumors, we all do. We’re like, ‘Wait a minute.’ I started doing research and saw a slight association with a correlation to our relaxers. And I just asked the family as a whole, ‘Can we as a family stop doing this?'”

“Those companies, they’re not looking for us. They’re looking out for the economics,” said panelist Alice Porter.

“What does accountability look like? What should it look like?” Rochelle asked.

“We as Black women are an economic force. These companies are run by multi-millionaires. We have power in our economic voice,” said panelist Tress Augustine.

“I think it’s exposure too, right? Putting the labels on there, the warning. Leaving it up to the buyer, but make it known,” said panelist Vickie Bradley.

“I think accountability starts within our community because if we don’t educate each other, how can we collectively rise up and say we don’t want to support this brand?” said panelist Toniyah Taylor.

“Through this conversation, I hope it will spark other people to think about not only our conversation and what’s in our products and how we do our hair, but to think about why these Black women have to have a conversation around this,” said panelist Priscilla Tyson.

“We have to talk to our children, the ones that we touch about loving your hair the way it is,” said Scales.

This was a portion of what was discussed during the panel. You can watch the full roundtable on the 10TV+ app. It’s available on Roku Players, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV.