S5E6 - It‘s Never Just Hair

“When I was a teenager, I tried to chemically alter the natural state of my hair. I know why I did it. I was conforming to what seemed cool, classy, and maybe more ‘attractive’. 

Now, I feel lucky that I didn’t have to let the chemicals rule over me into my adult years. But my hair story is not unique. It’s one of many kinds” - Wolé

In this episode, we spent 90 mins with Portia and Yemi talking about hair. Yes, hair.

Hair may seem like a mundane subject, but it has huge implications for how we as black people experience the world.

For many black women (and men), hair is not just hair. It has emotive qualities connected to our lived experience in society, regardless of where such society exists -Africa, Europe, America or beyond.

For us Africans, hair has always been deeply symbolic. For instance, how we wear our hair may have religious connotations, it may play a key socio-cultural role, and of course, it may serve as a way of self-expression. 

It then only felt right that we tackle how our identity gets tied to the relationship and presentation of our hair.

We wrestled with the main narrative of Black hair issues which was centred around three dilemmas: good/bad hair, natural/unnatural, and authentic/inauthentic.

We won’t give too much away, but we learnt that no matter what a black woman does with her hair, her hair will likely influence how others respond to her.

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