1 year ago
60
Like so many Black women, the topic of hair has always loomed large in my life. I’m a Black biracial woman; my mother was Jewish, and my father (who raised me) was Black. And I can confidently say that neither of my parents had a clue about what to do with my hair and the way it naturally grew. I learned as I grew into adulthood that although my hairstyles wouldn’t define me, they were always something I would have to consider.
And considering how to wear my hair as it is—curly, and sometimes (okay, often) kind of unruly—versus sleek and straight, I run the risk of looking “unprofessional.” Even though I don’t work in a bank or walk into a courtroom as a judge or lawyer or legislate laws, ever since the first time I straightened my hair in junior high school, I noticed the way people commented. They’d say how “beautiful” I looked or how “elegant” when I wore my hair straight—you know, the way Meghan Markle wears her hair or how First Lady Michelle Obama used to wear it until recently. Whereas with my curly hair, people say it looks “cool” or “hip.”
According to a study from a Duke University Fuqua School of Business, CNN reports that Black women who wore their hair naturally were less likely to get job interviews than white women or Black women with straightened hair.
