Don’t get it twisted: Untangling the psychology of hair discrimination within Black communities.

Abstract

Systems of oppression have shaped the prejudicial treatment of Black people based on the appearance of their hair, from the era of chattel enslavement to present-day America. Hair discrimination is a social injustice characterized by unfairly regulating and insulting people based on the appearance of their hair. A sampling of 90 African American community members narrated memories of hair discrimination using the guided hair autobiography method. While the hair narratives revealed texture, length, and style were the most common entry points into discriminatory behaviors, color, hair augmentation, density, and product choice were also tools of "othering" within a Eurocentric aesthetic value system. The narratives suggested that men and women experience interpersonal rejections early in their development in both emotionally intimate (at home with family) and public settings (at school with teachers and classmates). Sadness was the most frequently reported emotional response to these rejections. These findings extend the current literature on the psychological significance of hair within Black lives and pleads for policies of hair protection at work, hair-based professional development for teachers in schools, hair-influenced educational curriculum for students, community-based programming in hair care settings, and family interventions during hair combing interactions. Public Policy Relevance StatementRace-based discrimination continues to be a political and psychological strain on Black Americans and discrimination encounters are often manifested because of unequal treatment of Black people through hair. The results of this qualitative study suggest that policies need to be developed and enacted in school-based settings, with input from hair care and mental health professionals.

Tangled: Black Hair and Texturism in Ethnodrama

“…Prior studies involving Black women in higher education report hair discrimination (Bankhead & Johnson, 2014;Dawson et al, 2019;Donahoo, 2019;Mbilishaka et al, 2020), and concerns of hair self-esteem (Chapman, 2007;Ricks, 2018), but fail to reveal rich details depicting the impacts and reality of Black hair and hair texture as a Black, female professional. Narrative inquiry was selected because of its methodological ability to provide holistic perspectives connecting and ordering events to make meaning of an experience (Bruner, 1990(Bruner, , 1991Polkinghorne, 1988) that lacks empirical data, thus centering the stories of a Black woman.…”

“…Irrespective of race or ethnicity, a woman's hair is a principal physical characteristic (Winfield-Thomas & Whaley, 2019), yet Black professional women are subjected to hair bias and hair discrimination (Mbilishaka et al, 2020;Opie & Phillips, 2015) which impacts one's professional experience. The CROWN (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act provides legal protections against hair discrimination in only a handful of states, failing legislative votes in over half of the United States.…”

In 2021, the Only Certainty is Uncertainty

“…Black people went to great lengths to straighten their hair texture, such as using axel grease or heating irons to extreme temperature to alter the texture of their hair (Morrow, 1990). This form of texturism continue during post slavery for Black communities (Mbilishaka, Clemons, et al, 2020).…”

Academic Work and Leadership as a Black Woman: Interview With Loretta McGregor, PhD

“…Policies like the CROWN Act need to exist because hair care occupies consequential mental space in the lives of Black Americans. Black people are placed in a position where their hair care choices impact their quality of life (Mbilishaka, Clemons, et al, 2020;Mbilishaka, Mbande, et al, 2020). Fears of noncompliance of implicit hair texture and length rules impacts choices to exercise (Mbilishaka & Lacey, 2019) and even romantic relationship outcomes for Black couples (Mbilishaka, 2018c).…”