Until I decided to wear my hair naturally frizzy, I had hardly thought about the consequences of slavery. Growing up in Suriname, I never lacked anything. Without wanting to be immodest, I can say that I come from a good family of 3 children, with more than enough opportunities to develop myself. Conscious of my blessings, I could not possibly consider myself a victim of slavery.
Until I decided to wear my hair naturally frizzy, I had hardly thought about the consequences of slavery. Growing up in Suriname, I never lacked anything. Without wanting to be immodest, I can say that I come from a good family of 3 children, with more than enough opportunities to develop myself. Conscious of my blessings, I could not possibly consider myself a victim of slavery.
For us, the first of July was a day off, not only to celebrate but also for reflection, awareness and to commemorate what a strong people we are; how much we have overcome, what we have all survived and above all to prevent such a piece of criminal history from ever repeating itself.
Even when I went to study in Amsterdam, it never really occurred to me to think about what slavery meant for the Netherlands. Except for a handful of Surinamese, the traces of the slave trade had been erased, I thought. It was clear that Suriname was not a subject in Dutch schools. The Dutch still know so little about Suriname that even members of parliament are surprised that we “speak Dutch so well”.
Whenever Suriname was discussed, you were always told that the colonies only cost the prosperous Netherlands money. Other sporadic times when slavery was unexpectedly discussed, it was said that the Dutch of today have nothing to do with the crimes committed by ancestors centuries ago. Or, that the Africans who sold their prisoners at that time were (partly?) guilty. Fortunately, frizzy hair literally made me want to uproot my slave roots.
Relaxers and defrizzers
Hair relaxers are so common in the Afro-Surinamese community that I never realized how damaging these chemicals were. So when my hair started breaking I thought it was my fault. It wasn’t until my hair broke horribly three times in a row after a relaxer session, and after I had grown a full head of hair by braiding my hair for a year, that it dawned on me that the stuff might not be good.
But even then I thought it was probably my own hair until I came across an article titled “Relaxers Can Cause African Americans' Hair Loss.” Literally translated: Relaxers can cause hair loss. It stated that Dr. Miller, Dermatologist at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, stated that as many as 73% of black women suffer from relaxer-induced alopecia. That is, hair loss as a result of using relaxers. This came as a complete shock to me.
How is it possible, I thought, that the 73% of women who suffer from hair loss due to relaxers, just continue to defrizz? This question has kept me busy for years.
Why did I think, do we black people treat our frizzy hair so badly? Because even when I compare it to women of other races, the difference is huge. My non-frizzy friends experimented with their hair at least as much. From perms to coloring, braiding and even relaxing but after one bad result, at most two times, they definitely stopped. Especially if the hair strands had broken off to the scalp.
Why did I think, do we frizzy haired people go through where the hair breaks? Where does this obsessive compulsive behavior to have straight hair come from? The simple explanation of self-hatred was too simplistic for me.
Bad vs Good Hair
Going back to our history, which contrary to what many think, did not start in the West, certainly not with slavery, but in Africa, I learned how important hair has always been in African culture. Hair was an intrinsic part of someone's personal identity. You could not only read from it which people someone belonged to, but even recognize the social status of a person. Chapels were often also a means of communication between the sexes to seduce, challenge or just convey that the person was not available.
From the moment we were transported to the West as slaves, the hair we proudly wore has been structurally denigrated.
First our hair was shaved bald, then as slaves we didn't even have time to take care of our hair while our curls were exposed to the hot sun every day. As befits African culture, the connection was also made here between social status and hairstyle and soon the unkempt frizzy hair was associated with the slave work on the plantations that no dog wanted to do.
The hair of the domestic slaves, on the other hand, was looked up to because they were relatively better off as descendants of the planters with hair that was less frizzy and a lighter skin color.
These developments over 300 years have laid the foundation for the distinction we still use today: good and bad hair.
If you don’t believe that the bad hair delusion is still alive, look around you. The numbers don’t lie. Our behavior literally says that anything is better than frizzy hair; broken hair, synthetic hair, and weaves with false hair from all other peoples.
The solution to hair breakage these days is a weave to camouflage the bald spots and the shame, but the root of the problem, the obsessive compulsive straightening of the hair, is ignored.
Curly hair is not a self-evident human right
The fact that “bad hair” is undeniably alive is clear, but in my opinion this could not be the only explanation why the vast majority of black women literally destroy their hair.
I relaxed and curly because I wanted smooth hair and weaved and braided because my hair broke in several places. Of course I was ashamed of my broken hair but more than that I was sad.
Why did I, as a privileged person who did not grow up with the delusion of bad hair, obsessively compulsively destroy my own frizzy hair in my quest for smooth strands?
When I read about the dance school that denied a 12-year-old ballerina access unless she wore her hair in a sleek bun, the second penny dropped.
For those who don't know the case, this girl was perfectly abiding by the rules and wore her hair in a ponytail as prescribed, but because her hair was in braids and frizzy, it was not accepted. Only after her mother took it to court because she didn't want to defrizz her 12-year-old daughter's hair, she was allowed back in, after the judge ruled in her favor. (Read: Is dancing with frizzy hair allowed ?)
This was yet another case where a black person had to win her rights in court to wear her hair frizz.
It then dawned on me that Black people are the only race on this planet that has to obtain permission through the courts to wear their God-given hair naturally. What is a birthright for every other creature on the planet is not a given for a Black person with kinky hair.
It not only became clear to me why women have such a high threshold to walk around with frizzy hair, even if they really love their hair. It also dawned on me that even in this new Millennium, there are still injustices that are directly related to our slave past that affect everyone, whether you are privileged or not. Yet my research was not over.
Unprocessed traces
When watching the film “Traces of the Trade” the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. Traces of the Trade is the original title of an impressive documentary about slavery in America. Film director Katrina Browne follows the tracks of her ancestors DeWolf, the largest slave traders in American history.
Together with nine family members, she travels the route of the slave trade that made her ancestor James DeWolf the second richest man in America. The same route, as Katrina herself tells, that laid the foundation for the fortune that made the descendants not only a prominent but also a very privileged family.
Departing from Bristol, a model city in the American state of Rhode Island, where the first DeWolf settled, the group travels to a slave fort in Ghana, a plantation in ruins in Cuba and then back to America. It is not an easy trip. There is no blueprint for confronting such a violent past and emotions run high.
I was struck dumb when I realized that the emotions seen on the silver screen, the incomprehensible yet painfully deep feelings of this privileged White family from America, were hardly any different from those of us Black families from Suriname, especially when it comes to the history of slavery.
Although the contrasts cannot be greater than those between white descendants of slave traders from a country like America and black descendants of slaves from a third world country like Suriname, the deep-rooted, hidden emotions from centuries ago are almost identical: shame, pain, sorrow and suffering. Feelings that can be directly related to an unprocessed slave past, regardless of which side of the coin you are on.
Why else would a mother tell her daughter your hair is uglier than a monkey's pubic hair? Why else would someone cringe at a simple comment like "what is your hair frizzy?" Why else would we women of the diaspora choose to destroy our frizzy hair rather than show it off normally?
Bad hair uprooted
When the picture was complete for me, I also understood why I do what I do. In my own way, I hope to be able to contribute, with the help of you who read this, frizzy or not, to help process this unspoken piece of the slave past.
Via kroeshaar.com and going-natural.com every visitor can view the beauty and versatility of frizzy hair hairstyles digitally and spread it via social networks. The exhibition “Bad Hair Uprooted” is there to literally shed light on frizzy hair in a different way than the stereotypical way, in real life. With Miss Frizzy Hair I hope to launch models who can show a broader image of the Black woman in the beauty world and on the catwalk. And now with the Going Natural brand I also offer hair products that are made for the optimal care of frizzy hair because, at least as important as processing our slave past is the pursuit of healthier hair for the Black woman.
Mireille Liong is a Social Web-Preneur and owner of the websites kroeshaar.com and going-natural.com. She wrote this piece on the occasion of 150 years of Keti Koti.
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