Tag Archive for "Hair"

Posts Tagged Hair

We Need to Fix Racism in Our Institutions, Not Black Hair

This month, we witnessed several instances in which black students were punished for wearing natural or black hairstyles to school. A Boston charter school gave multiple detentions to 15-year-old twin sisters who came to school with box braids, arguing that their hair extensions broke the school’s dress code. As punishment, the twins were pulled from their sports teams and banned from prom. In Florida, 17-year-old Jenesis Johnson was called to the assistant principal’s office and told that her afro was “extreme,” “faddish” and “needed to be fixed.”

This month, we witnessed several instances in which black students were punished for wearing natural or black hairstyles to school. A Boston charter school gave multiple detentions to 15-year-old ...

By Sesali B. • 10 years ago

Hating black hair starts young, just ask Blue Ivy Carter

My tits have been in a serious twirl lately about the commentary on Blue Ivy Carter’s hair. Discontent that Baby Blue’s hair isn’t arranged in some sort of identifiable style has the internet ablaze. The idea of the child of Beyoncé and Jay-Z not being “presentable” is laughable at best. We’re talking about a two year old with more stamps on her passport than most adults. She has access to resources to have a great life, not to mention her grandmother was a hair dresser. Do we really think that the Carter’s aren’t taking care of their daughter’s hair, even if it’s not styled int he way we would like?

By zerlina • 11 years ago

Story of my life: Teacher tells adorable black child her dreadlocks are “distracting”

The more things change, the more they stay the racist same. I was the only black person in my grade until high school so the story of Tianna Parker, a 7 year old girl from Tulsa, Oklahoma broke my heart. This poor child was sent home from school because teachers consider “dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable.” Show me the tape of little Jimmy with the fohawk being sent home in tears and I might not be so upset (I’d still be upset)?!

Via Raw Story:

A father in Oklahoma said this week that he was forced to pull his daughter out of classes after the charter school she was attending sent her home for having the wrong ...

The more things change, the more they stay the racist same. I was the only black person in my grade until high school so the story of Tianna Parker, a 7 year old girl from Tulsa, Oklahoma ...

By Syreeta McFadden • 12 years ago

The unbearable politicizing of black hair

Full Disclosure: I’ve been natural for nearly 12 years. Many years ago, when I was working on a big real estate project as an entry level project manager, a fellow black woman admonished me for wearing a colorful headscarf. At the time, I wore my hair in double strand twists that I would do myself, a tedious,painstaking project that would warrant me wearing a headscarf for a day or two because until I completed it. She told me that she ‘didin’t want people to get the wrong idea about the project.’ Her hair, by contrast, was chemically straightened, permed in the natural parlance of black hair styles. She occassionaly wore hair pieces as well.

Context here is king: we were black ...

By Jos Truitt • 13 years ago

Bachmann Sexism Watch: Hair and Makeup Edition

Pic via

Remember Palin Sexism Watch and Hillary Sexism Watch during the last presidential election? I guess it’s time for the Bachmann version.

Mother Jones of all places wrote yesterday about Michele Bachmann’s hair and makeup bill:

According to Bachmann’s latest campaign finance filings, her campaign spent nearly $4,700 on hair and makeup in the weeks after she entered the presidential race on June 13. Records show her campaign made three payments of $1,715, $250, and $2,704 to a Maryland-based stylist named Tamara Robertson. Robertson’s LinkedIn profile says she works as a makeup artist at Fox News in the DC area. She’s also listed in the “Make-up” section of the credits for the Citizens ...

Pic via

Remember Palin Sexism Watch and Hillary Sexism Watch during the last presidential election? I guess it’s time for the Bachmann version.

Mother Jones of all places wrote yesterday about Michele Bachmann’s ...

By Rose • 13 years ago

Making a personal choice at the expense of other women

In a recent New York Times article, For Russia’s Poor, Blond Hair is Snippet of Gold, we learn about the international market for blonde hair:

…on a lane where geese waddle through muddy puddles, a brick building holds crate upon crate of this region’s one precious harvestable commodity: human hair, much of it naturally blond.

For the global beauty industry, this is golden treasure.

“Nobody else has this, nobody in the world,” said Aleksei N. Kuznetsov, the building’s owner. “Russian hair is the best in the world.”

Buyers of human hair, most of them small-scale Russian and Ukrainian itinerant operators who sell to hair processors like Mr. Kuznetsov, flock to poor regions like this. Cash in hand, they pay small sums for a ...

In a recent New York Times article, For Russia’s Poor, Blond Hair is Snippet of Gold, we learn about the international market for blonde hair:

…on a lane where geese waddle through muddy puddles, a brick building ...