Black Hair Literacy

Many scholars have shown that Black hair is seemingly unprofessional at a rate of two-and-a-half times more than other hair types (Cornish, 2009), Black women are often fired for wearing styles antithetical to ones deemed acceptable (Griffin, 2019), and we have borne the brunt of lost opportunities related to hairstyles (Greene, 2016). When it comes to Black hair, courts have also argued that it is mutable and can be easily changed to fit the desires of each workplace (Donahoo & Smith, 2022), which grossly misunderstands Black hair and styles like locs. Hair identity animates our world as Black women, and we need more dialogue about how hair is marked as a racial identifier for us and shapes how we are seen, treated, and employed. The ability to read, write, and comprehend the Black body is a literacy rife with illegibility. This chapter is about centering Black women educators and our hair to situate our stories differently than traditional academic research makes space for. So much of what and how Black women teach is ingrained in who we are; thus, it is essential to talk about hair for Black women educators. Our identities are directly tied to our pedagogy and practice, and understanding the complexities of Black hair is critical to appreciating our ways of traversing the educational system.