We Are Our Hair

In this chapter, I traverse three hair stages that many women have navigated in their lifetimes: straight, protective, and natural styles. Through each stage, I unpack complexities tied up in the financial/physical/psychological costs, highlight the impact and influence of media, and discuss how each style can embody oppression or liberation. Both Black hair and Black women remain unprotected in a society rooted in the regulation of the Black body and ideological lynching (Garrett-Walker, 2021). I argue that understanding ourselves through hair is pivotal to Black women&s;s existence, much like our positionality is key to our pedagogical practices.