Yet, still in 2021, Black women are often subjected to societal pressures and norms to tame down the beauty that is their hair, especially in professional settings.
The problem is not Black hair — your lack of cultural competency is, especially if you find yourself doing one or more of the following:
1. Asking To Touch Our Hair
Black hair is not a toy. No one wants someone to just come up to them and start tugging on their hair or running their fingers through it. It's incredibly inappropriate and uncomfortable.
A black Medical student said that prior to medical school, she worked for an English Language Institute and "normally wore her hair in a twist, but when it was down, often got comments about people wanting to touch her hair or take pictures with her."
She felt as if she was teaching her coworkers, all of whom had doctorates and taught a diverse set of students, about her hair and attending to their many questions and curiosities.
We get it — Black hair is cool. We're fully aware that we are able to style our hair in ways that are artistic. However, when it comes to someone else's body and hair, you never should feel entitled to touch it. And while asking questions can be OK, if overdone, it can be draining to your coworkers and friends.
2. Supporting Hair Policies That Will Unfairly Affect Black Women
Funke once worked for a woman who wouldn't allow the female to wear hats. It was an athletic job, so they wore sweats every day, but couldn't wear hats because she didn't wear hats.
She was a non-Black woman with very short hair. Her hair routine probably consisted of 15 minutes with a blow dryer. However, the majority of her staff, who were Black, had much more complicated hair routines. Her suggestion of "just waking up earlier" didn't mean the same thing for the female workers.
Some mornings Funke’s hair cooperates, but other days it can be more difficult and she’d be an hour late getting out the door. On the occasional bad hair day, Funke would've appreciated being able to wear a hat.
Policies like these are culturally incompetent because they don't consider differences in hair care. They are completely tone-deaf and exclusionary. When these policy violations lead to disciplinary actions, Black women in corporate some work environments will be disproportionately affected.
"Black women love to do hair and it's a form of expression for them, but they’ve had to tone it way down sometimes due to the environment.
