When I was much younger, all of my concerns were with how to look nice and gorgeous. My idea of beauty was limited to the physical appearance. I was always concerned with the size of my muscles, and how clean my face could be. More importantly the look of my hair was what I was most concerned with. In the 90’s when I was still living in Africa, African-Americans were very influential in setting trends for hairstyles in popular culture.
The generation that I was part of during my childhood in Africa, were fascinated with the American images they saw on television, especially like Will Smith from the show in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” Some youth even "cooked" (applying chemical products in the hair,) their hair like the Africans Americans used to do it in the 60’s.
The history of hair in the black community in the United States is mixed with the struggle of self acceptance, a search for identity, human dignity, justice and black pride. Before the 60s, the African-Americans were having a trouble with the look of their hair. Moreover, this situation leads to a crisis of identity and a problem with self-esteem within the community. Many of the African-Americans believe that they should have a hair like the European descendants on the other hand; others wanted the hair to remain natural like their African descendants. The battle over appearances of hair involved the struggle for social equality and Black Nationalism. Black people in the U.S. were denied the basic rights stated in the American constitution. Alternatively, they were asked to integrate into American society. For example, they did not have the right to vote, the right to drunk in the same water fountain as their fallow white citizen even thought lot of blacks had the hair like those white. In Africa, the revolution was also big, many Africans kept their hair as long as they could grow it. Despite, the revolutionary uproar, my father never grew an “Afro” he had a bad impression about an “Afro” and perm. He believes that street people grew Afros and homosexuals wear perms. He also thinks that only drug addicted wear dread look
In result of the opinions my father had about certain hairstyles, I did not have much choice of hairstyle. My father wanted me to keep my hair short like his or Martin Luther King. The style of my father’s hair was appropriate for his age and generation; however, it was not appropriate for my generation. I remember some young people from my generation had their hair like the Reverend Al Sharpton who is a civil right activist. In fact, Reverend Al Sharpton has a straight hair, resembling some white women. Another category of people who developed hair style, and that had influence on my generation were artists, musicians and basketball players. I admired the basketball players’ hair styles. I thought they had a crazy and nice looking hair style. In addition, I could not have an Afro and I did not want my father to cut my hair. Moreover, the T.V was promoting their images better than the image of Africans- Americans my father wanted me to mimic. Everyday on T.V, I watched Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley show off their hairstyles. Thus, I developed a great interest for the sport because of how the players wore their hair. I found it more exiting, sexier and “un-revolutional.”
Singularly, I was influenced by Barkley’s hair cut, and I did not know too much about the Africans American struggle like I do now. I also did not understand why Martin Luther King Jr had the same hair as my father, I found it strange at the times; I thought he wanted to look like my dad.
I, and the kids of my generation, was trying to identify ourselves to with Americans, while some of them wanted to look like us, Africans. Why doesn’t King wanted to look a bit sexy and nice like All Shapton? I thought it was sexy for a man to have a bald hair. Well I was a child what did I know? Letter in my adolescence, ladies confirm my thought, they even add that a man without hair looks cleaner. Therefore, I kept my hair shave to appear sexy and clean to ladies and stay away from revolution and plain looking hair like my father. I never let my hair grow furthermore, I shaved it frequently, almost once a week. Today, the idea of keeping my hair bald to be sexy and deferent from my Dad has cost me to lose my hair. I have lost 75% of my hair, which is a lot. I even lost my hair before my father lost his. Besides my father has told me not to shave all my hair; otherwise I will be loose it before I age. Even though this theory has not been scientifically proven, I think it is true. The person who does these things could develop baldness like me, It is sad when I think about what my father was telling me about loosing my hair. I never listened to him, and now all I am left with is a head that looks like an air plane landing. Most people believe that hair play a big role in a man’s charm and beauty. I was probably one of the few people who believed that a bald headed man is handsome.
What I learned from this experience is that hair has been use by blacks’ to boost their identity and get a social respect and equality here in America. I also cut my hair to coincide with my identity quest and for my own conviction of a beautiful man.