by MIKE CHAIKEN
CTFashionMag.com
In the 1960s, Black activist Kathleen Cleaver spoke about why she, and other women in the Black Power movement, wore their hair in a natural Afro.
“We wear our hair like this because we were born like this,” explained Cleaver in a news interview during the 1960s.
Cleaver explained wearing their hair natural was part of a “new awareness” by Black people that “their own natural appearance, their physical appearance, is beautiful.”
“For so many years, we were told only white people were beautiful; only straight hair, light eyes, light skin were beautiful so Black women would try everything they could to straighten their hair and lighten their skin to look as much like white women,” said Cleaver.
In the 1960s, that social pressure began to be lifted by Black women themselves.
There has been a move in the Black community in recent years to get back to this embrace of their own natural hair.
Taliyah McGee, a model and the current Miss West Haven competing in the Miss Connecticut organization, wears her natural. She wore it natural when she competed for her chance to win the state title, which is a precursor to the Miss America competition.
“My natural hair is who I am,” said McGee, “it’s not just a hair style. It is the crown I proudly wear every day.”
“Some people join the ‘natural hair’ movement as a trend, not realizing the value of the meaning,” said McGee. “I broke barriers with wearing my natural Afro and encouraged many to love their natural hair.”
“God made no mistake when he created our big hair to sit as a crown on our heads that speaks boldness, power and authority,” said McGee, echoing the thoughts of Cleaver.
Travis Bivans of Windsor, Conn. is one of the founding members of the Melanin Project in Hartford. The initiative is a collective of Black photographers, videographers, art directors, stylists and models whose mission is to celebrate the beauty of Black women and the talent of their Black collaborators.
Speaking about the move in 2021 for Black women to wear their hair natural, Bivans also seconded the comments made by Cleaver nearly 60 years ago.
“Natural hair is our natural crown that white society on multiple continents have attempted to strip us of,” said Bivans. “(They told) us it was filthy, dirty and visually ugly. So, they’ve forced us to cover it, created laws to ban it, brainwashed us to burn it and process it so it can be something white society can consume without feeling insecure.”
However, said Bivans, “Our natural hair is God-ly. It is mentioned in the Bible when speaking of Jesus’s hair of wool.”
“African tribes wear different styles to signify their regions,” said Bivans, who also operates his own modeling agency, LJE, out of Brooklyn.
“For many years Black women were discriminated against because of our natural Afros and hairstyles,” said McGee. “I once was discriminated against on my college campus when a college professor told me I looked more professional with my hair pulled back.”
“In America, embracing our natural hair in society is an ode to our ancestors and at the same time showing people we embrace our natural selves as the only self to be respected,” said Bivans. “Power to the people is in our hair. (It’s) our natural battery, our natural oneness with the universe, our spiritual and rooted connection to the motherland.”
“I feel most confident when I wear my natural Afro, it is who I am, I wouldn’t change it for anyone or anything,” said McGee explaining her preferences.
“Our ‘crown’ is to be worn with pride and excellence,” said Bivans.
“I was extremely proud the day Connecticut passed the Crown Act, led by (state) Rep. Robyn Porter,” said McGee. McGee explained the Crown Act “bans natural hair discrimination for women of color, in particularly Black women.”
“An Act Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair” amended Connecticut’s anti-discrimination law to define race as “inclusive of ethnic traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles.” The new law further defines “protective hairstyles” as including, but not limited to, “wigs, headwraps and hairstyles such as individual braids, cornrows, locs, twists, Bantu knots, afros and afro puffs.”
In testimony for the act, Amani Shirley of Hartford, told a state legislative committee, “This bill will be supportive of Black individuals and cause a sense of relief in the workplace and employees being able to be more comfortable at work as employers will not be able enforce grooming policies that are seemed as race neutral. This bill will also lead to cultural sensitivity in grooming policies and a change in what is considered professionalism in the Eurocentric standpoint and promotes diversity.”
Model Taliyah McGree wears her hair natural in this fashion editorial photographed in New Haven.
PHOTOS by MIKE CHAIKEN
