Hairvolution... the beginning

To say I’m a little crazy about hair would be the greatest understatement one could make when describing my relationship with hair, particularly the hair of women of colour. It is safe to say that I am positively and obscenely obsessed with hair. All its physical attributes from texture to colour, its “management”, the terminology, the conversations we have around hair, about hair, what it means to have a certain kind of hair, what it doesn’t mean. I’m interested in hair itself and what is imbued in the constructs we have of hair. I’m interested in the language we use to describe, assign, assimilate, dissuade, include, and preclude and all the crazy things because of the relationship we have to hair, moreover, the relationship we have with ourselves and our identity.

Image via http://trustyourphotographer.com/baltimore-portrait-photographer/coiffure-project/

Now, a lot has been written about hair in recent years... it’s as if we’re on the brink of a revolution, it’s almost palpable this hair revolution, a hairvolution if you like. There seem to be a few hundred blogs that have sprung up dedicated to hair, especially black hair and more specifically, natural black hair.

Image via http://trustyourphotographer.com/baltimore-portrait-photographer/coiffure-project/

In the coming weeks I’ll be placing the proverbial hot-iron on black hair with a special focus the politics of hair, I’ll delve in to the broader topic of female identity, feminities, body politics, choice, value, power and culture. In a world where women’s identities are constantly being questioned, narrated and objectified, where women are almost constantly reminded that their bodies are not their own, where women have to navigate issues of their self, how they perceive (everything) and how they are perceived, it is my hope that the following week’s journey into the broad landscape of hair will if nothing else, embrace and celebrate the many, many, many identities and ways of being.

Image via http://myhappyroots.com/