Everyday Hair Discourses of African Black Women

Zukiswa Majali; Jan K. Coetzee; Asta Rau

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.13.1.09

Authors

Zukiswa Majali University of the Free State, South Africa
Jan K. Coetzee University of the Free State, South Africa
Asta Rau University of the Free State, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.13.1.09

Keywords:

African Black Women, Black Beauty, Eurocentric Beauty, Hair, Race, Racialization of Beauty

Abstract

Hair for African Black people has always had meaning. In the past, elaborate hairstyles communicated their status, identity, and place within the larger society. In present day society, hair continues to be a significant part of being an African Black person. Especially for women, who attach a number of different meanings to hair. This study casts more light on young African Black women’s everyday perceptions of hair and uncovers the meanings they attach to hair and beauty. This is done by looking at how the intersections of race, gender, and class impact on their everyday perceptions and experiences of hair. The literature indicates that the hair preferences and choices of Black African women tend to emulate Western notions of beauty. This is due to a great extent to the historical link between Black hair and “bad” hair associated with old slave days. But, the narratives of participants contradict this normative discourse in many ways and provide new insights on hair — insights that reflect and motivate antiracist aesthetics.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Zukiswa Majali, University of the Free State, South Africa

Zukiswa Majali obtained her Master’s degree in the program The Narrative Study of Lives, Department of Sociology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Jan K. Coetzee, University of the Free State, South Africa

Jan K. Coetzee is a Senior Professor of Sociology and Director of the program The Narrative Study of Lives in the Department of Sociology at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. He specializes in qualitative sociology and serves on several international advisory boards.

Asta Rau, University of the Free State, South Africa

Asta Rau is the Director of the Centre for Health Systems Research & Development at the University of the Free State, South Africa. She works in qualitative research and is currently leading a project in partnership with the University of Antwerp on perceptions of stigma among healthcare workers.

References

Arogundade, Ben. 2000. Black Beauty: History and a Celebration. London: Pavilion Books.
Google Scholar

Badillo, Casandra. 2001. “‘Only My Hairdresser Knows for Sure’: Stories of Race, Hair and Gender.” NACLA Report on the Americas 34:35-38.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10714839.2001.11722555

Berger, Peter and Thomas Luckmann. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality. New York: MacMillan.
Google Scholar

Braun, Virginia and Victoria Clarke. 2013. Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide for Beginners. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Brinkmann, Svend. 2012. Qualitative Inquiry in Everyday Life: Working with Everyday Materials. London: Sage.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473913905

Chase, Susan E. 2011. “Narrative Inquiry: Still a Field in the Making.” Pp. 421-434 in The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar

Collins, Patricia H. 2000. “Gender, Black Feminism, and Black Political Economy.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 568:41-53.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716200568001005

Craig, Maxine L. 2006. Ain’t I a Beauty Queen? Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Creswell, John W. 2013. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Approaches. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Erasmus, Zimitri. 1997. “‘Oe! My hare gaan huis toe’: Hair-Styling as Black Cultural Practice.” Agenda 32:11-16.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/4066147

Flick, Uwe. 2009. An Introduction to Qualitative Research. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Gaskins, Bill. 1997. Good and Bad Hair. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Google Scholar

Gibson, Aliona L. 1995. Nappy: Growing Up Black and Female in America. New York: Harlem River Press.
Google Scholar

Harris, Scott R. 2008. “Constructionism in Sociology.” Chapter 12 in Handbook of Constructionist Research, edited by J. A. Holstein and J. F. Gubruim. New York: The Guilford Press.
Google Scholar

Hooks, Bell. 1994. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Hooks, Bell. 2001. All About Love: New Visions. New York: Harper Collins.
Google Scholar

Inglis, David. 2012. An Invitation to Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Google Scholar

Lara, Ana-Maurine. 2010. “Cimarronas, Ciguapas, and Senoras: Hair, Beauty, Race, and Class in the Dominican Republic.” Pp. 113-127 in Blackberries and Redbones: Critical Articulations of Black Hair/Body Politics in Africana Communities, edited by R. E. Spellers and K. R. Moffitt. New Jersey: Hampton Press.
Google Scholar

McKaiser, Eusebius. 2012. A Bantu in My Bathroom: Debating Race, Sexuality and Other Uncomfortable South African Topics. Johannesburg: Book Storm and Pan MacMillan.
Google Scholar

Mercer, Kobena. 1987. “Black Hair/Style Politics.” New Formations 3:33-54.
Google Scholar

Mercer, Kobena. 1989. Diaspora Culture and the Dialogic Imagination: The Aesthetics of Black Independent Film in Britain. New York: Blackwell.
Google Scholar

Montalvo, Frank F. 2004. “Surviving Race: Skin Color and the Socialization and Acculturation of Latinas.” Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work: Innovation in Theory, Research & Practice 13:25-43.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1300/J051v13n03_02

Nyamnjoh, Francis and Divine Fuh. 2014. “Africans Consuming Hair, Africans Consumed by Hair.” Africans Insight 44(1):52-68.
Google Scholar

Overgaard, Søren and Dan Zahavi. 2009. “The Subjectivity of Everyday Life.” Pp. 93-115 in Encountering the Everyday: An Introduction to Sociologies of the Unnoticed, edited by M. H. Jacobsen. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Google Scholar

Patton, Tracey O. 2006. “Hey Ain’t I More Than My Hair? African American Women and Their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, and Hair.” NWSA Journal 18(2):24-51.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/NWS.2006.18.2.24

Riessman, Catherine K. 2008. Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Robinson, Cynthia. 2011. “Hair as Race: Why ‘Good Hair’ May Be Bad for Black Females.” The Howard Journal of Communications 22(4):358-376.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2011.617212

Russel, Kathy, Midge Wilson, and Ronald Hall. 1992. The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color among African Americans. New York: Anchor.
Google Scholar

Taylor, Paul C. 1999. “Malcolm’s Conk and Danto’s Colors: Or, Four Logical Petitions Concerning Race, Beauty and Aesthetics.” Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism 57:16-21.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/432060

Thompson, Cheryl. 2009. Black Women and Identity: What’s Hair Got to Do with It? Retrieved July 20, 2016: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=mfsfront;c=mfs;c=mfsfront;idno=ark5583.0022.105;rgn=main;view=text;xc=1;g=mfsg
Google Scholar

Webster, Leonard and Patricie Mertova. 2007. Using Narrative Inquiry as a Research Method: An Introduction to Using Critical Even Narrative Analysis in Research on Learning and Teaching. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203946268

White, Shauntae B. 2010. The Big Girl’s Chair: A Rhetorical Analysis of How Motions for Kids Market Relaxers to African America Girls. Pp. 17-27 in Blackberries and Redbones: Critical Articulations of Black Hair/Body Politics in Africana Communities, edited by R. E. Spellers and K. R. Moffitt. New Jersey: Hampton Press.
Google Scholar

White, Shane and Graham White. 1995. “Slave Hair and African American Culture in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” The Journal of Southern History 61(1):45-76.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2211360

Wolf, Naomi. 1999. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: Morrow.
Google Scholar