Most people have some kind of struggle with their hair. You know, some days it's on fleek, other days it's not. For those, like myself, who are of African ancestry, "bad" or "good" hair days take on a whole new meaning. Our lovely curls fall on a very wide texture spectrum that need special care if worn naturally, that is without chemical alteration.
Texas-born YouTube sensation, Terell McDonald
It would have been easy if textures were all that black people had to deal with. However, the hair problem goes beyond curls because of who this hair belongs to. You might know where I'm going with this. Yes, I'm going to say the R-word. Race and power strongly influence hair struggles in the black community.
Power structures of the world have set standards of beauty, success and morals to line up with white ideals. And so, among Afro-textured hair, tighter curls are seen as unruly, while looser curls are desirable since they are closer to the silky strands of the powerful (white) race. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to demonize white people or black people with loose curls. I am simply pointing out a fact. Who knows? If the power structure was inverse, we would have the opposite.
Kenyan blogger Sheila Ndinda
I am aware that discussing race and its relationship to power makes people cringe. But how then could we overcome the history and reality that race and power are interrelated? This and the pain it has created and sustained? All I am trying to say is we can only achieve harmony through uncomfortable conversations such as these. This is never fun for anyone, regardless of which side of the power structure they fall.
This leads me to explain why natural and nappy are not the same when describing tightly curled Afro hair. When you use the word natural, you are being respectful and giving dignity to that person. But when you say that person has nappy hair, you are being offensive and derogatory. Natural implies equality while nappy implies inferiority. You get the drift.
Does this sound unbelievable? Well, I searched for these two words on the Urban Dictionary and took a look at their related words. This is what I saw for each:
Notice how many words I had to censor for each. Nappy is related to five times as many slurs as natural.
It usually takes a considerable amount of confidence for a black person to wear their Afro hair out and proud. By using the word nappy instead of natural, you are reinforcing the unjust racial structures that they are freeing themselves from.
I believe all types of hair are beautiful. There's no such thing as ugly hair, which is what the word nappy suggests for tightly curled Afro hair. Let's stick to using natural for the sake of maintaining human dignity.
