Now I have one simple question: Why is natural hair considered unprofessional?
I've never saw my kinks as something that was never acceptable in the work place simply because of the fact that it was something that I couldn't control. It was something that grew out of my head like the that same female with the straight blonde hair, yet hers was accepted and mine was deemed "distracting" or too "ethnic."
That can honestly hurt somebody's feelings telling them they should change what is completely natural just so everybody can work in a "non-distracting" environment. It's my hair that I decided to style not to please or distract anybody in my workplace. What I decide to wear my hair shouldn't change anybody's idea on the way I do my work. Simply because it's my hair. I was offered a job because of the skills that I can provide to the workplace. If my hair was so distracting then I wouldn't be offered the job, now would I?
Almost every woman who wears their natural hair can tell you stories of discrimination or being fired simply based on their hair. What sense does that make? Why should my hair or anybody else's hair determine my value in the workplace?
The number of times I've been told "you look so much better with your hair straight! It looks way more professional." It sometimes makes me want to perm my hair in order to fit in something in a workplace, but then I think then I just proved them right. I proved them right that my hair is unprofessional, it is distracting and doesn't deserve to be in any workplace.
I refuse to do that. I refuse for anybody to think that natural hair, especially mine, is unprofessional in any setting because it's simply out of the ordinary for most. It's mine like the clothes on back and the shoes on my feet, so I don't owe anybody any change on something that is mine to please them and not myself.
I just hope that the idea of unprofessionalism within the workplace changes for something more positive. I want people to at least respect it because it's simply mine and no one else's.
