An Open Letter: ‘Is Natural Hair Unprofessional?’
Dear beautiful person,
Before you begin reading, I must inform you that this is in no way a rant. This is a collection of my thoughts on the topic of natural hair and professionalism. Feel free to read, and, if you like it, please share it along with your feedback.
A few months ago, I attended a function where I wore my hair out natural, in a curly afro (similar to the picture below):
photo credit: @katjabmueller
A young lady asked me if my co-workers have told me my hair was “unprofessional”. (The definition of professionalism. As taken from Google, professionalism is defined as: “the competence or skill expected of a professional.”) I immediately responded by telling her that I’ve never been told my hair is unprofessional and I’ve only received compliments about my hair. She seemed a bit surprised. When I reflected on the day later that evening, I realised that her question was problematic for a few reasons which compelled me to write this piece.
To begin with, the young girl (let’s just call her Marie) was a young woman of colour, suggesting that within the natural hair community there is an existing mental schema of natural hair which includes “unprofessionalism”. It is upsetting that a link between natural hair and unprofessionalism should even exist to start with. There was a period of my life where I did not embrace my natural hair, and her question made me reflect on those days.
I remember the days before I embraced my natural hair, where I felt like I needed to wear my hair straightened for it to be “professional”. I used to think like Marie, thinking that my curly ‘fro made me unprofessional by default and it needed to be tamed for a major event or interview. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by friends (you know exactly who you are) who encouraged me to embrace my hair for the way it grows out of my scalp, and not feel like I need to do something about it in order to be accepted in the world. The fact that our hair is unique to us is not a flaw, it is a beautiful feature that we are lucky to have.
This leads me to my second point and question: How can hair that grows from my scalp be “unprofessional”? What has natural hair got to do with the competence or skill of a person’s profession? Let’s take a moment to think about why…Well, just by observing advertising campaigns, the women in various forms of media, it is clear that the westernised standard of a beautiful, professional woman is typically deemed as a woman with straight, silky hair that is in-place. This of course, is completely the opposite of how you would describe curly, coarse and kinky hair. Let’s compare the similarities and differences between both textures.
Here is a picture of a woman with straight hair taken from google:
The main difference between her hair and my own are:
· My hair is curly
· My hair has more volume
That being said, my hair does not stop me from doing my job to a professional and skilled standard.
The major differences are that my hair grows curly and has more volume. Essentially, the type and texture of my hair differs. So, why then, do you question my “professionalism” if my hair ticks all the boxes as above? Why is curly/textured hair synonymous with unprofessionalism?
My third point is that this mentality may subconsciously or consciously cause young girls to unnecessarily damage their hair. If a young girl was led to believe that she needed to straighten or relax her hair, she may do it, hoping that this would increase her chances of landing a job, getting a date, passing the audition or gaining approval from her co-workers.
In the past, I suffered from a lot of heat damage for using heat-styling tools to straighten my hair too frequently. My hair would be curly at the roots and pin straight at the ends, so it was basically over-processed due to the extreme heat conditions I put it through. At 16 years old, I decided that I had enough of trying to fit in to what I perceived other people thought was professional and I cut off the damaged ends of my hair. My hair has been growing beautifully curly ever since.
I’d like to finish with the point that your hair is beautiful however it grows, and your career should not determine the texture that you wear your hair. I understand this is difficult in certain careers, especially with a strict dress code, but I do hope the standards will chance. YES, you CAN have natural hair and wear professional hairstyles e.g. tied back, in a bun, braids… there are many options. Personally, I think that you can wear your afro and it is professional. Shout out to the queens who wear their hair however they want to regardless of what society/others thinks they should do.
I hope I have inspired people to wear their hair natural (if they WANT to) and the views about natural hair change. I also hope words synonymous with “beautiful” are what come to mind when people think of natural hair.
Everything written is my own thoughts and opinions. I welcome feedback on twitter @thenadiaagnes
Nadia x
Nadia is a junior data engineer and a commercial dancer. She lives in London and likes to drink lots of tea and dances to Beyoncé in her free time.