"Hair is Just Hair"

“African-American women who are involved with black hair care in various ways adopt the stance, “Hair is (just) hair” to problematize a White cosmetology student’s professed ignorance of Black hair.”

- Lanita Jacobs-Huey, author of “From the Kitchen to the Parlor”

For those of you who have just started following this blog, I have enrolled myself in a cosmetology program at the Aveda Institute of Los Angeles. The school’s student body is primarily made up of white females. (I’m not really big on the formal terms “Caucasian” and “African-American” so don’t be offended.) We have classroom or “theory” days, and we also work in the salon on real clients.

The school occasionally has assemblies for the entire student body to provide students with important updates about the program and industry information. In the last assembly I attended, the retail manager, who is also black, said she was frustrated because she kept having to turn away black clients because the white students were afraid to do black hair. The instructors are now trying to come up with special workshops to help students to learn how to style Black hair.

I guess this is a good thing, but honestly attending Aveda sometimes reminds me of being at my White elementary school in Connecticut, when my classmates would ask me questions like, “Can you wash your hair?” “Why don’t you wash your hair every day?” “What is hair grease?” Huhhh…I’m so over it! I remember telling them “Hair is hair.”

I know that all hair is different. There are so many different hair types: coarse, fine, dry, oily, etc., and they all have different types needs. So 15 years later, I let my Mexican classmate, Mayra, do my hair. *gasp* Yes I know. I was sitting on pins and needles the entire time. She had never styled one Black head before, but I let her shampoo, condition, blow-dry, and flat iron my hair. I had to help her out a bit along the way, but overall she did a great job. Thanks Mayra!

(Above Photo: Mayra. I also washed, blow-dried, and styled her hair for this picture. )

In the end, I’m glad I let Mayra experience my hair to show her and my other classmates, who watched intently, that although my hair is made a little differently from theirs and has different needs, they don’t have to be afraid of it, because in the end, it’s just hair.

- Stacy Davis, sgrahamhunt@gmail.com