Normalize black women cutting their hair just because they want to!

“Girl my hair does not grow, these genetics did me dirty”. By now I think we've all noticed the excessive amount of negativity being geared towards black women who decide to cut their hair short for the cute style. Unless the hair is being cut for a big chop, the result of beating an illness, or if the hair is straight/has a very loose curl pattern, a lot of people feel to put their negative two cents in, or it must be seen as a sign of a woman going through a life change or even a heartbreak. There was a post I saw of a gorgeous brown skin girl, with coily, long hair, which she decided to cut to about an inch and there was just a sea of individuals saying she should not have done it, it was a hot mess, etc. By now I thought the black community would have normalised this but we’re not there just yet unfortunately.

This made me start wondering, where does the stigma surrounding black women with shorter hair come from? Where does the stereotype of black women not being able to grow hair derive from? This is close to one of the largest hair myths in relation to natural hair that I’ve seen and is still widely believed to this day! Does this date back to slavery? Is it rooted on misogyny and black women happen to get the worst end of the stick?

Of course, a lot of this stereotype can come from the fact that coily hair shrinks up a lot, and therefore majority of length cannot be seen when our hair is in its natural state, unless the hair is stretched. Therefore, my hair could appear collar length, when it’s truly waist length, but many may not understand this concept. (SIDE NOTE: Shrinkage is a sign of health and good elasticity in your mane, so it’s a sign you’re doing something right! Whether you like how it looks or not).

Also, a lot of us utilize wigs, weaves, braids, long ponytails, you name it, as methods of protecting our hair, allowing for low manipulation, and representing our culture. This has been our practice for centuries! This could give others the impression that we are “unable” to grow our own hair, and therefore wear other people’s hair, and I think we can all see why this is a big reach and this can discourage black women to express themselves at times. However, a lot of times, these protective styles also help us to reach the beauty standard. That being said, black women deciding to do the opposite and go against the standard by doing the chop can often be viewed as political, or just foolish as it’s “hard enough” growing it.

I remember when I was transitioning (despite my family being extremely against this), and it got to the point where it was overdue for me to cut my dead ends off. Once I cut it, my cousin saw me and the first thing she said was "What can you even do with on your head, can you even comb it?". Now imagine the backlash I would have gotten if I went bald. All the pressure being put on hair length is just unnecessary, to the point where holding onto damaged hair would be a preference over just rocking short hair? Not to mention, this is just one more thing added to the long list of things we're being conditioned to be self conscious about, rather then expressing ourselves in the way we see fit.

Everything we decide to do with our hair is always overly politicised or must be perceived as a statement, when sometimes we’re just wearing it because it looks good.

We’ve seen thousands of black women who have grown their hair down to the ground! And we have also seen those who feel their genes have a limit on how much hair length being gained, which is fair, but also very rare and can happen to any race. The myth of our hair not being unable to grow needs to be gotten rid of. If we decide to style our hair short, or long, it should not matter as long as we feel good.

My two cents is to mind the business that pays you, and let people enjoy things! Point blank period.

Let me know you're thoughts on this!