Black Hair Styles In The Work Place

I stumbled upon a website yesterday where a black woman conducted an experiment in Woodstock, NY. The woman took a bunch of middle aged white women that she didn’t know to a black hair salon and gave them black hair styles. Afterwards, she had the women take traditional corporate photos wearing their new styles, whether they liked the photos or not. Some of the ladies liked the styles, some of them didn’t, some of them couldn’t wait to get home and show their husbands. Looking at the photos took me back to a blog from a few weeks back where we discussed natural hairstyles in the corporate work place and how they aren’t always accepted. 

As I went through the photos of white women in black hair styles wearing corporate attire I couldn’t help to feel that they looked absolutely silly. I didn’t know if it was because of the fact that they were Europeans with Afrocentric hair or if it was the hair not matching their attire. Then I thought about it, WHY doesn’t the hair match the attire? When did natural hair styles become taboo. These women aren’t wearing weaves, their hair isn’t dyed blue, they are wearing curls, braids, twists, just like us African American women do. Could it be the looks on their faces that make me uncomfortable or is there really a stigma against braids and twists in the corporate world? I’ll be the first to say that we have been brainwashed (myself included) to think that this is not a corporate look. But why? Are black women secretly not allowed to be a part of the corporate world?

I’m not sure how these women’s husband’s reacted. It’s safe to say these hair styles didn’t last more than 12 hours and they definitely did not wear them back to work. What I’m lead to believe is that although men and “society” would like you to think they don’t like weave, they also don’t like your flat twists, afros or braids in the work place either. Idealistically the corporate world would prefer you have straight hair, of a certain grade/texture and of a natural color. 

So to the men who said that they love their women with no weaves, blown out afros & such and swear that society loves it just as much, know that women who wear natural hair probably have to go through more things than you have ever realized and the day YOUR afro and braids become less threatening in the corporate world is the day ours will too.

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