The salon is still one of the last institutions that still stand as being unofficially segregated by race.
#Highbrow hippie tv#
But how can you dismantle something you can’t put your finger on?Ĭindy Conroy (center) taping a TV segment. Rarely do we have an honest discussion about the types of salons we choose as it pertains to race and why it has been accepted for beauty professionals to not be knowledgeable about all types of hair. The thing is, institutional racism is so entrenched in the fabric of cultural ethos that when it comes to the beauty industry - at the intersection of the personal, political and profitable - remnants of cultural hegemony can be insidious.
So today, when people refer to natural Black hair as “untamed” or “kinky,” they are being more than insensitive ― they’re enforcing centuries of colonial oppression.īut it’s 2020, and most people know better. Slave owners would systematically shave the heads of enslaved Africans, thus severing any connection with Africa. Tharps explain in their seminal book “ Hair Story” that before the African diaspora, hair functioned as part of a complex language system, indicating geographic origin, community rank and marital status, among other cultural markers. For African-American women especially, hair is culturally laden with significance and collective memory.Īuthors Ayana D. Perhaps your mother pressed the locks from your first haircut in a keepsake book, or you have hazy recollections of a parent combing your hair in a bath. “Hair is a microcosm of different issues in America today,” said beauty entrepreneur Myka Harris of Highbrow Hippie, a holistic salon in Los Angeles.Īs an extension of identity, hair is deeply tied to ritual and memory. This is problematic, especially as the salon is a place dedicated to self-care, a place to be pampered and feel beautiful. As a result, Black women cannot be expertly serviced in all salons. Salon segregation is a dirty secret no one talks about, and unless you’ve experienced it, you might not know it exists.Īlthough the beauty industry professes inclusiveness, stylists aren’t being trained in all hair types, including textured hair common among Black women.
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