I work at a high school. At first I was a little apprehensive about wearing a huge afro. I was like, "Is this gonna be considered not professional?' But then I was like, you know what, if my hair was this long in real life, this is how it would be. It grows up, not down. If I am cool with it, others will be too.
Well, that is what I told myself anyways.
So I walk into the school and I see several white coworkers:
"OMG! I loooove your hair!"
"I wish my hair could do that!"
"Whooo hoooo! Tina Turner! I like it!!"
This is the reaction from black folk:
General laughter.
"You don't know what you want to do with your hair."
"What is this?"
*black power fist in the air*
*prodding and poking of my hair * (which I hate!!!)
To be fair a few black folk did say that they liked it...mostly men lol.
And my new hair did spark some convos with co workers about natural hair vs straight hair and hair looking "nice" or "in control".
I think the issue is that my hair is "out of control", untamed, wild, up in the hair, big, free formed, just...there. And this makes some black folk uncomfortable. Oh well.
