St. Clair Detrick-Jules - My Beautiful Black Hair: 101 Natural Hair Stories from the Sisterhood

for Khloe

Copyright 2021 by St. Clair Detrick-Jules.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Detrick-Jules, St. Clair, author.
Title: My beautiful black hair : 101 natural hair stories from the sisterhood / St. Clair Detrick-Jules.
Other titles: 101 natural hair stories from the sisterhood
Description: San Francisco : Chronicle Books, [2021]
Identifiers: LCCN 2021002862 | ISBN 9781797212197 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781797212203 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Hairstyles--Psychological aspects--Anecdotes. | African-American women--Portraits. | African-American women--Interviews. | Hairdressing of Blacks--Social aspects--Anecdotes. | Women, Black--Psychology--Anecdotes. | Self-acceptance in women--Anecdotes.
Classification: LCC TT972 .D488 2021 | DDC 646.7/2408996073--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021002862

Design by Vanessa Dina.

Typesetting by AJ Hansen. Typeset in Atlas Grotesk and Moneta.

Kanekalon is a registered trademark of Kaneka Corporation.

Some of the interviews that appear in this book have been edited slightly for clarity and space.

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www.chroniclebooks.com

Alexandra Elle

Dr. Afiya M. Mbilishaka

We have a
wounded history.
But without that
wounded history,
we wouldnt have
our resilience.
KEYLA YNOA

My nana would sit me between her legs, big yellow comb in hand, a glob of grease nearby in the jars plastic cap, ready to part and plait. I had the thickest mane and the most tender scalpgetting my hair done was a chore for everyone involved. But she managed to wrangle my cottony coils into near-perfect braids that would hang long and kiss my shoulders. Sometimes, she even put beads on the ends for me to shake and twirl. Hair days were a ritual for years with my grandmother, filled with intention and care. I can remember every product smell, every comb and brush sensation, and the feeling of her hands making magic appear right before my eyes. Then one day, I grew up, and my relationship with my hair changed. I hated it. It wasnt loose enough, or long enough, or straight enough, or anything else enough. I asked for my first relaxer at age ten, and that became my ritual. Every eight weeks, my mom would touch up my new growth. My scalp would burn and itch as she smoothed the creamy, smelly chemicals through my hair until it was time to rinse. I ruined my hair in-between with heat, bad hair cuts, weaves, too tight braids, and sun-in (with hopes of having blonde highlights that never showed up). It took me years to realize that I was enough, and so was my hair.

When I was twenty, I went natural and stayed natural. The rituals I had with my grandmother slowly started to resurface, but this time, it was up to me to proudly part, grease, plait, and take care of what Id run from for so long. Unlearning the myth that black hair is bad or ugly unless it looks a certain way and relearning that good hair is the healthy hair that grows out of my scalp reshaped how I looked at myself. Embracing my texture and dedicating the time to learn how to care for my strands taught me that true love has to start with self, even if those around you dont understand.

What a gift St. Clair has given us all by capturing black hairs authenticity and beauty and the stories that live within us. What a treasure Khloe will have, seeing that her crown is to be worn proudly and without shame or settling. Every kink, curl, wave, and coil is sacredly placed atop our headsthis book captures that perfectly. This message and visual storytelling is something my younger self needed. There is no greater feeling than offering the gift of self-acceptance to those around us by simply leading by example. My Beautiful Black Hair is a divine example of courage, self-love, acceptance, and diversity. Its a stunning collection that everyone needs to sit with, explore, and share with the little black girl in their life. The images and stories in this book represent and embody sisterhood to the fullest. Lean in and be ready to see yourself in some way, shape, or form.

ALEXANDRA ELLE,
author of After the Rain

To fully appreciate the psycho-emotional scope of a book on Black women loving themselves and their natural hair, it must be understood through a culturallyand historically informedlens. The story of Black women and their natural hair begins where everything begins: in Africa. In traditional African societies, hair acted as a powerful social signifier, communicating essential identity information to the social and spiritual world, includingbut certainly not limited toage, religion, wealth, education, ethnic group, and marital status. Hair was critical in rituals that prepared women to transition between stages of their physical and emotional development, such as the arc of their reproductive age, marriage, childbirth, spiritual initiation, and death. In many parts of Africa, the person responsible for doing hair was given special prominence; these were artisans entrusted with creating identity, and many hairstyles took days to achieve. These were indeed African crowns.

This was lost in the Americas, where the enslaved people were not permitted to properly groom themselves. As the years of slavery gave way to decades and then centuries, another critical problem arose: Given the legalized systemic rape of Black women and girls by white menboth slaveholders and othershair-based caste systems emerged within the plantation context. Black women with straight or loosely curled hair were categorized as more feminine and tasked with house duties, while those with tightly coiled hair were relegated to labor alongside men in the fields. While systemic rape was legal, what became illegal in many parts of the South was natural Black hair in public spaces. These same anti-Black hair attitudes, backed by the legal system, remain in place today, with schools across the country denying Black girls (and sometimes boys) the right to wear their natural hair at school, labeling it against school dress codes. And in 2018, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal in the case of Chastity Jones, a young Black woman whose job offer was rescinded because she wears her hair in locs; a manager told her, They tend to get messy. Employment opportunities, educational opportunities, romantic relationships, and even relationships within Black familiesall are affected by the coil of Black hair. Straightened hair continues to be valued over tightly coiled hair, and were clearly in need of a paradigm shift to decolonize one of our most sacred spaces: our crowns.