There’s no doubt that getting used to the pace and space of university is a trip. A new environment, new responsibilities, and new schedules. As a Black woman on campus though, I’ve got all of that and still have to take care of one responsibility that I can’t neglect: my beautiful hair.
I’ll be completely honest with you, Black (people) hair is no easy responsibility. We Black women don’t just wake up with our hair ready to go. So yes, though we love our Queens, Beyoncé and Nicki were not completely honest; when it comes to our hair, we in fact do not wake up like this. Ask any Black woman, and she’ll tell you, doing our hair is an event. One that must we plan, prepare and even reserve 24 hours (maybe more) for.
Now, I’ve spent the past 18 years — so my whole life so far — doing my hair in Brampton, my hometown. Washing my hair in the bathroom of my Brampton home. Buying my products at Brampton hair stores. Getting my hair braided by hair stylists in Brampton. So, coming to Carleton University wasn’t just me leaving my family, my comfortable mattress, and my Grandma’s cornmeal porridge, but I was leaving the hair routine I spent years mastering. All to come to a new city, a new home, to create a new one.
In my first month and a half of campus and university life, my hair has reached the driest of dry and has felt the lightest of water pressures. Allow me to officially start this off by saying, rebuilding my hair routine and community is much easier imagined than done.
Washing at Uni
For me, my hair is self-expression. So, stepping on campus for the first time in my afro was a no-brainer — especially since it’s my favourite and most done hairstyle. I couldn’t imagine starting this new chapter of my life with my hair any other way. You know what else I couldn’t imagine? My first wash day in my dorm room.
My afro was gorgeous, big and soft until the moisture ran out. To note: my hair has historically extended me every grace by still looking pretty good despite dirt and dryness, and this time was no different… kinda. Let’s just say that eventually, her grace ran out. In other words, it was time to wash my hair.
“Wash day” is the 24 hours I set aside to wash my hair and do my after-wash routine. I’m not sure about you, but my hair takes me about 2 hours to wash and another string of hours to give it the much-needed T.L.C. And it wasn’t just my hair that needed some love: my roommate/friend’s hair needed a wash day too and our canmate/friend was planning to curl her braids. Guess what you get when you have two Black women whose hair both need to be washed, plus one who is styling hers? A wash weekend!
Both my roommate, Melissa, and I hadn’t washed our hair since being on campus. We couldn’t ask our canmate, Breanna about the process because she hadn’t either. We had all washed our hair before coming to school. All we knew was that we needed time and a plan. This is what it looked like:
- Pick a weekend. We chose September 16-18
- Decide who’s washing when. Melissa chose the Friday and I picked Saturday, and Sunday was the spare “just in case the plan flops” day and the designated rest day.
- Check to make sure we had all the supplies we needed. We did. Breanna had to get creative with a taller cup she had because we didn’t have a jug for the hot water she needed to dip her hair in.
- Clear the weekend. We had to be super productive and even move our schedules around to make sure we had the time we needed to really focus on our hair.
I will say for my first wash day here, all things considered, it didn’t go too bad. Melissa’s was okay, too, except for the part when she got soap in her eyes when rinsing her hair and fell in the shower. When I asked Breanna why she chose not wash her hair, she told me she prefers to wash her hair over the tub and was waiting to wash it when she was home for Thanksgiving. But she had her own two cents on the shower:
I really don’t like using that shower, at all. [There’s] just no space. Water pressure, trash.
Breanna, first year Carleton student
Breanna wasn’t wrong. Washing my hair in the pinch shower with that crazy light water pressure was challenging to say the least. How I washed my hair at home isn’t the same process or experience as washing in my dorm. Both me and Melissa did a lot of adapting. I sectioned my hair into six parts like I usually do but because of the water pressure, I had to change to eight so that the water could work through my hair properly. Melissa had to detangle her hair outside of the shower so she had the space to move accordingly. And we all know that Breanna will have to make a huge adjustment by switching to in-shower washing since there’s no tub to lean over.
I knew that the scheduling of doing my hair would be a big change for me living on campus. I didn’t think that the way I’d been washing my hair for years would have to change. Talk about creating a new hair routine; it’s kind of like starting from scratch.
A community
On the Friday, after Melissa washed her hair, she put it in big twists. When Saturday came she planned to braid them as her protective style. After I was done washing my hair, I chose mini twists as my protective style. Breanna was ready to start curling those braids.
All of us gathered around Melissa’s desk where we watched The Boondocks on Breanna’s laptop while doing our hair. I won’t lie to you, it felt great to be surrounded by other Black women all doing our hair — especially while watching, arguably, one of the best shows. Through laughs, petty hair complaints, encouraging words, and compliments, we actively supported each other that day.
The topic of building a community for Black (people) hair support is one that came up quite a bit when I was talking to Melissa and Breanna about their hair journey so far. Melissa mentioned how when going into her first campus wash day that “it’s better when you have support.” Asking Breanna about rebuilding her community here at school she agreed with me that it was important but “it’s hard, too.”
I even spoke to a few other Black women on campus, to see how their journeys were going, including my friend Joie. She’s also a first-year student and isn’t from Ottawa. When we spoke about the value of a community she told me:
“It’d be so difficult, at least for me personally… to go through this process without someone who knew exactly what they were doing and could help me…manage my hair.
Joie, first year Carleton student
Joie also said that she already knew a couple of Black women who could braid but is still working on building her community and finding all of her products.
If you haven’t gotten it already, this type of hair journey is one we cannot walk alone. We need community. We need support.
After talking to Melissa, Breanna, and Joie, I thought it would be nice to ask them what’s one piece of advice they’d give a Black women (or honestly any Black person in general) living on campus about doing their hair. Here’s what they had to say:
Melissa: “Maybe have help. Have someone there that can assist you.”
Breanna: “Plan ahead. Plan out your hairstyles, plan out what you want to do [ahead] of time.”
Joie: “Reach out beforehand. Make sure you have your products.” (By reaching out, she means reaching out to people that can do hair or give you your needed support before you need them).
I guess since I’m the one writing this thing, I should give some advice too. So here’s mine: make the changes you need to. Not everything you did for/with your hair before living on campus will transfer well, and that’s okay.
the rest of university life to go…
After all of this, I think we can all say lessons were learned and adjustments were made. Like I said before, taking care of Black (people) hair is no easy responsibility. It takes a lot of time, planning, patience, support, and water pressure. Either way, I’m kind of excited to see what my new routine and community looks like and how this next part of my hair journey goes. So, I guess university isn’t just a change for me but one for my hair too. Despite the big responsibility my hair is, I love it. As always we’ll continue to grow together.