The November 2017 issue of Grazia UK, the British division of the Italian fashion magazine, features Lupita Nyong’o on the cover. Lupita Nyong’o is an Academy Award winning actress known for her role in 12 Years a Slave. Now, it is very beautiful to see a dark-skinned black woman as the forefront of fashion media, especially when her skin is not lightened like has been seen in the past. However, a new issue rises with the reveal of the cover: Nyong’o’s afro-textured hair is slicked back. Why is this an issue? Grazia edited it that way, that was not the original photo that was taken or told to Nyong’o that would be sold. This is a long-running history in the discrimination of Black hair amongst Black women, the antagonistic nature of white people towards it and yet their desire to copy it.
This discussion is not short, it is impossible to write about all the issues that this cover creates, but, it is important to talk about regardless for the self-confidence of Black women, especially the young.
This discrimination can be dated back to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, when white slave-owners treated their slaves like cattle and moved them like storage. The disgust with the natural form of the Black head made many uneasy and in doing so, the slaves were insulted and made to feel ugly because of not only their skin, but their hair. As the slave trade ended and bus boycotts began, Black hair is antagonized once more with the emergence of “hair-taming products”, such as hot combs, relaxers, gels, and other straightening devices. The goal was to control the hair that Black people grew, these products were sold to Black people on the advertisement that they would be respected and cared for if they attained to the eurocentric standard of beauty. These products were invested in and formed large businesses built on the backs of Black women trying to own their natural state. Currently, the fashion is to wear wigs, braids, and continue to “relax” the afro-textured hair of the Black woman, but this standard of beauty is created within the Black community for Black women.
As Tehanna Kelly, a fourth year Ryerson University student says, “more women are embracing their natural hair now more than ever. I feel like most of the an agonized are misinformed or ignorant about the afro hair because of societal standards of beauty that aren’t necessarily in favour of black textured hair.” Simply put, the choice a Black woman has to wear her hair as she pleases is up to her and some white people may misunderstand the roots and reasons, but the issue as with the Grazia UK cover is that the Black hair has to be explained and that relaxed-centered hair is expected of a Black woman to earn her place in the white world.
A Black woman with dreadlocks will have a hard time finding work, as does the Black man, so this is why when white people who want to adopt Black styles of beauty, when for years Black people have antagonized themselves because of white hatred for their hair is frustrating. It is unlikely that the hate and disgust and lack of respect a Black woman receives from the hair that she grows naturally will amount to the style that a white person wants to adopt to be cool. It is known that some within the Black community wear their hair in dreadlocks, as well for the convenience or style, but the problem is that when white people wear it, they are able to walk away from the stigma if they choose to cut it out. A Black woman is still black and still has her afro-textured hair regardless of cutting the dreadlocks, she is still hated and treated with disrespect.
As Karnektia Walker, another Ryerson University student says, “All I have to say is that there’s a double standard for black hair. I say this because afro textured hair is more unacceptable.” Walker puts it out for the white community to understand plainly.
This antagonization of the afro-textured hair of the Black woman does not only come from outside with white people, but from other coloured communities as well, and within the Black community from other Black women and Black men. However, that topic is another article in itself, so it is best to refer back to Grazia UK’s cover.
Lupita Nyong’o was disappointed in the cover stating that they “smoothed my hair to fit a more Eurocentric notion of what beautiful hair looks like.” This is exactly what happened, the cover told Nyong’o that the way her hair grows is not beautiful and to be ashamed and change it. It only took Photoshop to do that. As a Black feminine person myself, using she/her pronouns and perceived in the public as a Black woman. I know what it is like to feel like your hair is not pretty, like you have to change it, and that is what I did for years. That is why it is difficult to see a cover like Grazia UK’s, when you struggle to love yourself the smallest idea can tear you down, and this idea of Black hair not being worthy enough for a fashion magazine is destructive to the impressionable Black women working with their afro-textured hair.
Fashion magazine’s like this need to do better, Afro’s are in.