Abstract
AbstractIn this article, I chronicle the ways in which Black women's hair has been used not only to exert political oppression and dominance, but also to resist alienation in the Americas. Whether covered during field labor, groomed on Saturday evenings, celebrated on Sunday, arranged as prestigious imitation in the “Big House,” braided into secret codes in Colombia, shaved as punishment, or denied all exhibition under the tignon laws in Louisiana, hair has been weaponized to control, hypersexualize, and de‐feminize Black women for centuries. More recently, there has been a resurgence of natural hairstyles, which has been abundantly documented in sociology and anthropology. However, this trend has been countered by restrictive policies that insist on standardizing Whiteness as the norm of hair structures. Drawing on studies of race and hair across multiple periods of Pan‐American history, this article argues that in more ways than one, Black hair is, and has always been, political.
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