FA

Age: 18-29

Occupation: College Student

FA has always been somewhat confident in her own hair, but receives criticism — mainly from other Black people.

She had a relaxer in elementary school but decided to transition to natural hair in the seventh or eighth grade. She made this decision on her own. It was for aesthetic reasons; she considered curlier hair nicer hair and did not like how her relaxed hair looked.

FA’s mother and sister did not like her natural hair at first, making comments like “your hair looks like a bush.” FA notes that there is much internalized self-hatred toward their type four hair. However, her mother and sister eventually followed suit and transitioned to natural hair as well.

Recently, FA wears her hair in freeform locs.

“I really liked my hair texture,” said FA. “I liked how it looked when it was out, but I ended up getting frustrated with my hair [...], which is part of the reason I did locs — it’s easier for the most part, since your hair is in bigger sections, and I liked my hair texture, and I liked how it looked.”

As she chooses not to retwist her locs as frequently as some other women retwist their locs, there is a lot of undergrowth. She receives negative judgment sometimes — particularly from other Black people. As a result, she decided to wear wigs to her summer corporate internship.

“There is a hierarchy of natural hair, within that, there is a hierarchy of locs; there is a hierarchy of which styles are the nicest and most professional,” FA said. “That’s why I wore wigs to work. I didn’t want people to associate my locs with unprofessional hair or some of the negative stereotypes that are out there.”