Team Straight Vs. Team Curly: Who Is Really Black?

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Team Straight vs. Team Curly: Who is really black?

Marleen Bakker

10588213

Supervisor: Jan Rath

Second reader: Olga Sezneva

Master Thesis Sociology- Migration & Ethnic Studies [email protected]

20/08/2018

Team Straight vs. Team Curly: Who is really black?

Master Thesis Sociology- Migration & Ethnic Studies

Research project: Urban Scene Investigation

Date: 20/08/2018

Marleen Bakker- 10588213

Supervisor: J. Rath

Second reader: O. Sezneva

Word count: 15650

Acknowledgement

This master thesis research has challenged me on a mental level. I faced times of insecurity, but eventually, this only developed me in a good way. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Jan Rath, who guided me through this research process with care, and second reader Olga Sezneva, who provided me great advice to improve this master thesis. Furthermore, I would like to thank my colleagues of the thesis group Urban Scene Investigation, who have been supportive through the last months. Lastly, I would like to thank my friends and family, who helped me in times of need.

Table of contents

1. Introduction ...... 5 2. Theoretical framework ...... 7 Blackness ...... 7 Who has black hair & who has not? ...... 8 The straighter, the better...... 8 The natural hair movement: Hair as a means of symbolic expression ...... 9 Beauty ideals ...... 11 Identity: the self and the other ...... 12 Identity-making & Belonging ...... 14 Focus ...... 15

3. Racial context of the Netherlands ...... 16 4. Methods ...... 18 Empirical observations ...... 18 Interviews ...... 19 Analysis ...... 20 Position in the field ...... 20 Limitations ...... 21

5. Findings ...... 22 5.1 Growing up with chemicals ...... 22 Straight hair is more practical ...... 23 Social pressures ...... 23 An individual choice...... 25 Conclusion ...... 26 5.2 Narratives of Naturalista’s ...... 26 Growing up naturally: We didn’t know better ...... 26 Transition decision ...... 29 Online support ...... 31 Conclusion ...... 32 5.3 The natural hair movement: What has blackness to do with curly hair? ...... 33 Natural hair as a reflection of the authentic self ...... 33 Natural hair is just hair ...... 36 Conclusion ...... 37

6. Discussion & conclusion ...... 39 Bibliography ...... 42 Appendix ...... 45

1. Introduction In May this year, a Dutch television program called Bubbels & Gloss caused a lot of commotion because of a racist comment made by one of the hosts and well-known hairdresser Ad Peters. In this particular episode of the lifestyle program, six white people sat around the table to discuss topics such as beauty and fashion while drinking glasses of champagne. They talked about the hair of a white model, who would have extremely curly hair after washing it with water. It would look almost ‘Negroid’, according to another guest and fellow hairdresser Mirande Bakker. Peters continued by saying that having this type of curly hair is not something to be happy about, because you cannot do anything with it in terms of styling. Therefore, he claimed that it is important to give curly haired people good advice about which products to use, because of course, these people too want to change their hair from time to time and nobody wants to look like a ‘bush negro’ all the time. The other host and guests laughed about it1. Just a few minutes after the broadcast, Ashaki Leito was the first who publicly criticized the comments which were made by Peters. As one of the founders of the Miss Black Hair NL contest, Leito posted the particular video fragment of Bubbels & Gloss on the Facebook wall of Miss Black Hair NL, with her critical reaction attached2. Here, she described Peters’ comments as racist and denigrating towards people with black hair. She also expressed her shock that these kind of situations still occur in 2018, and above all, that the fragment was actually approved by the editors. This shows how racism is still a ‘structural problem’ in the Netherlands, according to Leito. Therefore, organizations such as Miss Black Hair NL are needed, she claimed.

‘Miss Black Hair NL shows that our hair is not unmanageable. It is beautiful and diverse, just like the people who wear this hair. By means of our hair, we show our pride on our African heritage. We are Black and we are proud!!! We won’t let anybody tell us that it is not.

As an act of resistance, a lot of black women wrote bad reviews about the hairdressing company of Ad Peters. Peters himself responded with a simple apology, by clarifying that he did not mean to harm anyone and that his comment was not meant to be racist. Peters’ comments represent the idea of black hair as unmanageable and not beautiful.

1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fIz0lfjWjk Miss Black Hair NL, 10 May 2018 (03/07/2018) 2 https://www.facebook.com/missblackhairnederland/ Miss Black Hair NL, 10 May 2018 (03/07/2018) 5

Through using the right haircare products, this can be fixed, he claimed. The result of using these products would be a manageable and neat hairdo, which would change the look from a ‘bush negro’ towards a more desired European appearance. However, this way of thinking is not new, but is rather historically charged, as I will show later in this research. By focusing on black haired women’s choices for particular hairstyles, I will demonstrate how these relate to the women’s ethnic identity, in a society where they are ethnically othered on the basis of their hair. Through the stories of several black haired women, I discovered that the choice to wear natural curly hair or processed straight hair can be seen as an expression of the self, but can also be seen as distinct from the identity. The aim of this research is to demonstrate what motivations black haired women have concerning the styling of their hair, and how this related to their identification with their roots. Overall, there will be made a division between styling the hair with chemical products, which manipulate the appearance of the hair, and styling the hair in a natural way, which would make the hair appear more ‘authentic’. From this small approach, I will make a connection with bigger concepts such as beauty, identity and acceptance of the self. This study is structured as follows. First, I will provide information in the theoretical framework about the historical context of black hair, and the overall concepts of beauty, ethnicity and identity. Then, I will outline the methods that I have used to conduct the data of this research. Subsequently, I will present my findings through on the basis of three sub- questions. First, I will elaborate on the motives and experiences of the styling of the hair with chemical products. Secondly, I will elaborate on the motives and experiences of the styling of the hair with natural products. Thirdly, I will discuss how the preferences for certain hairstyles are related to someone’s identity. What does someone wants to express? Consequently, I will summarize the findings and make a connection with the literature in the last section.

2. Theoretical framework Blackness What is black hair? How does it look like and how does it feel like? Do black people automatically have black hair? In order to define the term black hair, it is essential to know who can be considered as black and who not. First of all, ‘black’ is an ambiguous term, for it does not simply refer to the color of the skin or the hair. Historically, people were categorized into different races on the basis of several phenotypes. So besides color, other physical characteristics, such as shapes of the head and the nose and the texture of the hair, were indicators of the racial position of a person. The black or Negroid race would be distinguished by dark skin, round heads, broad noses and frizzy hair (Davis 1991: 19). This means that dark skinned Indian people would not be considered black because of their straight hair texture for example. This particular composition of phenotypes would rather refer to people of Sub- Saharan African origin. However, this way of categorizing is rooted in times of physical anthropology and the definition of black has changed over time. Generation after generation, the populations of different races became more heterogeneous as a result of miscegenation, which means a mixture of racial groups. A consequence of this was that people obtained mixed physical features. For example, a person can have African roots, but this same person can have obtained white features such as a smaller nose of straighter hair. These physical transformations problematized the racial categorization on the basis of phenotypes. In the United States, this problem was somehow solved with the one-drop rule in times of slavery (Khanna 2010: 98). This rule basically implied that one drop of black or African blood was sufficient for being considered as a black person. However, after the civil rights era, the one-drop rule lost its significance. In this period, a baby boom of biracial and multiracial people took place, which resulted in an increased amount of racial identification options (ibid.: 99). People felt more free now to identify themselves with particular races, and this is in line with Norwood’s (2018: 71) idea of race as a phenomenon which is more concerned with identity politics than with biological facts. She and other scholars emphasize that race is an invention, it is socially constructed and subject to social developments and contexts (Harris & Khanna 2010; Norwood 2018). Because of the contextual dependency of the racial concept black, using the same American definition in this research would ‘undermine and distort the local understandings of the term’, as stated by Wekker (2009: 281). Although the black diaspora in Europe has always been

7 dominated by the black diaspora in the United States (Small 2009: xxx), it is important to approach the term black in the specific context of this research case. Therefore, I will briefly elaborate on the racial context of the Netherlands in chapter 3.

Who has black hair & who has not? Black hair is often described as afro-textured hair and this would indicate the African origin as a characteristic of the hair. This kind of texture implies that the hair is tightly coiled (Banks 2000) or densely curled (Sherrow 1996 :13). However, this description of black hair is very much restricted. Indeed, not every afro-textured curl is equally dense or tight (Robinson 2011: 363), black hair is way more diverse. As shown by Erasmus (1997: 12), black hair can vary from kinky to more sleek hair, from thick to thin. In order to categorize these different nuances of hair, well-known hairstylist Andre Walker3 made a classification system of hair types4. He used the numbers 1 to 4 to classify the major hair types in general, in which 1 stands for straight, 2 for wavy, 3 for curly and 4 for kinky hair. Each number is again divided in type A, B and sometimes C, and these letters denote the nuances of texture within each hair type. Originally, Walker only created a type 4A and 4B, but on various websites and blogs, type 4C is added, which is considered as the most tight curl. Although this hair type system is widely used, people’s hair does not fit into one particular type most of the time. The hair on our heads is often a composition of two or more types. Someone can, for example, have hair type 3C/4A, which is on the border between curly and kinky hair. Because of such these in- between cases, it is difficult to draw a strict line between European curls and Afro-textured curls.

The straighter, the better Now that I have shown the visible aspects of black hair, it is time to elaborate on the historical socio-political meaning of the hair. In times of slavery, the Europeans determined a hierarchy in which the physical appearances of black people, like their dark skin color and kinky hair texture, were classified as ugly and inferior in relation to white skins and straight hair (Thompson 2009: 833; Byrd & Tharps 2014: 30). In this period, the term ‘nappy’ was often used as a negative synonym for black hair, for it carried these connotations of ugliness and the wooly appearance of the hair (Lester 1999: 171). Because of this wooliness, Europeans would compare black hair rather with the hair of an animal, which in a way dehumanized black people (Byrd & Tharps 2014: 30).

3 https://www.andrewalkerhair.com/whats-my-hair-type/african-american-kinky-hair-types/ (03/07/2018) 4 See Appendix, Figure 1 and 2. 8

Since nappy hair was placed on the lowest rank of the European founded hierarchy, it was common for African slaves to aspire to have lighter skins and straighter hair. As clarified by Byrd & Tharps (2014: 33), ‘straight hair translated to economic opportunity and social advantage’. Some of these privileges entailed for example the possibility of having better working positions in the house instead of the hard work in the field, or having more access to better food and clothes. In order to obtain such advantages, male slaves would shave their heads for example to suppress their African features (ibid.: 34). But also, as a consequence of sexual intercourse between slaves and their masters, the mixed offspring could have obtained more rights because of their potential white features (Byrd & Tharps 2014: 34; Bellinger 2007: 65). Eventually, some slaves could be considered as sufficiently white, which could result in a free status (Byrd & Tharps 2014: 34; Patton 2006 :29). This dichotomy of opportunities between straight and nappy hair created a thought of having good and bad hair. Here, good hair stands for long straight and beautiful hair and bad hair for short nappy and ugly hair. Byrd & Tharps (2014: 38) argue that black people themselves internalized this way of thinking, even after the abolition of slavery. Therefore, these people had one ‘destiny’, and that was becoming white (Fanon 1982: 228), as far as that was possible. In order to appear more European, blacks had to choose to manipulate their hair texture and skin color with chemical products, which were increasingly advertised on the market (Byrd & Tharps 2014: 38; Thompson 2009: 834). According to Byrd & Tharps (2014: 38), these advertisers anticipated on the idea of pursuing good hair, by promising a successful life after using the straightener and bleaching products. Interestingly, the classification system of hair types from 1 to 4 that I mentioned before, has been criticized because it would reflect this notion of good and bad hair. It would represent a hierarchical scale in which the fourth place would indicate the least desirable hair type (Norwood 2018: 72).

The natural hair movement: Hair as a means of symbolic expression According to Mercer (1987: 34), hair in general is never just a biological fact. Hair is always prepared, cut, and generally worked upon by human hands. These practices form the socialization of hair, a process where meaning and value is invested in the hair. In the period of the ‘Black is Beautiful’ movement during the 60’s and the 70’s, the straightening manipulation of natural black hair was rejected by its activists (Patton 2006: 29; Thompson 2009: 835). As claimed by Banks (2000: 53), the usage of chemical products and hot combs was perceived as a symbol of ‘shame and self-hatred’ with regard to the own natural hair. Arising from this idea, wearing natural black hair became a symbol of ‘political change,

Black self-love, intellectual historical knowledge, and Black Power’ (Johnson & Bankhead 2014: 89). This natural hair could be worn in an afro, dreads or braids for example. In this way, the hair became a tool for the expression of resistance against the white dominance. However, the phase in which styles like the afro and dreadlocks carried political expressions was only of short duration, as claimed by Mercer (1987: 37). When the Black Power movement slacked off after 1971, the afro became just a hairstyle too, without a significant connection with black power or black pride (Byrd & Tharps 2014: 77). Byrd & Tharps clarified that black people as well as white people reinterpreted the natural hair as just an aesthetic style, but nevertheless, a positive outcome of this was the increased acceptance of black beauty in America (ibid.: 79). However, even after the Black Power movement, thinking in terms like good and bad hair is still common (Johnson 2016: 44). Generation after generation, this thought is maintained by ‘family, friends and the media’ for example (Byrd & Tharps 2014: 191). Also Johnson & Bankhead (2014: 91) claim that this way of thinking is internalized by ‘many communities of color’, which not only means by African Americans, but overall by the widespread African diaspora. Today, more and more people with black hair choose to wear their hair in its natural state. This development is often called the natural hair movement. According to Wilkerson (2017: 57), ‘going natural’ can be seen as a transition process, whereby chemical products are replaced by natural ones, which don’t damage or alter the texture of the hair. This movement is reflected by the increasing supply of natural haircare products, but also by celebrities who tend to show their natural hair more and more (ibid.). As stated by Wilkerson (ibid.: 60), the underlying psychology of the natural hair movement is to regain the authority to decide what is beautiful and what is not, and to decide freely what kinds of hairstyles to wear. Reasons for choosing to go natural vary from superficial to more politically loaded motives. Some people just want to join the trend, while others are motivated by the idea that it is more healthy for the hair and the scalp to eliminate the usage of aggressive chemicals. Ndichu & Upadhyaya (2018: 17) found out that while using natural haircare products instead, people would be freed from physical pain, and the costly and time-consuming practices of manipulating the hair texture with chemicals. Other people consider it as important to express pride with regard to their heritage and ancestors, while others are more focused on discovering the real authentic self (Wilkerson 2017: 61), and to ‘relieve themselves from the burden of Eurocentric beauty ideals’ (Ndichu & Upadhyaya 2018: 17). This idea of natural black hair as a representation of the authentic self and ‘Africanness’ is criticized by Konneh (2013). She claims that the natural hair movement is

10 problematic in a way, because it limits authentic blackness to a particular hair texture (ibid.: 14). The assumption that the usage of straightening chemicals and wigs would be a confirmation to white dominance and that the afro and dreadlocks are the only ‘real’ African hairstyles, is according to Konneh part of the black hair fantasy (ibid.: 17). In this black hair fantasy, natural hairstyles such as the afro and dreadlocks are being romanticized by the African diaspora, because it would represent African realness and authenticity. Konneh questions this notion of natural hair as the equivalent of authenticity, and she shows that it is rather a diasporic supposition (ibid.: 18). African hairstyles, Konneh demonstrates, also concern artificial hairstyles for a great part. For example, the weaving and braiding of the hair with other materials such as leather and fiber already happened traditionally in Africa, and later on, these materials were replaced by synthetic hair among others (ibid.:25). Throughout the interviews with several African- Australian people, Konneh discovered that unprocessed or natural black hair was rather seen as an ‘unnatural expression of African femininity’ (ibid.: 31). Braided, woven and relaxed hair are actually more socially accepted because ‘appropriate African femaleness’ would be ‘marked by hair that has been done’ (ibid.: 32). In this way, natural black hair does not have to be considered as a symbol of Africanness or authenticity per definition. Processed hair can be experienced as real African as well and it is not inherently related to whiteness.

Beauty ideals Going natural is not an easy step for everybody. Some people restrain themselves from it, because of the anxiety for negative reactions from outside, or because of the uncertainty whether they will feel or will be seen as beautiful with their natural hair (Wilkerson 2017: 60). But what is beauty and who decides what is beautiful? As Kirwan (1999: 6) defines, ‘what is beautiful is that which appears to us as an object of necessary delight, though we remain aware that the grounds of this delight are subjective’. Here, the emphasis lies on the subjectivity of the phenomenon, as it depends on the context and the corresponding norms and values. Therefore, beauty ideals reflect ‘the standards for physical attractiveness within a culture’ (Calogero et al 2007: 4). In existing literature, several contextual standpoints with regard to beauty standards are being discussed, for example the Eurocentric and Afrocentric perspectives (Byrd & Tharps 2014; Jha 2016; Patton 2006). The Eurocentric perspective is mostly seen as a dominant one, for it is often considered as reflecting the notion of global beauty (Rondilla 2009: 79). This hegemonic position of Eurocentric beauty ideals, according to Oyedemi (2016),

11 denotes a process of cultural violence. She explains that cultural violence implies the harming of people’s physical and mental well-being, on cultural grounds. This is, as Oyedemi (ibid.: 539) illustrates, especially evident in the case of black haired people who pursue having European textured hair, as a result of longstanding white oppression, through which the ideas of having good and bad hair became internalized. She claims that this aspiration is physically violent since chemical products damage the human scalp badly. Besides that, it is mentally violent because it indoctrinates these people with the idea that they are not beautiful or accepted in their natural state, which can result in a low self-esteem (ibid.: 540). However, cultural violence is a strong assumption. A more nuanced way to describe the influence of dominant Eurocentric beauty ideals is called the Lily Complex (Norwood 2018: 78). This entails the attempts to change the physical appearance, in order to confirm to an accepted form of attractiveness. Notwithstanding, beauty is not only oppressive and violent per definition. Beauty can also be considered as a ‘resource and capital which can be exchanged for social mobility and other commodities’ (Jha 2016: 24). This form of capital is usually called aesthetic capital, which means that attractiveness can contribute to the acquisition of certain benefits. With a beautiful appearance, people are for example more likely to get hired, to be more economically successful, or to have better chances with regard to finding a romantic partner (Holla & Kuipers 2015). However, this additionally means that people who are considered less attractive are less eligible for these advantages. So, this suggests that aesthetic capital causes unequal power relations, which potentially ‘marginalizes lower classes and ethnic minorities’ for example (ibid.: 294). Nevertheless, within this structure of power inequality, beauty can still be used as an ‘instrument of agency’ (Craig 2006: 159), since there are possibilities to alter the appearance towards a more attractive version. Although people have been given a certain appearance biologically, these looks are not static. Through ‘aesthetic labour’, there is some space left to shape the body in a more desired way (Holla & Kuipers 2015: 291). Therefore, aesthetic capital ‘results from a balance between individuality and conformity to dominant tastes’ (ibid.: 294). In the case of black haired people, altering the hair texture towards the dominant European ideal, in order to become accepted and to be considered as equal worth, is a form of aesthetic labour.

Identity: the self and the other Beauty is intrinsically connected to identity. As Holla & Kuipers (2015: 294) claim, ‘people

12 organize their selves’ around their aesthetic preferences among others. This means that the way in which people represent their physical appearance, says something about their identity. But what is identity exactly? The identity or the self is not a fixed entity, it is rather shaped through interaction with others (Eriksen 2010: 58). This basically means that the identity only gets its meaning in relation between two or more social entities. In relation to others, an individual can identify with particular groups of people, in which the individual recognizes or chooses to recognize him or herself. This form of self-identification is referred as the ‘avowed cultural identity’ (Sha 2006: 52). Additionally, there is also an ‘ascribed cultural identity’, and this refers to others who categorize an individual into a particular cultural group (ibid.). For the case of this research, it is necessary to take this distinction of avowed and ascribed identities into account, since there can be a difference in for example feeling black or being seen as black. However, it is also important to keep in mind that people are not restricted to identify with one group. As Van Stapele (2014: 19) demonstrates, shifting circumstances can lead to a shift in identification. For instance, in some cases people identify on the basis of ethnicity and in other cases people might give the priority to gender or age. Hall (1990) elaborates on the notion of cultural identity, which can be helpful in analyzing the black or African identity in the Netherlands. Hall makes clear that there are two ways to define this concept. Firstly, cultural identity can refer to the idea of being bonded by one shared culture. Here, people share a ‘collective one true self’, through a common history and shared cultural codes (ibid.: 223). This form of identity is seen as a stable and unchanging one (ibid.). Such a form of identity can also be called ‘ethnic identity’. According to Eriksen (2010: 277), this ethnicity refers to the occurrence ‘when cultural differences are made relevant through interaction’, and this cultural difference is often based on particular languages, religion or phenotypes. Ethnic identity would ‘offer a sense of cultural belonginess’ and a we-feeling (ibid.: 281). The second definition of cultural identity is somehow less fixed. According to Hall, it is a matter of being and becoming (1990: 225). This means that there are some points of historical similarities, but the past is just as important as the future. Therefore, cultural identity is not something that already exists, but it undergoes constant transformation (ibid.). It shows how cultural identity is dynamic and that it is also a matter of becoming. In my interpretation, this approach provides space to consider identity as something which is malleable, through the consumption and styling involving hair.

Identity-making & Belonging Hair can be an important tool in the process of identity-making. De Witte (2017) focuses on black cultural heritage and identity-making through styles such as music, clothes and hair in the Netherlands. She states that the search for identity is urgent and often troubled for young people of color, because they often experience that they are being defined by others as not belonging. They would not belong because of their different appearances and presumed different culture. De Witte claims that these Afro-Dutch youth “share an awareness of the generally marginalized position of Africans and people of African descent’ in the Netherlands, and that they feel the need to change this image (ibid.: 15). She showed how these people tried to improve the representation of their identity, by means of embracing African cultural elements in their performances and appearances. In this way, they gave their ‘African heritage’ an aura of urban cool and African pride (ibid.: 4). This embracement of the cultural heritage through self-styling can be related to notions of belonging. Namely, ways of belonging refer to ‘practices that signal or enact an identity which demonstrates a conscious connection to a particular group’ (Levitt & Glick- Schiller 2004: 1010). These practices imply concrete and visible actions, such as wearing a Christian cross, or eating food of a particular cuisine (ibid.). In the case of this research, this could be practiced by wearing certain hairstyles. However, being aware of identifying with a particular cultural group, is essential for the ways of belonging. After all, you can wear a certain hairstyle without necessarily having a feeling of identification with regard to a particular group or heritage (ibid.: 1011). Feelings of belonging in relation to hair styles for example, can be triggered through online platforms according to Johnson (2016). She demonstrates the popularity of natural hair websites and vlogs, and argues that these platforms ‘provide acceptance, affirmation, and belonging to a population that strays from dominant society’s expectation of hair aesthetics’ (ibid.: 10). Ellington (2014: 552) claims that such websites and vlogs are necessary for black people who wish to wear their hair naturally. She clarifies that this group often lacks the knowledge about what products to use, because of a history with manipulating their own hair texture in a non-acceptant environment concerning natural hair. Online platforms help these people to make their ‘journey’ towards natural hair easier, by providing information about certain haircare products and hair styles. Moreover, these platforms offer emotional support, because of the contact people have with each other to greater and lesser degrees. Through these contacts, people are able to express their feelings, or to compliment each other for example, which can result in a form of companionship (ibid: 554-555).

Focus Following from this theoretical framework, I will have a focus on beauty, ethnicity and identity. In this research, I will take into account the historical meanings of processed and natural hair. These historical meanings can still have an effect on black women’s perceptions of what is beautiful, and what is not. By looking at the rise of the natural hair movement, I will analyze how these two different hairstyles are interpreted nowadays in the Netherlands. Furthermore, I will give some attention to the discussion whether particular hairstyles are a reflection of a certain ethnic identity. Therefore, the main question will be: ‘How is the styling of black hair related to black women’s ethnic identity in the Netherlands?’ From this question, three sub-questions can be divided:

- What are the motives of black haired women to wear their hair in a processed way? - What are the motives of black haired women to wear their hair in a natural way? - What kind of role plays the hair of black haired women in the reflection of their identity?

3. Racial context of the Netherlands First and foremost, it is important to note that the racial context of the Netherlands is different from the racial context of the United States. In contrast to the US, blacks have been absent in Europe for a long time. Although Europe had a prominent role in the expansion of their colonial empires, slavery was put away over the ocean and was kept quite invisible in Europe itself (Hondius 2009: 32). Only after the 1960s, the Netherlands became an immigration country instead of an emigration country (Zorlu & Hartog 2001: 2). The increased amount of immigrants had something to do with the filling up of labor shortages in the Netherlands, but also with the decolonization of Indonesia and Surinam. Later on, refugees and economic migrants from a more diverse range of countries immigrated to the Netherlands. In this way, the Dutch population grew, relatively recent, into a more heterogeneous one with regard to race and ethnicity. According to Essed & Hoving (2014), there is a difference between the US and the Netherlands in approaching racism. The US would ‘acknowledge systemic racism’, while the Netherlands would ignore the presence of racism (ibid.: 11). On the contrary, the dominant discourse in the Netherlands is that the Dutch would be color-blind, anti-racist and tolerant (Wekker 2016: 1). This discourse of antiracism is a result of the Holocaust trauma of World War II, after which even the term ‘race’ is avoided (Siebers 2017: 371). Despite the ignorance of racism in the Netherlands, does not mean that it is not present. Essed (2008) for example, shows how racism is practiced in a covert manner, also called everyday racism. According to her, everyday racism ‘relates day-to-day experiences of racial discrimination to the macrostructural context of group inequalities represented within and between nations as racial and ethnic hierarchies of competence, culture, and human progress’ (ibid.: 203). Such an everyday experience can be hidden in a joke for instance. The comparison of the racial context between the US and the Netherlands made by Essed & Hoving, is criticized by Siebers (2017). He claims that these scholars misuse the term racism because they do not place it in a specific context, they rather use it as a universal given (ibid.: 372). Besides that, he criticizes the intermingle of the concepts race and ethnicity as if they have the same meaning. According to Siebers, ‘race and ethnicity have gone very separate ways in the Netherlands’ (ibid.: 370). He clarifies that race is not denied in the Netherlands by definition. Rather, the term race has other connotations because of the Holocaust history, and therefore, race has another meaning. He states that there is no ‘assumed biological hierarchy’ in the Netherlands, but there is more an ‘assumption of

16 incompatibility’ between different cultures (ibid.: 378). This notion would make the terms ethnicity and ethnicism more preferable concepts with regard to the Dutch context. For this research, it is important to take this difference between race and ethnicity into account. As I will demonstrate later, some of the respondent have experiences with being othered. However, in this Dutch context, it could be relevant to make a difference between racial othering and ethnic othering.

4. Methods This study is based on a qualitative research design, since the focus is on people’s experiences, feelings and motives with regard to the styling of their hair. It is my aim to really understand, or as Weber described verstehen, the meanings attached to these practices. Verstehen implies the study of people’s ‘lived experiences’, which is placed in people’s corresponding historical and social context (Ritchie et al. 2014: 11). In order to understand the deeper meaning of the particular ways of styling black hair among my research participants, I have used an interpretivist approach. This means that I took the subjectivity of people’s narrated experiences into account, by emphasizing the interpretational level of the participants, as well as my own interpretations of it (ibid.).

Empirical observations At the start of my research, I gathered empirical data by conducting observations. During these observations, I wrote down some short fieldnotes, and elaborated them later into detailed stories from my perspective. Earlier this year, I did my first observation at Miss Black Hair NL, a beauty contest aimed at women who wear their black hair in a natural way. This event lasted five hours and was divided into three rounds in which the misses could prove themselves: the introduction, talent and gala round. In the introduction round, the fourteen misses shared their experiences about being a black woman in the Netherlands and their journey towards accepting their own natural hair. Here, my ideas were shaped about black hair in relation to identity. Later in the research process, I had six other observation moments at four different black hair shops in Amsterdam, because this could contribute to my knowledge and ideas concerning black hair styling. The internet was a helpful tool to find these shops, and I selected them more or less on the basis of accessibility, since I depended on public transport. Besides that, I made sure that the shops varied with regard to location, size and amount of customers. The shops were spread over Amsterdam-Zuidoost, Amsterdam-Zuid and Amsterdam-Oost. In comparison to each other, one shop was little, two were medium sized, and the fourth was significantly bigger. Moreover, two of the shops were very well attended by customers, while the other two were more quiet. I visited all the shops around the same time, between 13.00 and 15.00 on weekdays, and I stayed there from five to twenty minutes. During the visits, I focused on the range of haircare products which were offered and how these were presented. Also, I kept an eye on the physical features of the customers, such as hair types and skin color. In two of the shops, I

18 was accompanied by a friend with black hair, which gave me the feeling of being legitimized to walk through the shops in my own tempo. However, I visited the other two shops individually and I always had the idea that the vendors noticed me observing their shops and products. This made me feel uncomfortable and triggered me to explain them my presence. Fortunately, this resulted in meaningful conversations, in which the vendors showed me various black haircare products.

Interviews In order to collect the most significant and deep data with regard to black women’s experiences of styling their hair, I conducted sixteen semi-structured interviews. Initially, I started the interview process with the focus on both black haired men and women. Therefore, my first interview was carried out with a male respondent. However, as the process continued, it happened to be easier to get access to female respondents. For that reason, I decided to narrow my research population down to black haired women in the Netherlands. Despite this decision, I still considered the interview with the man to be relevant enough for the analysis, because he showed some similar experiences in comparison with the female respondents. The interview respondents were selected in two different ways. First of all, I approached several women with black hair who I already knew from my inner circle. From there, I made use of snowball sampling, through which the respondents introduced me to other relevant participants (Bryman 2012: 424). Secondly, one of the participants invited me to a Facebook group, where people with curly hair post messages with questions and advice concerning their haircare. In these messages, group members often add information about their own hair types. This gave me the opportunity to filter these members on the basis of relevant hair types for my research. In the search function, I used terms like 3C, 4A, 4B and 4C, which are plausible afro-textured curls. Several group members came out of the query, and I made a selection on the basis of most recently posted messages. I sent each them a private message with some information about my research and asked them if would be willing to participate. Most of them replied within a few days and reacted positive. Eventually, the selected respondents varied with regard to hair types from type 3A to 4C, but all of them would define their hair as afro-textured. Most of them shared information about having their roots in Surinam, Ghana and the Caribbean. This was often divided into being half- and full-blooded. In the case of a half-blooded respondent, the term ‘mixed parents’ is added in their descriptions in the following chapter. Moreover, the respondents varied in age, from twenty to fifty-four.

All of the interviews lasted approximately from forty-five minutes to an hour. Nine of the respondents were face-to-face available and I interviewed them in their homes or in quiet café’s in their neighborhood. In two cases, I had two respondents in front of me at the same time, because of the fact that they were relatives. This resulted in interesting interactions, and I ensured that they had equal chances to share their stories. The seven other respondents lived too far away or just had the preference to be interviewed on the phone. Whether face-to-face or by telephone, the interviews were recorded with the consent of the respondents, and with the guarantee of being anonymized. The interviews were held in a semi-structured way, which means that I made a list of topics beforehand, which I wanted to discuss with my respondents. In this manner of interviewing, the sequence of questions and topics is not static, and depends on each particular story of the respondents. Besides that, semi-structured interviews provide space to expand on other themes, which are made relevant by the respondents (Bryman 2012: 212). In this way, I tried to give the respondents the opportunity to tell their own story, while picking up on some predetermined topics such as ‘acceptance’ and ‘going natural’.

Analysis As said before, all of the interviews were recorded. The face-to-face interviews were recorded with the help of a standard recording function on my mobile phone. However, this was not possible for the interviews which were carried out with the same mobile phone. For these interviews, I was obliged to download a special phone recording app. After successfully recording the interviews, I transcribed all of them by using the internet program oTranscribe. Note that the several quotes used in this research, which are derived from the transcripts, are translated into English as good as possible. Subsequently, I converted these transcripts into the software program ATLAS.ti, which is a useful tool for analyzing the data. With this program, I started to apply initial codes to the data. These codes imply short clusters of words which denote the core of a few sentences, and these are written down by staying close to the data (Charmaz 2014; Emerson et al. 1995). Then, I continued with focused coding, which is the next analytical step. Here, I compared the different initial codes and tried to find thematic patterns. Through this comparison, I filtered the relevant from the less relevant codes and divided them into conceptual themes.

Position in the field From time to time, I was very conscious of my position in the field as a white woman with

20 straight hair in contrast to the black haired respondents. For example, during some of the interviews, I reflected on my own hair and the ease of caring for it, while the respondents often emphasized the expensive and time-consuming process of their haircare. By sharing my experiences, I just tried to give the interviews a personal touch. However, in hindsight, these comments were somehow inconvenient, since they only seemed to acknowledge the imbalance between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ hair. Nonetheless, my position in the field as a white woman was also beneficial in some cases. Namely, my respondents often considered me as a layperson with regard to black haircare. They did not take my knowledge for granted and this resulted in detailed explanations from their sides about products and caring processes.

Limitations Despite the useful insights, this research also faced some limitations. First of all, the valdity of the research is problematic, because of the small size of respondents. Thereby, the respondents who are interviewed can only be divided into three different ethnic categories, which is not a true reflection of the population of black women in the Netherlands. Together, the small amount of respondents and the little variation with regard to ethnicity, make it impossible to generalize my case to a bigger population. Another limitation implies the lack of depth concerning gender. Fifteen of my respondents are female, but I will not discuss the impact of being a woman in experiences with regard to haircare and beauty. The same applies for factors such as age and generation. My respondents vary in age from twenty to fifty years old, but I can imagine that the time period in which a person grows up, has a strong influence on experiences with regard to beauty standards, since these standards change over time. Therefore, for further research, it would be interesting to take these two factors into consideration.

5. Findings Whether I am walking through Afro Beauty Plaza, Lara Afro Cosmetics, or Suhail Cosmetics, I am repeatedly overwhelmed by the variety of products that are offered by black hair shops in Amsterdam. Most of the time, these kind of shops are partly dedicated to the selling of wigs and hair extensions, while the other part of the interior is intended for haircare products. The walls of the shops are completely covered with stacks on which a colorful hotchpotch of haircare products is presented. In front of the stacks, showcases of glass contain even more of these products. The large amount of products come in different shapes and sizes: buckets, jars, bottles, tubes and even self-tied sandwich bags filled with clay kind of substances. Some of the products are printed with familiar words like shampoo and conditioner, but as a layperson, I have no clue what the rest of these products represent and I don’t even know where to focus on. A Pakistani vendor of Lara Afro Cosmetics drew my attention to a row of natural haircare products right in front of me, which are very popular at the moment according to him. These natural products can be distinguished by their labels, on which for example the absence of sulfates and perfume is emphasized, or on which organic ingredients are shown, like shea butter, coconut- and avocado oil. Subsequently, the vendor pointed to a range of more chemical based products on the top shelves, and clarified that these relaxers and straighteners are less sold lately. The transformation of product choices from chemical to natural among black haired consumers, as experienced by the vendor, is something that I recognized throughout several interviews with my respondents. Their hair stories are often described as a lifelong search for the right product, and as a journey towards the perfect curl. In the following sections, I will focus on the respondents’ ways of styling their hair, and the corresponding motivations. Here, I will make a distinction between the usage of chemical and natural haircare products.

5.1 Growing up with chemicals The experience of using chemical products was frequently mentioned when I asked my respondents to look back on their childhood with regard to the styling of their hair. These chemical products involve hair relaxers, or in other words straighteners. With the aggressive ingredients, these products have the ability to alter the curly hair texture into a straight one. However, the aggressiveness of the products did not prevent my respondents from using it. Ten of them came up with stories about using hair relaxers, including short-term usage as well as usage on the long-term. In this section, I will elaborate on their motivations of using this straightening product and their preference to go through life with a straight haircut. Their

22 motivations can be divided into three categories, namely practical, social and individual motives.

Straight hair is more practical Firstly, some of the respondents claim that using straightening products has been ingrained since they were young. Around the age of five, the mothers of the respondents often made the decision to relax their daughters hair. However, this decision was not just made out of aesthetic reasons, it was rather based on more practical motives. The following quote demonstrates such practical considerations.

Ghanaian-Dutch woman, 31 years old, hair type unknown: ‘I was 6 when my mother thought, you know what, I don’t have time for this. Because of course, having two girls to take care of is very time-consuming and busy. So, then you just put a little jar of straightener in your daughters’ hair, because when it is straight, it is easier to style it in a ponytail or anything. […] And yes, combing and braiding the hair is a lot easier then’.

Straightening the hair would be time-saving and would improve the manageability of it. The other respondents agreed on this idea of the easiness of straight hair, and emphasized how they remember the pain during the hair combing sessions of their natural curls with their mothers. One of them, a 22-year-old Ghanaian-Dutch women with 4C hair, the most curly hair type, claimed that the pain of combing her hair became unbearable when she was a child of five years old. Her mother, who has the same type of hair could understand her pain, and decided to relax her daughters hair. Her processed hair was a lot easier to comb and to braid. In this way, using a relaxer would relieve the respondents from the inconvenience of the painful and time-consuming styling of the hair. These practical statements confirm the dichotomous notion of good and bad hair (Byrd & Tharps 2014), in the way that the statements portray natural black hair as difficult and as a burden, while straight hair would be easy and a relieve from all the painful and time-consuming hair styling practices.

Social pressures Besides the practical motives, another reason for relaxing the hair is more culturally grounded. Some of the respondents argued that from a certain age, they were expected to straighten their hair by the people around them like family and friends. It was considered as a normal thing to do, something which is part of growing up. For instance, one of the women

23 who had a history with relaxing her hair, clarified that she started doing this at the age of twelve, because of the cultural custom in her environment. Here, it was normal for a girl to straighten the hair from the moment she started menstruating. Straightening the hair could thus be seen as an aspect of the transition from being a girl to becoming a woman. To my idea, this can be interpreted as a sort of rite de passage, in which the styling of the hair is part of the transition from life stage to life stage. For instance, the following respondent looks back on the hairstyle transition she made in her childhood, and shows how she associated the particular hairstyles with different stages in life.

Surinamese-Dutch woman, 41 years old, hair type 3C: ‘When I was little, my hair was always braided. However, at a certain moment, you reach a point in life that you want to wear your hair loose. But wearing loose kinky hair, was something you just didn’t do, it was not decent, it was actually sloppy. So when I started to wear my hair loose, I had to straight it chemically, that was the norm. As a matter of fact, everyone I knew straightened her hair, it was normal in my world’.

From this quote, I understand that the environment in which this woman lived, socialized her way of thinking with regard to her hair. People in her inner circle expected from her to relax her kinky curls, and so she anticipated. To illustrate the expectations of the people around her, this Surinamese woman provided another example of how her aunts reacted on her natural hair with a shocking and negative undertone, such as ‘oh.. I didn’t know that your hair was thát kinky’. This negativity has everything to do with the fact that kinky hair was associated with sloppiness, the respondent explained. This, again, is in line with the internalized notion of having good and bad hair (Byrd & Tharps 2014; Johnson & Bankhead 2014; Johnson 2016). Growing up with the idea of straight hair as a signal of beauty, neatness and maturity, the respondent was somehow pushed towards altering her natural hair texture. In retrospect, she made clear that she is now aware of the underlying thought of her choice back then, and that she understands how straight hair was normalized as a better hairstyle. Namely, she explained that this way of thinking was based on the aspiration to appear more representative and professional. This can be seen as a form of ‘aesthetic labour’ (Holla & Kuipers 2015), in which the appearance is shaped towards the dominant ideal of attractiveness, in order to gain more aesthetic capital, which can subsequently result in upward social mobility. Another respondent also felt social pressure to style her hair into a straight haircut, but

24 did not point to the pressure from her family and friends. She rather blamed the Dutch society for putting this pressure on her.

Surinamese-Dutch woman, 39 years old, hair type 4A/4B: ‘It was the European standard, you are in the Netherlands and that is the only thing you see, you had to relax your hair unfortunately. […] If you had Barbie dolls, they all had straight hair. On the television, here in the Netherlands, you only saw girls with straight hair, it was the standard. Kinky hair was not promoted and we could not recognize ourselves in that as beautiful. And that originates from colonial times, when the Netherlands colonized Surinam, and brought that standard with it. […] Luckily, this changed, kinky hair is now seen as lovely again, as pretty, as beautiful. Women can appreciate it now and abandoned this European standard’.

This respondent showed that she is well aware now of the social environment in which she grew up. As a young black girl in a predominantly white country, she experienced difficulties in identifying herself with the role models on the television and in toy shops. With her dark skin and afro-textured hair, she did not fit into the normal image of a Dutch girl. Presumably, she felt the desire to fit in, and using a relaxer to straighten her hair was one of the tools to come closer to this normal Dutch image. Straight hair would make her appear less like ‘the other’. She further explained that because of her straight hairstyle in that time, she did not experience a feeling of deviating from the norm as such. She was never bullied or discriminated for it, she said, while other children with natural black hair had a hard time.

An individual choice A third motivation for relaxing the hair is more or less an exception to the rule and is in contrast with the last two motives. A Surinamese-Dutch woman of 24 years old with 4C hair claimed that she, as a teenager, relaxed her hair regardless of any potential societal pressure or parental decisions. However, although she did agree with the idea that her natural black hair is difficult in comparison to straight hair, this was not her main motivation to use a relaxing product. In her story, she presented herself in an individualistic way, who simply makes choices on her own. She explained that she tried to use a straightening product for a short period of time in her youth, because she wanted to get rid of the thickness and volume of her hair. A big voluminous afro would not suit her style and personality basically, according to her, and it still does not. She clarified how she considers her opinion as independent of the dominant beauty standards in the Netherlands. ‘I never wanted to conform to the majority 25 anyway, I’ve always been drawn to alternative styles and I’d rather be part of the one percent instead of the 99’. Thus, this means that she considers her choice as based on personal preferences and taste.

Conclusion Motives for straightening the hair permanently with chemical products are sometimes well- considered. Straight hair can be considered more practical, especially for children who are too young to style their own hair. However, although this is a practical choice, it maintains the dichotomy of straight hair as easy and black hair as difficult. Other motives are also based on the dichotomy of good and bad hair, but this is rather based on a level of social pressure. These women grew up with the idea that straight hair is more beautiful because of the lack of other curly haired role models in the Netherlands, or it was just normalized in their families to straighten the hair from a certain age. Notwithstanding, it is also important to take into consideration that not all motivations have something to do with the notion of good and bad hair. Straightening the hair can be an individual choice, based on a personal preference.

5.2 Narratives of Naturalista’s Contrary to the processed hairstyles, are the natural hairstyles. Natural hair involves the hair in its own original texture, just how it grows out of the head. This means that it is not styled with the help of chemical products. However, what can be considered a natural hairstyle is still somehow subjective. Some people tend to think that natural hairstyles only include afro’s, dreads and braids made of their own hair, while others consider hairstyles with the addition of fake hair, as in braids and wigs, natural too. In the following parts, I will consider both cases as natural, as long as they do not use chemical straighteners. In this chapter, I will elaborate on the natural way of styling black hair and the corresponding motivations and experiences. The natural hair stories of the respondents can be divided into the experiences of women who have always worn their hair in its natural state, and the experiences of women who decided to ‘go natural’ on a certain moment in time.

Growing up naturally: We didn’t know better Only six of the respondents never used hair relaxers throughout their lives. Interestingly, most of them grew up with mixed parents, or to be more precisely, with a white mother or father. In such a family composition, it seemed less self-evident to use a straightener product. Overall, these respondents claimed to have had a relation of unfamiliarity with their own hair in their youth. To their ideas, they always used the wrong haircare products back then. For example, they used ordinary European oriented haircare products like Andrélon. The following quote

26 illustrates the unfamiliarity of one of the respondents with regard to the care of her natural hair.

Ghanaian-Dutch woman, 25 years old, hair type 3B/3C: ‘When I was young, I couldn’t get along with my hair, because I have a white mother and she didn’t know how to deal with my hair. So I always wore my hair tied up. She did buy black hair products actually, but she didn’t know how to use it. My hair became frizzy and super dry. I always had two little buns on my head and I looked like Minnie Mouse, it was hideous. […] My mother also bought Andrélon Perfecte Krul because it is a product for curls haha. But look, we lived in Beverwijk, there were no afro hairdressers, no toko’s with the right products, there was no social media back then.. We didn’t know better’.

As a result of the particular social environment in which she grew up, this woman had to deal with a limited knowledge about the specific care for her natural black hair. Because of her young age, she depended on her mother, who happened to be white and who consequently, would not have sufficient know-how with regard to the afro-textured hair of her daughter. Moreover, the location where she lived was predominantly white and could not provide her information or access to black hairdressers or products. Besides that, the lack of social media at that time did not make it easier at all. Because of this situation, it is understandable that this respondent did not come into contact with products such as relaxers or other specific black hair products. Using the ordinary white haircare products was one of the few options she had left, and to her taste, these products negatively affected the overall appearance of her hair. The way in which she talked about her dry and frizzy hair, with a little bit of self-deprecation, sounded as if these were undesirable aspects of the physical presentation of the self. Three other respondents came up with similar childhood memories relating to their haircare. Back then, they all shared the preference to bind their natural hair tightly together with an elastic band. One of them, a Surinamese-Dutch girl of 22 years old with 4A/4B hair, clarified that she never wore her hair loose, because she did not consider her curls as something beautiful. She, too, used European oriented haircare products which were available at the regular drugstore, and she also had negative experiences with it. It dried out her hair and made it appear frizzy. ‘Nobody wants to walk around with a bunch of frizz in the hair’, she claimed. By wearing her hair in a bun, the frizz could be masked to some extent. In this way, the usage of European oriented haircare products seemed to be in line with negative feelings towards the own natural hair. After all, a frizzy curl was not particular seen

27 as a beautiful curl by my respondents. As a result of this, one of the respondents decided to wear a weave when she was sixteen years old. A weave implies that the natural hair is tightly braided against the scalp, and through these braids, fake hair is woven in a desirable texture and length.

Ghanaian-Dutch woman, 22 years old, hair type 4A: ‘Most of my friends back then just had straight hair, so where could I get information about my hair? And also acceptance indeed.. I think I decided to wear a weave because of my wish to have other curls, curls which do fit in the overall Western picture, curls which are manageable and OK. […] Not that I was really insecure about my own hair, but I didn’t feel that my hair was beautiful or anything’.

In this last quote, the respondent reflects on her motivation of wearing a weave when she was younger, instead of wearing her own natural loose hair. If I interpret her correctly, she wore a weave because with these adjusted imitation curls, the appearance of her hair would be more in compliance with the Western idea of beautiful hair. This way of reasoning reminds me to the notion of good and bad hair, which has its roots in colonial times (Byrd & Tharps 2014). Although the respondent did not choose for a weave with straight hair, she did choose for a weave with smoother and sleeker curls than her natural curls. In contrast to her own frizzy curls, this smooth and ‘manageable’ curl tend to be seen as the ‘good curl’, which is more accepted with regard to European beauty standards. These beauty standards could be seen as oppressive (Oyedemi 2016; Norwood 2018), in a way that it affected this respondent’s self- esteem and that it eventually made her act to confirm to the white accepted norm. Alongside the respondents’ own unfamiliarity with their natural black hair, there is the unfamiliarity of the environment. The same respondent of the previous quote shows how the expectations of the people around her with regard to her hair, influenced her movements in high school. She did not dare to take off her elastic band and show her loose hair in front of her white classmates.

Ghanaian-Dutch woman, 22 years old, hair type 4A: ‘It was a sort of awkwardness, because the thing is, if you.. People just don’t understand. If I take off my hairclip right now, then my hair will just stay like this, you know. It won’t fall down beautifully. So, if I had worn a ponytail, my hair would stay up high.. so that was just something I was ashamed of because it would

not fall down on my shoulders. And if people would ask me to show my loose hair, I would immediately think about that..’

This respondent furthermore explained that this anxiety was based on an earlier experience of receiving a shocked and giggly reaction of a white peer, while taking off her ponytail. The reactions and expectations of her classmates made the respondent aware of herself being the other. It was a point of realization that her natural hair did not comply with the Dutch norm. To my interpretation, this experience could be connected to Essed’s (2008) idea of everyday racism. Indeed, this respondent was being othered in an everyday experience and in a covered way. The respondent was not openly portrayed as inferior word-by-word, but the shocking reaction of her peer could have suggested a similar kind of judgment. As the years went by, this respondent’s relationship with her natural hair changed in a positive way. She got to know her hair better, and became more handy in the styling and caring for it. This progress was a result of her increased independency and mobility. For her, it became easier to move to bigger cities such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam, which seem to offer more possibilities with regard to black haircare, as I can believe from her story. The following quote illustrates how being in the city, in this case Amsterdam, can be beneficial for someone’s ability to identify with other people with the same type of hair.

Ghanaian-Dutch woman, 22 years old, hair type 4A: ‘Now that I am more in the city, I see a lot more different kinds of people around me, and.. I have the idea that there are way more half-blood.. well, that’s logical because I am more in the city now and I see more half-blood people with the same type of hair, through which I can think ‘oh, she has beautiful hair and it looks like mine, I can identify with her, so maybe I can do it like her’, and then I try something out’.

Because of the mixed population in Amsterdam, this respondent could identify with equals concerning her hair type. In this situation, she was accompanied by sources of inspiration, which portrayed images of how her hair could look like. This motivated her to see the possibilities of styling black hair, and it helped her to enhance her perspective of what is beautiful. Moreover, the city provided her advantages such as black hair shops, hairdressers and black hair events.

Transition decision Another reason for styling the hair in a natural way, was based on previous experiences with

29 using chemical products. Out of the ten respondents who had used chemicals in their lives, nine of them made the decision to ‘go natural’, which stands for the transition from chemical to natural hair styling (Wilkerson 2017). Several respondents could handle the pain of the relaxer, kept using the product for years. During such a long period of using this aggressive product, most of the respondents encountered their hair badly damaged at a certain moment in time. Their hair came out thin and broken, and in some cases, pieces of hair even disappeared, which resulted in bald spots on the scalp. The irreparable damage created by chemical products was often a trigger through which the respondents realized that they had to change the way of caring for their hair.

Ghanaian-Dutch woman, 22 years old, hair type 4C: ‘Because of the relaxer, it became.. some pieces of my hair broke off. On the sides and in the middle it was still long, and people wouldn’t notice it because I always wore a weave or braids. But my mother said, “I’m sorry, but this is too ugly”, and she cut it all off. This happened two years ago and in the meantime, my hair grew back as long as it used to be in a natural way’.

Cutting off the damaged part of the hair, was for many respondents a strategy to start the transition towards a natural and healthy state of the hair. This is also called the ‘big chop’, which was experienced as a drastic transformation by some of the interviewees. One of them admitted that it took some time to get used to her new appearance. It was really a switchover and she had to learn to accept her ‘real’ self again. To my idea, with the term ‘real’, she probably meant her natural self and not the manipulated version. However, we can doubt about the exact meaning of a natural self of course, since the physical appearance is always styled and socially shaped (Mercer 1987). Anyhow, accepting this natural self was experienced as something difficult. The respondent clarified that people from her inner circle would make obnoxious comments such as ‘oh, that’s her, the one who doesn’t comb her hair anymore’. Such comments only confirm the associations of sloppiness people have with regard to natural black hair. Going natural stands in line with the acceptance of the self. One of the respondents is a Surinamese-Dutch woman of 41 years old, and she runs an online blog, through which she aims to inspire multicultural women. One of the topics she writes about is hair. On her online platform, she shared her own story of going natural and her journey towards acceptance, after approximately 20 years of relaxing her hair.

Surinamese-Dutch woman, 41 years old, hair type 3C: ‘On a sudden moment, I got bald spots on my head and I began to think, what am I doing to myself? And I realized, wait.. who can say that my hair is difficult? Is that really true, or is that just something people tend to think? And the question is, what is difficult? If you look at diversity and all of the things I can do with my hair, then, my hair is far from difficult’.

In this quote, the respondent showed how she came to a point of realization and subsequently criticized the general way of thinking about black hair. For her, acceptance was not immediately developed after she went through a ‘big chop’, it rather required a change in her way of thinking. By emphasizing the positive aspects of having natural curly black hair, and by sharing tips and tricks with regard to the caring and styling of black hair, it is her goal to encourage other women to turn the negative perspective into a positive one, and to enhance their self-esteem.

Online support Besides blogs, other online platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest are used to share information and experiences with regard to black haircare and styling. One of my respondents introduced me the Curly Girl Method (i.e. CG Method), where she is engaged with through a closed group on Facebook. Officially, the Curly Girl Method was published by Lorraine Massey (2001) in the form of a handbook, focused on people who wear their curly hair in a natural way, which means not straightened. This method is not just a guidance for going natural, it goes a step further. The aim of the method is to enhance the condition of the natural curls, as far as possible. Therefore, certain rules and instructions are attached to this particular form of haircare. Followers of the method are required to analyze their own hair, focusing on characteristics of the hair such as elasticity, porosity and density. On the basis of these results, they can find matching haircare products. These products have to be CG-friendly, which do not contain ingredients that are damaging for the hair. Following this method is a complicated process and therefore, a Facebook group was created to help each other out. Currently, the Facebook group has reached 38.714 members and this number is still growing. It is a diverse group which consists of women as well as men with curls regardless of descent, but also straight haired people who want to learn about the curly hair of their children for example. Every day, dozens of messages are placed in the group by members, which contain questions about certain haircare products and styling, or advice about where to shop these products. However, it is not only a place to share

31 information, but it also seems to be a platform for emotional support (Ellington 2014: 554). Here, people share similar struggles concerning their haircare journey, and motivate each other to continue. Some of the members post photos of their clear defined and moisturized curls to show the positive effects after practicing the CG Method, which sometimes generates hundreds of likes and numerous compliments of other members. Besides sharing the positive support and inspiration, the platform is also a place where the negative experiences of having curly hair can be discussed. Some of these struggles are the hampered access to specific black hair products and the high prices of it in comparison to European oriented products. Most of these products are not offered in regular drug stores or supermarkets, but have to be bought online, in toko’s or in the bigger cities. My respondents too, seem to feel like the forgotten target group. The respondent, who is also a blogger, discussed this topic on her website five years ago, and explained the following to me.

Surinamese-Dutch woman, 41 years old, hair type 3C: ‘The moment that I wrote this article, and I refer to Kruidvat and Etos in Rotterdam, right.. well, there you only had one shelf with products from the Stone Age. And this has changed in the meantime, I see more modern products right now, but still, it is still just a shelf of one meter long’.

This respondent received several reactions from black haired women who recognize themselves in this struggle. An interesting reaction came from a woman from the UK, who admitted that she was shocked to see the limited supply of black beauty products in the regular stores in the Netherlands. ‘Can I consider this discrimination?’, a 22-year-old Surinamese-Dutch respondent asked herself critically during an interview. This idea of being the forgotten target group in the Netherlands was also shared by another respondent, who made clear that being on a holiday in the United States feels as a relieve with regard to black beauty supply. According to her, she had more choice there in black hair products, plus these products were a lot cheaper. For her, this was enough reason to buy a stash of products for a longer period.

Conclusion In this section, I discussed the motivations and experiences for wearing the hair in a natural style. Firstly, I elaborated on the motives of the respondents who wore their hair naturally their entire lives. They explained that this was due to their and their white mother’s unfamiliarity with black haircare. Because of the white social environment in which they lived, they were consigned to use regular European haircare products. Relaxing the hair did 32 not seem to be an option at all, this was not a normal thing to do for them. This straight-haired environment made them feel insecure about their curly natural hair, but this changed when they moved to the city. Here, they came into contact with more accessible curly role models and became more familiar with black haircare. Secondly, I elaborated on the motives of the respondents who made the decision to go natural after relaxing the hair for a period of time. They often explained that their damaged hair made them realize that it would be better to wear the hair in its natural way. Interestingly, going natural went hand-in-hand with the urge to accept the ‘real’ self and to change their negative way of thinking about black hair into a positive way. Moreover, the respondent were commonly extra motivated to choose to go natural, because of online role models and communities. Here, they can share their experiences, recognize themselves in each other and support each other.

5.3 The natural hair movement: What has blackness to do with curly hair? In the previous section, I showed how black haired women support and inspire each other online to wear their hair naturally. On this moment, fifteen of my respondents have chosen to wear their hair in its natural way, with the intention to never touch a relaxing product anymore. Throughout the stories of the respondents, going natural seems to be an end stage to which everyone will strive to eventually. But going natural mostly required the respondents to let go the western beauty ideals. The journey towards such a natural lifestyle, often stands in line with learning to love and accept the ‘real’ self. This combination of natural black hair and self-love is, to my idea, somehow related to the ‘black hair fantasy’ of Konneh (2013). In this section, I will elaborate on this notion and on the relation between natural black hair and the identity of the respondents.

Natural hair as a reflection of the authentic self The identity is a recurring theme, concerning the acceptance of the natural hair. This was, among others, evident at the Miss Black Hair NL contest this year, which is an annual contest for black women with natural hair. Here, it is not just about the beauty of the misses, the aim is rather to strive for a beauty ideal in which black women can accept and love themselves in their natural way. Leading up to the contest, an introduction video was posted on their YouTube channel, in which a poem was recited about natural hair in relation to self- acceptance and the identity.

‘[…] It is beautiful as it grows, up high as a crown of a queen, pointing to the gods and your spiritual ancestors. Afro-texture, from the roots of your hair,

because your roots are in Africa. Your roots in the continent of the origin of man are the foundation of your inner and outer beauty. Don’t betray them. […] Your beauty is closest to your natural self, from inside, from your own feeling of self-acceptance. It is not only about being beautiful. You have authenticity. You have accepted yourself, your identity’5

The previous pieces of the poem demonstrate how natural hair is linked to an authentic identity. In this case, wearing the hair in its own afro-textured way, seems to me a symbol of appreciation towards the African roots and ancestors, and a symbol of being true to one’s original self. A 54-year old Ghanaian-Dutch respondent showed her pride with regard to her African background. She explained that it is just better to wear your own natural hair, because you do not know where the fake hair for the extensions and wigs are coming from. This hair could have been from a dead person from India, she said. It is better to wear your natural hair and to be proud of it: ‘Yes, I am black, I have kinky hair, I am beautiful, that is it. For me, I am really proud of where I am coming from, that I am an African woman, and especially Ghanaian, on top of it an Ashanti lady’. This way of thinking was also shared by some other respondents. They often emphasized the importance of being comfortable with the own natural hair, because it belongs to the person that you are, people were born with it after all. The following respondent reflects on this preference of wearing her natural hair, by comparing it with wearing a wig.

Ghanaian-Dutch woman, 22 years old, hair type 4C: ‘But now that I am older, I am more aware of the fact that your hair is part of yourself and that when you straighten it, you actually hide yourself a little bit.. pretending to be someone else. And that’s the thing with wigs too, I think it is a weird idea to take off the wig when you come home, like you take off your identity. That’s why I think natural hair is beautiful, then, you are just who you are and you can be proud of it. That is important to me and I think that that is the reason why I don’t want to wear a wig’.

This respondent admitted that her hair can be seen as a reflection of her identity. In her eyes, her natural hair would symbolize her real self, while hiding all of her hair under a wig would indicate that she would pretend to be someone else. Later, she added that she does not have a

5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmphebNd7B0 Miss Black Hair NL, 24 Jan 2018 (03/07/2018)

34 problem with fake hair that is braided through her own hair. That feels more like a form of art, she explained. Interestingly, she would not appreciate it if people think that her braids are ‘rastas’, while this is a natural hairstyle too. However, because of her association of unkempt hippie people, she prefers her own neat braids. Natural black hair can also be experienced as a precious aspect of the self, when it is the only aspect that indicates a black background. For example, a Carribean-Dutch respondent, who has a very light skin as a result of miscegenation, claimed that she would not want to straighten her hair because her curls symbolize her roots.

Caribbean-Dutch woman, mixed parents, 22 years old, hair type 3C: ‘I am not my hair, my hair is not me, but it is certainly a part of me and always will be. My hair is the only aspect.. to come back to the Caribbean part, it is the only aspect of which people recognize that I have different roots you know. And that is important to me, so I’ll always wish to wear my curls.’

This respondent is somehow nuanced about the relation between her hair and her identity. Although she sees her hair as part of her identity, it does not reflect her identity. However, her curly hair is the only way, to her idea, to signify her different roots towards other people. For instance, she once experienced that a stranger did not notice her different background, when she had her hair braided with some fake hair pieces for a short period. This happened on a night out in a theater, when an older man made a comment about her braided hair: ‘Hm, how nice, your hair. Did you get this done by an “allochtoon”?’ The man obviously not notice that the person he was talking to, also had different roots herself. This comment confused my respondent and it made her speechless. In de older man’s phrasing and funny intonation, the dividing line between a racist comment and just a compliment is very vague. This, in combination with the fact that he did not even notice her different roots, I could consider this a form of everyday racism (Essed 2008). Indeed, the racist notion is there, but it is hidden in a ‘funny’ compliment. Comments from outside about the hair can also have an effect of othering, as I understand from the stories of my respondents. A 41-year-old Surinamese-Dutch respondent gave an example of the time that she visited a festival with a friend. During that day, she was repeatedly approached by strangers who made comments such as ‘you have such gorgeous hair’ and ‘your hair is very difficult to care for, right?’. Besides that, a lot of people could not resist the temptation to touch it. At the end of the day, my respondent’s friend was shocked

35 about all of the attention that was given to her friend’s hair. Although the respondent believed in the goodwill of the strangers, it made her really feel like a curiosity.

Natural hair is just hair The idea of the natural hair as a symbol for one’s authentic identity, can also be felt as a pressure. One of my respondents, who is a 31-year-old Ghanaian-Dutch woman with 4C hair, straightens her hair since she was six years old. She never stopped using relaxing products because she felt no need. The soft kid’s version of the product just worked good enough for her, without pain. However, she admitted that the natural hair movement influences her way of thinking nowadays. She somehow feels the pressure to present herself as how a black woman would really look like, which means with natural curly hair, she explains. After all these years of relaxing her hair, she does not even know how her curls actually look like, she is rather used to see herself as a straight haired woman. ‘Everyone knows that I team straight!’, she said with a smile on her face. Nonetheless, according to her, she is still proud of her African roots, but straight hair has just become an aspect of who she is. Besides that, there are enough other physical features which represent her roots, like the color of her skin, she explained. The following respondent too, expressed her critical feeling on this notion of natural black hair as a symbol of the African roots and the acceptance of the self. Overall, she is positive about the natural hair movement and she claims that it is important for the younger generation to have more role models to identify with, instead of the blond straight haired barbie dolls she grew up with. However, she thinks that some aspects of the natural hair movement go too far.

Surinamese-Dutch woman, 39 years old, hair type 4A/4B: ‘I have periods that I don’t wear my hair kinky, right now I am wearing fake sleek human hair and I just like it. Sometimes I go natural and sometimes not. But would that make me less loving my roots? Or would that make me less a black woman? What’s that about? It says nothing about your inner self, about your blackness or your knowledge of the black history. It doesn’t say anything.’

This respondent considers her hair as independent of her identity. She wants to emphasize that it is too simplistic to judge straight haired black people for hiding their roots or for being not acceptive towards themselves. Being black is not ultimately related to some physical features, according to this woman. Being black has more to do with other factors such as the emotion with and the knowledge about the African heritage. I recognized this critical view in the story 36 of one of the contestants of Miss Black Hair NL. This contestant struggled with her looks in combination with her blackness.

Miss Black Hair NL contestant: ‘I am more than my looks, more than the color of my skin and the structure of my hair. Being black is a privilege, but not meant for me, it seems.. They call me a light-skin with god hair. How often I asked myself: am I not black enough? No, I am black too!’

Thus, the opinions with regard to natural hair and identity are divided. Some of the respondents think that their natural hair is certainly a part of their identity and that it reflects their roots. However, some other respondents do not agree with this, and see their hair as distinct from their identity. They just love to be variable in their hairstyle choices.

Surinamese-Dutch woman, 41 years old, hair type 3C: ‘God has given this hair to me, so why would I resist? I love the variation, so if women want to straighten their hair, be my guest. To me, it is important that you do this because you want it, but not because you think that other people want to see you that way, you know. I straighten my hair once in a while because I like it, but I still love my curls.’

On the one hand, this respondent seems to consider her hair as a significant part of herself, because of her statement that it is God-given and that there is no need to resist that. However, it does not mean that you cannot change it every once in a while. Additionally, she admitted that she gets her hair straightened after a visit at the hairdresser, just to be able to flip her hair over her shoulder and to have that ‘feminine’ feeling. Nonetheless, she is aware of the fact that this feeling is influenced by the western beauty ideal, but this does not affect her relationship with her own hair anymore. She can do whatever she wants with her hair, as long as she is happy with the natural state of it in the first place, and accepts her unaltered self.

Conclusion In this section, I showed how the respondents give meaning to their hair in relation to their identity. Some of the respondents consider their natural hair to be part of their authentic identity, because of the fact that they are born with it, or that it is God-given. Besides that, their natural curls would represent their roots, which seem to be a significant part of who they are. Straight hair would hide the real self, as if you pretend to be someone else. Other respondents are more nuanced and critical about this relation to the identity. They do not feel that the hair is representable for the self, or at least not for the black self. For

37 them, having straight hair does not rule out someone’s blackness and it does not mean that someone is not proud of her African background. That would be too simplistic and judgmental. People should be free to choose the hairstyle that they like, but it still seems to be important that they also love their natural selves.

6. Discussion & conclusion This research was shaped around the main question: How is the styling of black hair related to black women’s ethnic identity in the Netherlands? In order to answer this question, I conducted sixteen interviews with black haired respondents, who shared their motives and experiences with regard to two particular ways of styling their hair. Here, I focused on the hairstyles that are practiced in a processed and in a natural way. This resulted in the three sub- questions: What are the motives of black haired women to wear their hair in a processed way?; What are the motives of black haired women to wear their hair in a natural way?; What kind of role plays the hair of black haired women in the reflection of their identity? Concerning the first sub-question, I discovered that the respondents were motivated to straighten their hair because of three different reasons, namely practical, social and individual reasons. Overall, these reasons correspond to the existing literature, but in some cases, the respondents had a more nuanced view. Some of respondents, or their parents, considered relaxed hair to be more practical, as it would be less time-consuming and reduces the pain during the frequent combing sessions. This is in contrast with the findings of Ndichu & Upadhyaya (2018), who actually demonstrate the painful, costly and time-consuming practices of relaxing the hair. Indeed, it is generally known that the aggressive relaxing products can be painful for the skin, but is seems that this did not outweigh the pain of combing the natural curly hair for my respondents. However, this preference to undergo the pain of the relaxing cream can also be based on the notion of having good hair and bad hair, in which black hair is associated with difficulty, while straight hair would be easy and manageable (Byrd & Tharps 2014). This dichotomy of good and bad hair was also clear in the stories of the respondents who were motivated to straighten their hair by their social environment. In some families, this dichotomy was carried over from generation to generation, as if the idea was internalized (Johnson & Bankhead 2014). Besides that, this notion of good and bad hair was maintained by the white social environment in the Netherlands, according to the respondents. They claimed that they were influenced by the white and straight-haired role models and that this shaped their perception of what is beautiful (Calogero et al 2007). Because of this social pressure, some of them made the choice to alter the texture of the hair, in order to fit in and to comply with these dominant ideals. Even though, the respondents altered their hair under a certain social pressure, most of their stories were not relatable with Oyedemi’s (2016) notion of cultural violence, to my idea. Of course, it affected

39 their self-esteem and the relaxers could be physically painful, but the respondents were quite nuanced with regard to this negative perspective. They placed their earlier decision to relax their hair in a different context of time, and emphasized the declining social pressure and the progress in the Netherlands with regard to black hair and acceptance. For the second sub-question, I discovered that one reason for wearing the hair in its natural way, was the respondents’ unfamiliarity with black haircare. Because of the white environment in which they grew up, the unfamiliarity of their white mothers and the lack of internet in that time, their only option was to use regular European oriented haircare products. The predominantly white context made them aware of their deviant type of hair and affected their self-esteem. The respondents demonstrated that a contextual change contributed to the knowledge about specific black haircare and to the acceptance of their own hair. Namely, moving to the bigger cities offered them a wide range of black hair products, shops, but also role models and more other black haired people they could identify with. This made it easier for them to transform their perceptions of beauty. Another motive to wear the hair naturally was generated after a period of relaxing the hair, when the respondents realized that the hair was badly damaged. It would be healthier to let go these aggressive products. This was not an easy step for everybody (Wilkerson 2017), and the respondents had to learn to accept their natural selves. To make the journey towards acceptance somewhat easier, some respondents used online platforms to where a lot of black haired people share experiences, knowledge and support with regard natural hair (Ellington 2014; Johnson 2016). The natural hair movement and its’ online community have the ability to create a we-feeling among naturalista’s. The shared experiences they have, and the support that they give to each other without even knowing each other, could be a possible basis for being member of an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson 2006). However, that could be something for further research. The acceptance of the natural self brings me to the central point of the third sub- question. Here, I discovered that some of the respondents considered their natural curly hair as reflecting their authentic selves. It would represent their African roots, their pride and the acceptance of the self, which is moderately comparable to the meanings attached to natural during the Black is Beautiful movement (Banks 2000; Johnson & Bankhead 2014). Therefore, the hair can be used as a tool to express different meanings and identities. Changing the texture of the hair into a straight one, would be a way of hiding the self and pretending to be someone else, according to some of the respondents. However, with her natural curly hair, one of the respondents could actually emphasize her different ethnic identity. This stands in

40 line with Levitt & Glick-Schiller’s (2004) idea of expressing a feeling of belonging on the basis of symbols. And although my respondents felt free to express the aspects of the identity on which they are proud, as in the study of De Witte (2017), I did not recognize her understanding of the urge of Dutch black people to enhance the overall image of the African heritage and to make it cool. Moreover, hair is not only a tool to shape the own identity. I discovered that the hair is also a characteristic which can be used by outsiders, to ascribe others a certain identity (Sha 2006). Some of the respondents experienced to be ethnically othered through comments about the hair or through touching the hair. Because of the fact that this kind of othering is hidden in compliments and jokes, it can be seen as a form of everyday racism (2008). However, following Siebers (2017) and his critical view on using the term race in its universal meaning, while the term has a different meaning in the Dutch context, I would suggest to use the term ‘everyday ethnicism’. Several respondents were also more critical towards the relation between the hair and the identity. In line with Konneh’s (2013) black hair fantasy, they claimed that hair is not a significant part of the self and that it cannot reflect someone’s pride with regard to a certain roots. Whether your hair is straight or curly, if you are black, you are just black. In this way, these respondents seem to mean that being black or being African is a stable aspect of the identity, which does not change as a result of a particular appearance. This relates to the idea of having a collective identity that is part of one’s true self (Hall 1990). For these respondents, black women should have the freedom to change their hair whenever they want, on the condition that they accept their natural curls too. In sum, the opinions with regard to the relation between the styling of the hair and the ethnic identity, vary among my respondents. Some of them think that natural hair reflects their ethnic background, while others do not see this relationship. From my data, I can conclude that a particular hairstyles could be used as a tool to express someone’s ethnic identity. However, it does not ultimately say something about the importance someone attaches to her ethnic identity.

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Appendix Figure 1.

Hair type chart, retrieved from Facebook group Curly Forever

Figure 2.

Hair type chart, retrieved from Facebook group Curly Forever