If Hair Could Talk
i’ve been working to change the way i
speak and write
to incorporate in the manner of telling
a sense of place of not just who i am in
the present
but where i’m coming from the multiple
voices within me
i am starting my tedx talk with the
spell hooks quote from the book
yearning race gender and cultural
politics
as i would talk from my own voice but
the voice of many black british women
and their experience with her
my name is jade adiami i’m an art
director and set designer
today i’ll be talking about activism
through hair specifically black hair
within the realms of identity and art
why hair you may wonder because the
designs consolidated on the head of a
black woman
are defined by both their heritage and
environment
it is a hybrid i will begin by
re-encounting
the heritage or history of black hair
before explaining my activism
in my art hair is something we all have
it grows out of all surfaces of our body
but yet the hair around our face
shapes our face it frames it
specifically for black women
it frames us our identity and the way
people interact with us
when looking specific at the hairstyles
of black women during and predating the
atlantic slave trade
it was noted that slaves often shaved
different shapes into another’s hair
stars and half moons
they were they were engraved using
broken bits of glass
this highlights that even during the
most oppressed times
the preservation of hair still took
precedence within black culture
moreover the use of patterns to ornate
shaved black heads
is the agricultural practice within
african carbon communities
across the world such as the use of
knight ticks and adidas stripes
and more recently kanye west shaving the
2020
sign in his head for his presidency
presidential election
but also previous use such as the
friendly pattern
engraved into his head cornrows predated
back before the slave trade
and these braiding patterns mimic
architectural silhouettes in african
buildings
and textiles present in an african
woman’s everyday environment
typically bridges and huts this is
because the tight cars
in african hair lends itself to a kind
of architectural form which is evident
in jd
archive or jacare’s photography series
based around
hair designs where you will see many
distinguished structures visible
further than this architectural styles
cornrows
were used to identify what tribe one was
from and also country
but over time during the slave trade
they became a tour for survival
providing gateways to freedom as they
use these cornrow patterns to send
secret messages to one another
and escape routes from plantations
this shows and raises the question of
form vs function
as both these were important to the
survival of black women
especially as mothers would weave seeds
and aqua into their children’s hair
before potentially be separated for
enslavement
this was an innovative skill that meant
that they would have food and crops for
themselves on the new land especially
they didn’t know whether they’d be
separated from their child
nappy hair is a connotation coined and
linked to people of
african and caribbean descent since the
atlantic slave trade in the 17th century
it is the natural form which hair grows
being tightly coiled and curled
that wasn’t is often associated with
having bad hair
today reclaiming the phrase through
positive use
ogilvy campaign has done this and
changed the narrative around natural
hair
i furthered this through my own practice
and questioned how i could do this
which i have done through such things as
illustrations and directs
good hair was never represented by the
african hairstyle that shaped the 16th
and 70s
black pride and black power movement
which was intertwined with the black as
beautiful equipment
the afro shape held more of an
inhaler-like shape
it held the debate of form versus
function as one could choose to shape
their hair in this way
or use it as a political platform to
represent their pride resistance
resilience and rebellion nonetheless one
of the shortcomings of intersectionality
is that it provides a framework for
understanding oppression
and not exploitation whereas to truly
understand the black feminist
theory you must understand the defining
links between the systems of
exploitation and oppression of cultural
homogeny
which leaves us black women’s standard
of beauty hair and identity to be set
upon the white upper class
black people have rewritten the shaping
of this through the expressions of proud
identities such as the cultivation of
art in the negative
movement women in the afro
and the expression of the black power
movement
the african 5 is a presentation of black
power and black pride
as evolved in corporate designs of the
blackfist in support of the black power
movement
a memoir we remember today as we strike
the comb through our hair
the tool of the afrocone was
simultaneously used as a tool
that represented the liberation of black
people and their hairstyles
in regards to their identity although
the afros
is the resilience of imperialism through
its shape in both art form
and makeup it was associated with
cultivated style quintessentially
african
but was shaped around what this was
modeled to be africa
it was a modern mode of survival and
continuation
of a proud black culture
the effort could be regarded as a
tribute to the nostalgia for lost
origins
for pastimes encompassing a pivotal turn
from turning political to becoming a
fashion statement it is the rejection to
the accepted social norms
structured aesthetics of hair design
remain prominent within the 21st century
exemplified through artists such as
meshach gaba whose wigs reflect the
ancient ways of women
shaping their hair based on bridges and
architectural buildings
the modern twist is that he’s formed
complex geometric
patterns with wigs based on modern
buildings which shows his playful
restructure
in the relationship between the western
world and african origins
interlocking the practices of ancestors
with dyed aspers
through the craft of art and shaping
their identity based on part of their
future
the diaspora aesthetic called by stuart
hall is read through art and design
becoming more prominent through the
visual aspects of music videos
through the music video i did vein which
i art directed
we are able to show that hair is a
complex matter that is entangled within
us
the way we are seen and defined it can
be both loving but also destructive but
to some extent
it is everlasting the hair of black
women is and has always been politicized
and now we are seeing a movement of
black women reclaiming their hair and
identities
here’s the coding surroundings of a
person’s face and attributes to their
beauty
when talking hair we must talk beauty as
black women are not recognized within
many of these standards i will be
discussing the social mirror
that has been threaded in the barbie
complex and suppression of expression
through hair
as mainstream culture has rejected and
demonized black women’s beauties and
bodies
leaving us with pre-conditioned
whiteness as a standard of beauty
it is a form of social control as we
only see it through the narrow
perspective
black female bodies have been devalued
or negated
from the mainstream to the extent when
seen it is often accepted
only to be exoticized rather than
measuring up to the normal standard of
beauty
the best way to understand what
mainstream beauty is is from the
definition given by ingrid
banks in hair matters ideal beauty
blonde pale skinned with blue eyes
embodies everything the average black
woman lacks black beauty
seems to be always fitting within
another’s version of the other
consumption especially as europeans
frame the black female body
as being harsh and aggressive
it can be argued that the absence of
black images in the social mirror
leaves the black child with little other
than white subjects for self-reflection
and self-projection however we must
acknowledge that this cannot simply be
reduced to wanting to be
of another color the complexity of the
social mirror is not just how society
sees black women
but how black women view themselves in
society
it is arguable that one can easily
suppress one’s blackness to reflect
what mass media offers as a standard of
beauty
these destructive issues of black beauty
are evident within adverts such as dove
which evokes stereotypes of black women
not being the epitome of beauty
standards
as an advert shows a woman transforming
her body from being black to white
emphasizing that white beauty is the
finished
product black beauty is seen in the
mainstream media when its
hand has been forced such as now as
brands have been outed for having
only caucasian models and feeds such as
on instagram
and have now started to largely hire
black women
for this for the mainstream media but
we’ll see how long this lasts
analyzing media infiltrations of beauty
one can see the need to re-educate
specifically black women and their
relationship to her their hair
such as barbie an iconic figure in many
young children’s childhoods in my
generation there were only caucasian
barbies whereas now their bibles have
varied ethnicities
sizes and hair textures marking
a great inclusive progression but is
this inclusive progression
something that is active within the
workforce where microaggressions are
felt on a daily basis from the touching
of black people’s hair
and asking if that is someone’s real
hair you paid for it so it’s yours
and not everything is a weave these are
questions that black women have
to ask themselves on a daily basis for
what people may ask them
at their workplace
should i take a holiday day to sit and
get my hair done for six plus
hours what will happen to my hair if i
get caught in the rain
how shall i wear my hair for the
interview how many questions will i get
at work
when i change my hairstyle will my
colleagues ask to touch my hair
will my colleagues touch my hair without
asking
will they ask how my hair grew so
quickly
will they ask how long my real hair is
if hair could talk
stemmed from my hair being police the
whole time i was at school
from the color sometimes it would be
mixed with black and gray which would
seem to be
a false color and to having the addition
of beads in my hair sometimes
but yet my white counterpart who would
have pink dip dyed hair
would never be asked to change their
hair so
once leaving school and starting uni i
felt relieved that i would no longer be
restricted anymore
but there was an occasion where one of
my tutors on my art foundation
called me the wrong name he excused it
by saying
ah you change your hair more times than
there are days in the week
which was both patronizing and untrue it
got me thinking
how come i really questioned why i
frequently change my hair
why the star has always varied and never
repeated in the past four years
and during this time i subconsciously
monitored the different reactions from
people
whilst changing my hairstyles this was
the beginning of his haircut talk
it is based on the black british
experience as many of the sources found
were american sources our narrative as
black british females has always been
pitched within the american
women’s experience as a whole but
not independently as a british i called
my project this but also my tedx talk
this
as regina george and mean girls once
said about gretchen wina’s hair
the hair was so big because it was full
of secrets
she was not mistaken as traditionally
the history of africans was passed down
by all history
the passing down of words and stories
our hair holds both memories and the
stories of our ancestors
the past is intertwined with our present
and future
i actively needed my project to record
the stories and thoughts of black women
in their hair
i needed my project to hold the space of
a gallery which is often seen as
predominantly a white space in both
artists that occupy it
and share it with their work and the
viewers
i wanted to be unapologetic in the south
in the size
which is five meters wide by two meters
high and the poetry echoing through the
speakers
my hair is a microphone it speaks
volumes
the sight for sore eyes my curls lie
confused
lips purse to form the funnel of a
trumpet and from there my utter sounds
and syllables rhymes and rhythmic
through the tale of wisdom and truth
amplified by the coils of my roots
i care for the curls of my keratin with
coconut cream
cocktails tea tree oil on the top
shelves shea buttered steamed
circumcised and a silk veil my scalp
inscribed with majesty
the texture defying gravity a land of
undiscovered mysteries the land of the
unknown
i plow the fields of madness with my
wooden afro comb you could never
comprehend the afrocentric way
never come to terms with my tangled
textured maize it’s my
dna intertwined ivy
substance seeping high fee to relax
would be a tragedy
my inspiration for my project was every
black guy that wanted straight hair
as i did when i was age seven and i saw
my classmate caitlyn skipping across the
playground with her hair swinging from
side to side
my inspiration is every black girl who
picks a white doll over a black doll
as they believe the black doll to be bad
ugly and
or possibly lesser than the white doll
my work was meant for those who
resonated with the stories to show that
they were not alone in their thoughts
of their hair and learning to reclaim
its beauty but also it was meant for
those
with a lack of understanding of black
women and their hair
i was met with many questions and i
encourage these questions
because for these people because it took
for these people to step back
reflect on their own actions and the
actions of their groups but also the
media
because rarely do you see black women
with afros and adverts
or black women talking about their hair
so openly today my work
continues to have activism within it
both in the design
and the production of teams that are
actively inclusive
i continuously work to create personal
work that questions and mainstream
ideals surrounding black women
their beauty and their hair with hair
focused as one of the main structures
within many of my pieces i’m jaded and
thank you for listening