Unyielding Roots: What is Your Hair Story?
I’m excited to share that I’m officially a published writer! I’m honored to have my poem, My Roots (This Ain’t Another Poem About Black Pain™), selected for publishing in Kiana Davis’s second book Unyielding Roots: What is Your Hair Story, a compilation of stories and experiences surrounding Black hair.
Kiana also hosted a virtual book launch on November 20, 2021. During the event, myself, and other writers read our works aloud. I’m so grateful to Kiana for including me in her art, and holding space for Black folks to engage in a complex topic that’s rarely talked about. This is Kiana’s second project to be funded by the 4C Culture Grant.
I have also been a recipient of the 4C Culture Grant on behalf of local community organizations and initiatives. I’m blessed to live in a city that is making an effort towards supporting and funding Black and Brown artists. I only hope that these efforts continue and become more accessible.
About The Poem
My Roots (This Ain’t Another Poem About Black Pain™), highlights the duality and versatility of Black hair to remind us that we are more than our hair, and we our more than our pain. Black folks aren’t a monolith. Like my wig collection, we are diverse. Our hair is only a tiny fractal in the expansiveness of Blackness.
I hope you purchase the book and support myself and the other extremely talented Black writers. Thank you so much to Kiana Davis for cultivating this space for us to continue the indigenous practices of healing and connecting through the art of storytelling.
What’s my hair story?
A Deeper Dive into My Hair Story
I’ve had many tough experiences with my hair growing up. I’ve been mocked, teased, ridiculed by both wh*te and Black folks. Going to school in the Anti-Black dystopia known as Southfield, Michigan, a suburb of my hometown Detroit, is a fever dream I’m still mentally processing.
I’ve just started to genuinely love my hair within the past 2 to the 3 years and I’ve only recently perfected my hair care regime within the last year or so. Shoutout to Pattern Beauty and Design Essentials!
My hair is currently in a mohawk and I know for a fact middle school me would think I’m the absolute coolest.
Fact 1: Mohawks were made for 4c hair types.
Fact 2: You’re immediately the coolest when you get a mohawk.
Scientific Evidence
that mohawks make you the coolest.
It’s scientific fact. I don’t make the rules, and unlike many, I actually trust science.
I’ve had my mohawk for most of this year, but as it get’s colder, I’m wearing more wigs now. I’m basically Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek, a lavishly dressed starving artist with a dysfunctional family and an alcohol problem. I’m joking! I don’t have an alcohol problem.
Moira Rose has a huge collection of wigs, over 100 to be exact. I don’t have nearly as many but I do have between 15 - 25 different wigs. I like the variety. There have been one too many times in my life where I’ve gotten the same item in different colors because I couldn’t choose just one, which upholds my indecisive nature of being a Libra.
A Great Prophet once said, “¿Por qué no los dos?”. Why not both?
I enjoy the ease of short hair short and the benefit of throwing a wig on like a hat. I get to preserve my body heat and have a different look everyday with little to no effort, it’s a win-win. I’ve got long straight wigs, curly wigs, bobs with bangs, and neon green pixie cut wigs. They’ve gotten so creative these days, I got a wig with dreads and the loc strands sewn into a cap of a cheetah print hair scarf. The most I’ve ever spent on a wig is around $200 but on average most of my wigs are around $15 - $25 each.
The infamous dread loc wig.
I often think “wow, if knew about wigs when I was younger, I would’ve cut my hair so much sooner.” I could’ve saved myself from hot comb heat burns and spending hundreds of dollars at the hair salon. I wouldn’t have wasted countless weekends in DIY cosmetology school, watching hours of youtube tutorials, and trying to learn different protective styles.
Surely there had to be the perfect product and method that could make my 4c kinks defined, and more manageable, like that good 3b/3c texture. I enjoyed solving problems and I was confident in my abilities to find the cure for my 4c hair texture.
Myth 1: The c in 4c stands for curse
Myth 2: The c in 4c stands for cancerous
Though I did not discover this until recently.
If I knew about wigs when I was younger, I wouldn’t have wasted hours deep diving in extensive Google searches, blogposts, articles, and scholarly reviews:
“natural hair remedies”
“natural hair remedies black”
“curly hair natural remedies”
“black curly hair natural remedies”
“black curly hair natural remedies 4c”
“can baking soda go in your hair”
“can egg go in your hair”
“how long to leave baking soda and egg in hair”
If I knew about wigs when I was younger, I wouldn’t have wasted momma’s “good groceries” on a concoction that’s one ingredient away from being cake batter, and smearing it in my hair thinking it would stimulate growth.
Spoiler alert: it didn’t.
The only thing the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink hair mask was successful in doing was creating more work in my already extensive shampoo and detangle process, and clogging the bathtub drain.
All of this hard work will be worth it, right?
Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.
The time I tried to dye my hair navy blue,
and it came out emerald green.
If I knew about wigs when I was younger, I could’ve saved myself from enduring hours of aching arms and jamming numb fingers into my tender scalp.
If I knew about wigs when I was younger, I could’ve saved myself from the continuous disappointment and rage of wasting my entire weekend trying a “fool-proof protective twist style method” only for my hair to be a sticky and frizzy, vinegar-scented mess the next morning.
If I knew about wigs when I was younger, I could’ve saved myself from making my mom late for work (again) because my hair just won’t do what it’s supposed to do. I could’ve saved myself from teary car rides on the way to school—
—so the moral of this anecdote is wigs are the key to loving your Black hair?
Spoiler alert: it’s not.
Let’s face it.
If I knew about wigs when I was younger, I’d just get called bald-headed scally-wag because no matter what I do as Black woman, someone will always disapprove.
Realizing this, and letting go of that need for approval, aka wh*te suprem*cy, I’ve learned to love and appreciate my hair for what it is; an extension of myself, my lineage, and another way I choose to express myself.
Pictured:
My best friend Kristen and myself circa 2010.
This kid is proud of who I am today.
What’s Next?
I’m in the works of planning free grant/scholarship writing workshops for QTBIPOC artists and small businesses. In an ideal world, we’d just be able to make art, frolic, and tend to the land. Realistically, we live in wh*te suprem*cist society, and we don’t have that luxury. We do however have PNW Wh*te Guilt, a blessing and curse. However, it usually translates to $$$$, which is the bare minimum and also our due diligence (you’re not getting a pat on the back from me, mayos).
My community deserves to heal through art and expression, which is also, sadly, a luxury; but a luxury that we don’t have to be paying for. I aim to share my funding experiences to financially support the art community, and fund the future, the young artists; especially the ones that haven’t tapped into their creative energy yet.
We’re all artists, in some way shape, or form, and we all create. Let’s shift art from being being a luxury to a necessity to function. Art is essential and a birth right.
Keep your eye out for upcoming workshops in Winter/Spring 2022.
We all have a story
that deserves to be heard.