The other day, my sister and I were at Target when a young Black girl approached us smiling saying, “Hey, your hair looks like mine!”
My hair was styled in Bantu knots and my sister was wearing non-synthetic individual braids. This moment was significant for the Black child in our majority white town. It signified that her hair was normal, acceptable, and beautiful. Similar sentiments have been felt all around the world, specifically by the Black community, as we saw ourselves in Vice President Kamala Harris.
Over the last few years, we’ve felt seen and appreciated as people of color and expressed joy for gaining representation in the White House. We quickly became confident that Harris – as she had so many times in her career – would be a voice for Black and underrepresented communities. When she received the 2024 Democratic nomination for President of the United States, hope was yet again restored in a country that could grant opportunities to women and people of color.
With all this, we also wondered what Kamala Harris‘s upcoming campaign (and newly invigorated place in the spotlight) could mean for Black hair.
The hair decisions afforded to Black women are inherently political. We decide to weave our hair and are accused of assimilating. We wear it natural or in braids and are praised for honoring our diaspora. The versatility of Black hair is a double-edged sword: great for the wearer but open for public scrutiny.
It seems the internet has remained split on her choice of straight hairstyle over the years. Some comments on X (formerly Twitter) seem to compliment the look, while one user parodied that her silk press was “fighting for dear life since she stepped foot in Ghana” during the recent Democratic national convention. (For the record, Harris has clarified in past that her smooth style is not a silk press but rather the works of a round brush.) Others have added her hair to their list of critiques, right after that she doesn’t have children and likes cats. At one point, “Does Kamala Harris wear a wig?” was trending.
I get that if you’ve never experienced hair discrimination, wondering why Harris wears her hair straight might not be a big deal to you. But understand that just because it isn’t your lived experience doesn’t mean it’s not discrimination. Our hair has been marked as “unacceptable” for so long and by not being OK with the Vice President’s hairstyle, you are indirectly saying how she chooses to wear her hair should not be her choice.
According to Adjoa B. Asamoah, an impact and political strategist who developed with Dove the legislative strategy for the CROWN Act – a law put in place to end hair discrimination for Black people – CROWN represents a “movement of choice including the choice and the right to straighten your hair if you choose without being on the receiving end of discrimination.” In other words, the CROWN Act was established to legitimize our experiences and our choice in deciding what hairstyle to wear, so why can’t the same be applied to Kamala Harris?
You can chalk it up to the growing list of things to never say about Black hair, like “Is it real?” or “Can I touch it?” or “Do you wash your hair?” To be clear, as a Black woman, I think it’s quite normal to daydream about the potential awareness and representation the world could witness with Harris wears her natural texture (whatever that may be) but ultimately that’s not for us to decide. If she wants to wear her hair straight, frankly, the world should be OK with that.
Natasha Marsh is a freelance writer who writes about fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. Prior to freelancing, she held styling staff positions at The Wall Street Journal, Burberry, Cosmopolitan Magazine, British GQ, and Harper’s Bazaar.
