Colonialism and Slavery Taught African Women to Hate Their Own Hair

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:14:41 +0200

African hair was never just about appearance. It carried identity, culture, and meaning. Colonialism and slavery disrupted that, stripped it down, and replaced it with a system that taught African women to see their natural hair as something to fix, manage, or hide.What we now call preference did not appear out of nowhere. It was shaped over time, reinforced through schools, workplaces, and media, until straight hair became the standard and everything else had to adjust.So the real question is not what African women are choosing today. The question is why those choices feel necessary, and who defined that necessity in the first place.If there is any real conversation to be had, it is this: how much of what we call beauty is actually ours, and how much of it was imposed on us.