Episode 15: Black Hair: The Crowning Moment featuring Felicia Leatherwood
In this episode, we’re talking to celebrity hair stylist and natural hair expert Felicia Leatherwood about the history of black hair, and why no, you still can’t touch it. Felicia Leatherwood's message is rooted in the idea of holistic health and fundamentally loving yourself --- a true inside out approach to hair care. It is from these experiences that the idea of a specialized hair solution began to form.
Hairstyles have always been a key way black women have expressed beauty style and culture. We use our hairstyles to lift us up in solidarity and celebrate our culture all the while society is working hard to keep us down.
We discuss…
The history of body autonomy in the black community
Why touching our hair is never appropriate without express permission
How to uplift and teach children to love their hair
How society polices black hair, but uplifts the appropriation of our styles
Why shopping for hair products from black owned businesses is so important
The Crown Act
And more!
Here are some highlights
Lisa Begins the Conversation About Hair
“From the Afro to hair wraps to braids and more, hairstyles have always been a key way black women have expressed beauty style and culture. And decade after decade, we use our hairstyles to lift us up in solidarity and celebrate our culture all the while society is working hard to keep us down. The reality is, who does not have a hair story if they have melanin? And yet, still we're in a moment right now, a crowning moment, if you will, black women are embracing their hair in unapologetic ways. We even now have movements like the Crown Act. For the first time, there's legislation pending to protect us against discrimination based on race based hairstyles.”
The last time Felicia Leatherwood Felt Erased
“All the time actually. You know, life is interesting. This is a good questions. Sometimes, you can be in a group of people talking and someone will talk louder than you and you never get heard. I come from a family that we don't over talk each other. We’re not loud talkers. My mother talks very humbly, very softly. We were taught not to raise our voices, so when I'm in a room full of people who talk over each other or interject, and don't go back to what the original person or the last person was speaking on, that feels erasing to me. I feel like it’s dismissive, and then what I tend to do is I will just be quiet and let them finish talking. I always admire that one person who was really paying attention to me and will come back and say ‘Felicia, was talking, what were you saying?”
How Felicia Got into the Natural Hair Industry
“It was because no one understood my hair, my scalp, my texture, and I was tortured
A lot. And thank God it wasn't my mom who tortured me, it was my grandmother, but my mom never put a relaxer my hair. And I asked her about it one day, and she said she just never thought that that's something you should do to a child. I was like, okay, my mother wasn’t conscious, she wore relaxers, she wore straight hair, she wasn't into natural hair, but somehow she knew putting a relaxer on me at a young age was not the thing to do. And then later on we discovered I'm allergic to relaxer, so she allowed me to do my own hair, cultivate my own skill with it, and here I am talking to you all today.”
The Generational Expectations Imposed on Black Children and Their Hair
“I always talk to people about the generational expectations imposed upon me with regard to my hair, said Collete. “So here I am with a half shaved head and purple locks in my 40s. Because when I had my daughter, who's now 10, and she was around two, is when I came to you, Felicia, Leatherwood, to do my big chop and cut off all of my processed hair and start me on my journey towards natural hair growth. And I think a lot of the hesitation, 'cause I had wanted natural here my entire life time really, it feels like a lot of that hesitation was my mother and grandmother imposing upon me the mentality to thrive in the world I needed to have straight long (as long as possible) hair.”
What Felicia Thinks About The Crown Act
“I think it's great, and I'll be proud of them. They've really made some strides. I think that what you guys are doing is really important because a lot of people don't even know the Crown Act exists, they don't know what it is. They don't know that it is a law that has been fought, a hard fight, and how much persistence, tolerance and patience has gone into a group of wonderful people putting this into law, and everything that goes into that, so that we actually have defense and support, if we wanna wear our hair natural to work. I love that the Crown Act, exists. What I see as I travel the world is that we have so much more to cover.
“You have the military that still does not accept certain hairstyles. They don't do afros or certain braids. Women write to me, tell me they had to take braids out or corn rows, twists outs. We’re talking about people fighting for our freedom and our security. And why is it that their hair is an issue? It’s not doing anything to keep them from doing their job, and who set that standard and rule? Which white man?”
To me, it’s never really been about the hair, it's always been, ‘we can't get you to change the color of your skin, so let's just harp on the hair,. Let’s just push you to change the hair, let’s get you to change the way you talk, the way you act, the way you dress, until we can do something about your skin. It’s heartbreaking to see, and it’s really disheartening when our own people come up against us about it.”
Why It’s Not Appropriate to Touch Our Hair
“I get a lot of questions from white women about that, they wanna understand why we don't think it's okay for them to touch our hair, said Felicia. “They're saying that they wanna admire it, and their way of admiring it was to caress it.”
“So I told them basically that it's a property and our hair is very private and intimate to us. We are still learning about our hair, and our hair is like our baby. You don't just go pick up someone's baby without asking. You don't go kiss somebody's baby without asking, and you just don't touch another person's baby,” she continues.
“I tell them also, that we were enslaved and put in front of a crowd of people, and they put their fingers in our mouths and made us open our mouths to show our teeth and turn around and feel up on us, to sell us. So even though we didn't come directly from that, we're not too far removed, we still have that feeling of someone treating you like you're not a human being. Being disrespectful, not respecting you and asking you if it's okay to be touched.”
Advice on How To Teach Our Children to Respond to the Request or Unsolicited Touching of Their Hair
“I think that movie's like’ hair love’ and other movies that are coming out that give us the self-esteem and show the children young that they're beautiful and that they have their own crown of glory and to be honored will teach them that people can't just come up and touch them. And they'll say, ‘You should have to ask my mom before you touch payor, you have to ask my daddy before you touch my hair.’ And so I think some of the education like don't go with a stranger, don't let them touch you inappropriately, don't let them touch your hair... It sounds extreme, but it's on that list, said Felicia
How to Increase Natural Hair Representation in the Entertainment Industry
“It’s happening fast, but it's weird because when I watch commercials, I see all kinds of representation of natural hair. But now, the thing is, who's doing it on set? Because I can tell when it wasn't someone of color who did the hair. The hair be looking dry, it looks like it's going through it. And I know that the sister that they did it to was like, ‘I gotta get paid, I have to pay my rent, even though my hair is jacked up in his commercial,’ said Felicia.
“I think there are a lot of people working to talk to the unions and the motion picture industry to make sure that the representation starts on set. That it starts in the movies, in the background. That way when you do see people show up on TV, you are able to admire them. And that's one of the things that I really focus on working with Issa Rae on Insecure. It’s showing her natural hair in a space where naturals or people who aren’t natural yet see her and go, ‘Oh my God, that's beautiful. I wanna try that. It looks easy enough for me to do!’ And that's one of my biggest focuses when I create hairstyles for Issa Rae, whether it's on Insecure or any other tv show.
Connect with Felicia Leatherwood: http://www.felicialeatherwood.com
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Intro music by https://instagram.com/mikedupreemusic