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The power and beauty of hair for black people

World Afro Hair Day has been celebrated for five years on September 15, an initiative by activist and producer Michelle de Leon, who believed that this day needed to be marked in a different way.

Since the previous year, a law was passed in the state of Alabama, in the United States, which allowed companies to stop hiring people who wear dreadlocks.

From there, Michelle proposed “A global day of change, education and celebration of Afro hair”, as mentioned on the official website. World Afro Day. The initiative was endorsed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner (UN) for Human Rights.

For the professor and doctor in history, Alessandra Tavares World Afro Hair Day arises in response to the aesthetic racism that associates the different textures of curly, voluminous or braided hair, disqualifying signs.”

The date was created to value the aesthetics and diversity of black people’s natural hair, as symbols of their ancestry and resistance.

Alessandra Tavares, professor and doctor in history

Alessandra explains that, in general, it is a political position that encourages black people to wear their natural hair. And she remembers that in addition to our country being colonized by Europeans, it was also a slave country.

Here in Brazil, the use of different types of braids are acts of resistance and African cultural celebration, they are ancestral techniques that carry symbology and anti-racist movement. “In slavery times, in addition to representing their people of origin, braids could hide seeds, food or precious stones that guaranteed the survival of individuals or groups”, says Alessandra.

Fighting against standards and for more respect for Afro hair, men and women sought awareness and behavior change from society.

According to Google, searches for curly hair have grown by 309% in recent years, while searches for curly hair have reached 232%, surpassing searches for straight hair.

And with the recent arrival of products suitable for curly hair, the hair transition process has become more known, as people have seen that there are brands and varieties for their specific hair.

In an interview with CNN content creator Amanda Mendes reports that she spent almost a decade straightening her hair because she had a lot of hair and with a lot of volume since she was very young, comments she heard like “she is very beautiful, but this hair ruins her” or “it is not beautiful hair” made her ask for a birthday party for your mother. I remember always wearing my hair up, with a lot of cream to even down that volume, my mother used to make hairstyles that could make it more contained, right because we didn’t know what to do with so much hair, with so much volume.”

After 7 years, Amanda started to feel uncomfortable, started the hair transition process and did the ‘big chop’ (or big cut, in Portuguese) at home and shared the entire process on YouTube.

From then on, the ‘I’m Curly ‘ which is how the content creator started her social media career.

And I posted it like this, wow with an open heart and every time I watch this video I cry again, because it carries a lot of history, a lot of meaning for me, you know? It’s really remembering my entire trajectory and seeing where I got there, the courage I really had to take on my own hair, to cut my own hair.

Amanda Mendes, content creator

Today, Amanda Mendes is a reference on curly hair care and various hairstyles for more than 500,000 followers on her Instagram. Amanda explains that the important thing is to have fun with the countless possibilities.

I feel like it literally is a crown it’s a hair that carries so much history you know ours is the only one so the feeling of being able to carry and being able to feel so strong so empowered through it.

Amanda Mendes, content creator

O actor Babu Santana comments that he also had a complex relationship with his hair since his childhood. Having always been very questioning, Babu wanted to understand why he should leave his hair down, for example.

And he began to hear explanations like: “Oh, you can’t make your hair long because it looks dirty”, “Oh, you can be mistaken for a marginal”. We talk about how “bad hair” or “hard hair” marked her life. “I remember I loved black and I loved rastafari, dreadlocks. And I was always afraid of being mistaken for a dirty person.”

Babu says that he spent his entire adolescence in a very big internal war and that they didn’t have products for their hair and when they did, they weren’t publicized. “And today you have minimal organization and access to this information”.

I remember asking why bad hair? Why is it difficult to comb? Ah, because it’s hard, it doesn’t pass, I said, so my hair is bad, isn’t it this comb that isn’t adapted to my hair?

Babu Santana, actor

It was only then at age 20 that Babu really understood the beauty of his hair and that he could do whatever he wanted with it. “Our hair is more than aesthetic. He’s a politician, he’s an ancestor, right? It is for us to understand each other and see that our hair is beautiful” .

In his career as an actor, Babu highlights that he always wanted to find his character’s hair. “So I had a lot of chance to study, so I had a thousand tracistas, right?”. I understood that my hair could speak too and could speak to my body, right? Talk to my interpretation.”

“My hair is one of the main weapons I have these days. The black is my crown and the comb is liberation”. The actor’s phrase explains when talking about “Black is power”. Babu and Amanda represent men and women who understand the meaning of their hair and are happy that way today.



Source: CNN Brasil

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