04/30/2026
Hair. Protein structures traveling through follicles. We all have it somewhere. It’s a distinguishing feature of being a mammal, but as people, we’re seemingly obsessed with it. Do you have it, is it long enough, how do you get it to do that thing in the magazine, and should I dye the greys?
Questions about my hair follow me everywhere. Why does it look like that? Why do you wear it this way and not that way? How does it grow? Suggestions on what I should be doing based on what they want to see. A co-worker at my first office job whispers behind my back about why I decided to straighten my hair. A woman on the train congratulates me on feeling free to be who I am. “More people should embrace their natural texture”. A drunk man in a bar asks if he can touch it. I say no, he bargains, I leave. That’s better than the lady that grabbed a fistful that one time when I was on the clock.
People treat me differently based on the style and texture. They build entire narratives about who I am and where I’m from. Am a rich southerner? Another woman asks if I’m a missionary because I have a headwrap. Trips abroad with people grabbing my braids and running them through their fingers. They ask me what it’s like in Africa. I tell them I’m from Texas… in the US.
But humans have been obsessed with hair since time immemorial. Victorians made jewelry from the locks of dead loved ones. I wanted to explore the textures of my hair in jewelry, but out of celebration rather than mourning. I started with braids.
