Personal Narrative: Revealing Her Hair

There has been a notable amount of conversation on the internet on the rebirth of the natural hair movement. Cherise Luter (2014) states that despite afros and the natural hair movement not being a new concept (i.e. the Black Power Movement), it has gone under what she calls a “refreshing change”. Furthermore, what used to be “I’m black and I’m proud”, has been replaced with “I’m me and I’m proud” (Luter 2016). So, what is the natural hair movement? It is defined as a movement where black women decide to not conform to the social norms of chemically altering their hair and wearing it in its natural, kinky, or curled state (Joignot 2015). The movement could also be considered as an outlet for black women to display their racial and cultural pride or to articulate their “political position (Brown 2014:297). However, simply the terminology “movement” is something that should be shocking to many. There is a great amount of historical context behind the continuous influence Eurocentric beauty ideals have had on black women for centuries. According to Nadia Brown (2014), Black natural hair throughout history has proven to be recognized as “either unintended or intended personal and political statements” (298). the beauty standard in Western society which praises European hair textures, has influenced many black women to be critical of other black women who choose to chemically straighten their hair, accusing them of being subservient to the dominant and pervasive racist

Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair, investigates the notion of what good hair is. Dominant society views good hair as straight or essentially caucasian hair. This is not only problematic to the self-esteem and confidence of black women, but it can also cause black women to appropriate Asian culture. Black women unfortunately take advantage of Asian culture in search of what society believes is good hair. Many black women wear weaves in order to align to what society believes is good hair. However, when they buy this hair, they do not realize what Asians go through. Likewise, Asians who give up their hair do not know where or who this hair will be going to. Thus, this desire for good hair further perpetuates the lack of understanding that black

     Have you ever at one time or another felt like an outsider? Many people do, trying desperately to fit in with their social counterparts. Whether it be in school, at work, or life in general, many yearn to be accepted by their peers and feel as though they are a part of some sort of “club'; that is viewed by others as the “in'; crowed. F. Scott Fitzgerald tries to express this turmoil with the short story “Bernice Bob’s Her Hair';. He attempts to show the inner workings of the popular youth and the means in which one can successfully enter it. By creating the distinct characters of Marjorie, Bernice and Warren, one can see the

Painted Girl put her bags down on the counter, tired from a long day at work. Tizio was great. He’d taken her to his uncles place and they’d spent a wonderful day ordering things from his antique store. She looked around the kitchen. Chinese takeout littered the countertop but no one had cleaned up. She picked up a note.

My friends were cracking up because they knew these females loved to talk but we were always about action. We all knew what was going to take place after school without even saying it. It was now time for us to split up and go to our next class. We would see each other later in the day at lunch so this wasn’t a big deal. As I head down the hallway and make my way to the second floor I hear a loud Yo! coming from the opposite end of the hallway. By this time I was thinking the hallway was empty because I was a minute late for class just because I took the long way there. I turned around to see who was making the noise. It was one of the boys that wasn’t even supposed to be on our floor. He was a junior and I was a freshman so we were always separated by floors. I kept walking because my name wasn’t yo so he couldn’t have been talking to me. He ran up behind me and grabbed me by my waist. I resisted and turned to him and said; “Why are you touching me Tank?” He stared at me and started laughing. I looked at him and said; “What’s funny?’’ He said in his deep raspy voice , “You acting like I can’t touch you.” I said to him “You can’t I don’t know you like that for you to be touching on me and grabbing me.” I turned away from him and continued on my way to class. Half way down the hallway I see a group of boys who looked like they didn’t belong. As I got

I think she shouldn’t have cut her hair. And I think he shouldn’t have sold his watch. The reason why I think so will be revealed in a different paragraph. Money isn’t everything, it could buy almost everything, but it’s not everything. I’m pretty sure she could’ve found another way, rather than cut her hair. I also think she did the right choice and he did the right choice.

In the passage “Hairs,” by Sandra Cisneros, the author uses a childlike style to create the effect of comfort. In other words, the author is describing her family’s hair differences and her personal experiences with her mother’s hair in a very playful and childlike way. The author uses sentence length and structure to convey unorganized thoughts. This allows the author to speak on her family’s hair, specifically her mother’s, with the reader interpreting it as her pure thoughts. It’s a very uneducated and erroneous grammar structure, such as the use of run-on sentences. The reader is then invoked with a sense of playfulness and unseriousness. The author also uses word choice in her style to help convey the effect. Words like “little candy circles,”

After Desna reveals that she can’t work at the new salon, her girls all decide to stand with her. The episode will open with the salon ladies walk back into their old salon, expecting to find everything as they left it, only to be greeted with the sight of Rena and her goons. Before Desna can even get out a full question Rena interrupts her “Leave the dyke and the soccer mom; take the rest.” The scene ends with Desna, Jen, and Virginia being chloroformed while Ann and Polly try to fight Rena’s goons (to no avail). The two are then left in an empty salon after being overpowered, with no idea here their friend are being taken.

We pull up to the May Wood County High School, my mom quickly drives off as I get out of the car. I turn to the building, not even two seconds after looking at it, a lady in black comes up to me and grabs my arm. "You need to get in the school before the bell rings young man!" Her voice was eerie in a sense. She dragged me into the building, standing there were tons of other students talking to their friends and socializing. The lady walks back outside to "greet" the other late students. I stand in the middle of the sea of students, not knowing what to do. Everyone was eyeing me and I could definitely hear them talking about me, all of a sudden the bell rang and the flock of kids moved down the hall to their first period. I had to take a quick

Hair is an interesting word because we often (in modern times) compliment each other’s hairstyle; we cut, color, and style our hair to our liking to demonstrate the type of person we are. The word “hair” is what caught my attention in the short story by Zitkala-Sa. Zitkala-Sa states, “And now my long hair was shingled like a coward’s!” (45). The reason I chose to close read the word hair is because we often take hair for granted, and in this case, hair is an identity.

Ever since I was little I loved hair; blonde, brunette, red, long, short, all types. All of my friends and family thought I would become a hairdresser, for a while I wanted to. I spent many long nights getting my applications filled out. Then one day as I was walking along the old brick roads in my small hometown, I saw that little red for sale sign on the front of Eleanor’s Wig’s.

At some point in a woman's life, she is, if like most women, unhappy with her hair. A woman with straight hair wishes for curly ringlets. A woman with curly hair wants stick-straight locks. Thick and coarse desires to be fine and thinner. Fine and thin begs for thick hair.

Smoke is a bit like Blizzard. But less tall. But she's also a calm strength. She has to wear glasses because she's struggling with too bright lights and the look of the others. She has trouble controlling her gifts too. One day, she turned my power against me, while I had just remove her glasses to play. It hurt. I didn't say anything to Claire. She had not do it on purpose.

The bell rang and spring break had officially started. I was going to my friend, Grace’s, house that night. I was so ready to have some fun and a break from the workload of school. I met up with my friend Sara to ride with her to Grace’s house. I had everything I needed with me in my backpack and Sara had her stuff in her silver RAV. It was a 15 minute drive, Sara and I were making small meaningless conversation and listening to The White Stripes. When we got to Grace’s house she stopped in the road in front of the house, and she stopped at the beginning of her driveway. Grace stepped out of her car and told Sara where to park on the road. After she parked, she and I got out of the car and Grace was still stopped on the drive way.

After flipping off the switch to my cheap, red Revlon hair dryer, I took one glance in the mirror and noticed my hair looked exactly as expected: terrible. My dark brown curls were separated, flattened, and all the volume had been suctioned out. My once-voluptuous locks were now dry and brittle noodles. I have never had great experiences with hair dryers. Honestly, how could I? I have fine, curly hair that frizzes at the very touch of my fingers. Some days it looks like a rat’s nest, other days it looks like five rat’s nests all got into a fight over whose nest could look the dirtiest. So let me explain to you the extent of a mess in which I deal with on the daily.