“Good Hair Day” Can Mean Something Disparate among Black Americans.

The American cultural observation of Good Hair Day on March 26^th, began in 2020, exists so that women, persistently judged by their appearance, can have a break from that ingrained oft-toxic cultural pressure. When you look at the list of national cultural observances for March at www.Today.com, you will find this observance is mentioned.

Some innocuous observances can be surprisingly fraught when seen from another people’s point of view.

When you’re Black American, though, “good hair” connotes something disparate dating to 1619. It created a racial power dynamic among slave owners and slaves.. It is a subjective one, which conferred power to physical features.

Since chattel slavery of Africans in the United States, the distinction between field and house slaves meant that those who looked closer to white worked more often in or near the plantation house and were treated better. Sometimes much better.

“Race” experts created a pseudo-science created to affirm the logic of racial bigotry. According to American bigotry, skin tone and hair texture “good hair,” which no one could control, connoted social privilege. And it was subjective.

For example, being a biracial Black American man with a burnt caramel color and wavy brown (now more silver) hair, I have what some Blacks would call “good hair”.

This is a “pillar” of colorism. Colorism, when Black Americans buy into it, is a potent divider. Although we Black Americans are all Black in North America, when white Americans and Blacks treat some light-skinned Blacks who have smoother hair with more privilege, darker-skinned Blacks are not happy! This is a cultural tension oft divides American Blacks.

This is why the Crown Act was created white American found kinky hair styles clashed with their notions of ideal business images and attire. White Americans’ guarding their comfort zones can meant that they ignore how their choices, based on their narrow perspectives, affect others.

“In 2019, Dove conducted the CROWN Research Study to “identify the magnitude of racial discrimination experienced by women in the workplace based on their natural hairstyles.”^[12] The study was based on “a survey of 1,017 Black women and 1,050 non-Black women ages 25-64.”^[12] The research found that “Black women are 30% more likely to be made aware of a formal workplace appearance policy,” “83% more likely to report being judged more harshly on [their] looks than other women”.These results led various interest groups to create the CROWN Coalition,” according to Wikipedia.org

I dislike the “compliment” of “good hair”. Thankfully, only one person has referred to my hair in that way during the last several years. That was circa 2023 or 2024.

One my end, I can “pass” for anything but Black. That carries with it and confers on me a privilege. I simply work to look my best. Incidentally, strangers and friends have made me blush by insisting “you need to be modeling”. That and the persistent focus on Europe as a beauty baseline, are fodder for another day…

Nonetheless, somewhat separate from white culture, which created it, “good hair day” means something disparate among we who aren’t white.

Black, brown and caramel-colored people must navigate the stressful world within North American culture defined by white Americans’ pleasure, whim and insecurities. This, especially among those whom they see as other than or afterthoughts to them.

To have a “good hair day“ might be innocent among some people. Then another community might have a disparate perspective and life experience. This might dramatically change the meaning of that observance.