Politics of Hair
Through modernization the the 21st century has seen major changes occurring in the world of hair, black women in particular are spoiled for choice in deciding what hair style should they done in order to improve their appearance. Some critics believe black women who change their image with hair style such as wigs and weave which are deemed “unnatural” are regarded as slave to the white standards of beauty. The politics of hair run deep beyond aesthetics it includes centuries of dictatorship by colonialist and white supremacist to the acceptable standards of neat hair therefore neglect ones own ethnic hair. This is evident in the recent developments concerning hair in which student at Pretoria Girls high fought to keep their natural hair Afro in which the school policy does not allow (black hair )Initially Drum magazine had their models and singers hair in their natural state as the trends of wigs were not as popular in the other parts of the world ,particular in Africa, however usher in of globalization , the influence of hair trends from weaves, lace- fronts wigs, and clips, were fully embraced by lack women especially post 1994 at the dawn of democracy. According to (Rauwerda 2007:401)the American ideal offers no such possible displacement for the African women and thus feminine desires for whiteness are expressed more directly and the women on the covers apper to be on par with its
international counterparts.
Women of colour are saturated with images that suggest good standards of hair, magazine covers plays a huge role in informing women how what what they should do with their hair. According Vanessa King (2013:5),who conducted a survey at Minnesota State University to information on what influence woman to have a certain hairstyle , her findings illustrates that family ideas and media played a huge role their decisions, "Eurocentric beauty standards seems to be ingrained in Western societies that they are, in various instance, institutionalized to the point where the way a black woman wears her hair can determine what kind of job she can have and whether or not she can keep the job". when relaxers where introduced into the country , Drum found it fitting to expose female readers to the latest trends in hairstyles on the covers, even though relaxers are have some dangers to the scalp. Today its much more visible that weaves and wigs have becomes a norm and a status symbol of wealth in the society.
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