Conformed and disrupted black bodies in intraracial interactions: deliberations on the wearing of natural hair

Hair, like skin color, is a social marker that distinguishes Blacks from others and has essentially functioned as a way to position some in the racial group outside the sanctified realm of beauty and acceptance that has existed since slavery. This chapter explores the ways in which African Americans experience and think about wearing natural hair. Two critical questions are explored: (1) What impact does the choice to wear natural hair have upon the individual and upon the individual's intraracial relationship with members of her/his racial group? and (2) How are these preferences for a conformed (straightened hair) or disrupted (natural hair) physical appearance articulated through intraracial interactions? The following narratives on natural hair resonate from myriad centers of intraracially defined, and self-positioned, black bodies.