The Wrap Kind of Life

Feb 21, 2018
3 min read

I have gone through another transformation! This past Christmas my husband surprised me with a set of head wraps as a gift. I'm not going to lie I was bewildered at the gift. I had never even hinted at the desire to have any head wraps. In fact I NEVER wore head wraps. "I figured you could learn some new things to do with your hair." He explained watching me closely to see if he had missed the mark.

It was an incredibly thoughtful gift and I was determined to give it a try. My thoughts regarding head wraps had always had a negative connotation. Images seen on TV and other forms of entertainment often depicted head wraps as a symbol of servanthood and slavery; another thing forced upon the women of color to identify them as inferior to their white counterparts. Even as a young girl I would slightly cringe when going in public with my mom when she wore her head wrapped. She saw it as celebrating her "blackness". I saw it as trying to rewrite something that was historically damaging to the black american.

But I have discovered upon some more research that it was ok for me to embrace this cultural tradition as it did not originate with slavery, but predated slavery to time times of pharaoh. It was originally intended as a symbol of beauty and status. Even royalty wore headdresses to represent their majesty. The headdress was not meant to be an instrument of degradation but of edification and distinction. Now how was I going to make what looked amazing on other women work on my peanut head? Hmmm

Now many of you have been privy to my transition from processed to natural hair. I had not seen my natural hair since I was nine and begged my mom to give me a jerry curl (it was the 80's and Michael Jackson was hot). Frankly I was afraid I would be ugly. I was tempted to keep putting relaxers in my hair even though I was seeing signs of chemical damage to my scalp. Finally four years ago I made that leap. What started off as an attempt to space out my relaxer applications resulted in a big chop.

Now I was going to take another leap away from the European image of beauty toward an image that allows me to be even more in my natural state. I am learning to love my nonuniform, wild, and healthy locks. I see it now as less of a political statement and more of just what I was meant to look like.

I am not going to lie and say that I don't receive strange looks when I wear my wraps, and there have been times I have been treated differently at establishments when I did have my wrap on as opposed to when I didn't. I was surprised that some of the less flattering or strange looks came from people whose skin was like mine. But all in all I have received nothing but encouragement from my friends and colleagues. They embrace me as I explore another level of myself. Here are some of my favorite looks!