African-American Hair

Straight and curly dreads Photos by: MyAsia Williams and Déjà Walters

My name is Tashawn, I have locks. Sometimes people call locks, “dreads.”  I started to grow them when I was 5 years old. I didn’t like when my mother combed my hair because she would pull it and make it tight. I like locks because you don’t have to comb your hair over and over again. I think I look pretty with locks. I can do a lot of different styles with locks, and they are good for my system for my hair to grow. The reason I wanted locks is because my father, papa and my aunt Patrice had locks. In my opinion any hair is good hair.  One bad thing about locks is that if I don’t want them anymore I would have to cut them all off or take a very long time to comb them out.  What is your favorite?

I’m MyAsia, I have locks and I started growing them when I was 9 years old. I thought locks would take a long time to grow out. The reason why I wanted locks was because I did not like people pulling on my hair when they combed it. My aunt Stephanie and my grandmother Sarah have locks.

We watched a little of the movie, “Good Hair,” by Chris Rock. Chris Rock was trying to sell black hair to beauty supply stores but he didn’t sell any. The thing that struck us was that African-American women use hair from women from India. They cut women’s hair in India, and they sold the hair to dealers in Los Angeles. And we saw the people in a factory in India making hair into weave tracks.

I think some Black people are ashamed of their hair. But some people wear fake hair because it’s easier to take care of.

Tashawn, MyAsia and Déjà are 5th grade students.