Postby TriP » February 21st, 2015, 9:08 pm
People of Trinidad and Tobago
My parents both had locks in the time of Bob Marley.
For them, it was not a fashion statement but a show of defiance against social systems that did not favour blackness.
I think of my own journey as a continuation of their legacy.
As a young girl my hair was salon treated with relaxers but one day when I was 17, a young woman from my neighbourhood took me to her house and cut it all off.
After that I started locking it. I have had it cut three times since then but I have never returned to chemical treatments.
People often ask if I am mixed referring to how quickly my hair grows and its length. We have as post-colonials, deep seated psychological ideas about hair and race.
Many people don’t see themselves as beautiful because of ideas and images that are entrenched in popular culture. I have embraced my blackness and my hair signifies this identification.
I have modelled with my hair like this for years and I am proud to have contributed my image to spaces that once excluded certain expressions of blackness.
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