Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Natural hair in the workplace.

I cut my hair the night I came home from work and it was going to be another week until I worked again. When the next Friday came and I got ready for work I realized that my unisex uniform would diminish my beauty. Lol. I put in cute earrings and a cute head band with a flower just so that I may look more like a girl.

As soon as I got there I got right to work because there was customers to be tended to. As I was ringing up orders, I looked in the corner of my eye at my boss looking at me in confusion. When he saw me look he quickly turned his head.

My sister, she and I work at the same place, told me later on that he asked her "What happened to Shelby?" or "What did Shelby do to her hair?", somewhere along those lines. Her response was "She's going natural." You cannot tell an older white guy what going natural means! In some cases I'm sure they may know what it is but this white guy was confused.

Before I was fully natural, I had read that natural hair isn't really accepted in the workplace or certain professions and I started to feel what they were talking about last Friday. No, this isn't a serious case of natural hair not being accepted but it did put a light on it that people just don't know how to deal with a black woman's natural hair or how to react to it. I just pray to God that when I graduate from college, my concern isn't "Am I not going to get the job because of my hair?"

5 comments:

  1. Wow, this article is so timely. This is actually the topic that we'll be discussing on Nappturalite Radio this Sunday with the author of "The Knotty Truth", M. Michele George.

    ReplyDelete
  2. just want 2 say the blog is dope and 2 keep up the good work. check out streetwearcouture.blogspot.com and let us no wat u think. maybe get a shirt lol thank u

    ReplyDelete
  3. nIcE bLoG!

    check out my blog and tell
    ur friends about it :-D

    ReplyDelete
  4. i understand you level of frustration and admire the fact that you did not let this discourage you and your natural hair journey! You are going to come across people white and black that will have the same reaction, but when you exude confidence, they will see your natural beauty, confidence and not JUST your natural hair. You will find a job when you graduate!

    God bless you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I understand as when I worked at a department store n I was sorta dating someone I'd been seeing on and off for about a year then. I decided to transition buh my hair still looked straightish but then one night i braided my whole hair with braided extensions. I showed up to work the next day and coz i was workin in middle class mostly white town my managers couldnt understand what I had done to hair and my ex couldnt nor could his mother as they were all white and didnt understands that I was 'going natural'. but let it deter u, outsiders see going natural as making a statement. so just turn up to work looking smart n u should no problems natural or not :)

    ReplyDelete