Alanis De La Cruz, a graduate student in psychology, said it’s been empowering seeing other Black people wearing natural hair on campus. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Deciding to wear one’s natural hair can be an expression of self and creativity, but for some, that journey isn’t an easy one.
Alanis De La Cruz, a graduate student in psychology who grew up in Puerto Rico, said she has been wearing her hair fully natural since high school. However, when she first came to Ohio State in the summer of 2020, the increase in gun violence against Black people in the U.S. caused her to second-guess how she presented herself to the world.
De La Cruz said she stopped wearing things such as hair wraps and eccentric earrings, opting not to express herself as she normally would, in order to “acculturate” to the U.S., which she said made her feel like she was not living as herself.
“I guess I did it as a self-protection, like, to ease out the waters, kind of see where things are going,” De La Cruz said.
Hateana Gross, a second-year in human development and family science, said although she personally hasn’t dealt with race-based hair discrimination on campus, she has seen it with other women who wear different colors and styles.
“It sometimes becomes a problem because it’s like, you’re looking at someone because of how they wear their hair and not of who they are or the quality of their work, which can really, like, not only hurt someone’s self esteem, cause like, ‘Wow, this is my hair,’ but it can also become a racial issue,” Gross said.
Jasmine Roberts-Crews, a lecturer in the School of Communication at Ohio State, was a panelist for the “Curl Talk” portion of “Natural Hair: The Experience,” hosted by the Ohio Union Activities Board and student organization Natural and Prosperous Society Feb. 20.
“Natural Hair: The Experience” was hosted by the Ohio Union Activities Board and student organization Natural and Prosperous Society Feb. 20. Credit: Maya Neyman | Managing Editor for Digital Content
During the panel, she said the notion within the Black community that natural hair is not professional is a “survival tactic” passed down from generations prior, when Black people had to straighten their hair in order to assimilate to white culture to try to gain human rights and equality during the Reconstruction era.
“The whiter you looked, the more successful that you were deemed,” Roberts-Crews said. “This is something that has been passed down from generations. This isn’t Black people just saying things out of ignorance; this is something that we feel like we have to do in order to show up as, you know, or to be successful, to have the same type of success and privilege that white people have.”
Growing up, De La Cruz said her mother and aunt always had a say in managing her natural hair, often blow-drying her curls out to make her hair more “presentable.” Even when she came to Ohio State, De La Cruz said her mom still voiced concerns over the choices she made with her natural hair, such as when she decided to chop off her hair upon starting grad school.
De La Cruz joined the Black Graduate and Professional Student Caucus in 2021, and she said seeing Black people who looked like her and proudly presented themselves and their natural hair encouraged her to do the same.
“I think it’s been a journey of me just owning my hair and not my parents or anybody or society or all that stuff,” De La Cruz said.
Aisha Echols, a marketing specialist in the Office of Student Life, said embracing her natural hair has been liberating. Credit: Courtesy of Aisha Echols
Aisha Echols, a marketing specialist in the Office of Student Life, said she grew up wearing relaxers — a product that chemically “relaxes” curls or coils to make them easier to straighten — but decided to grow out her relaxer and wear her hair natural in 2011, choosing only to flat iron her hair.
When Echols decided to cut her heat-damaged ends and wear her natural hair to work in 2019, she said everyone was fairly welcoming and supportive.
“Over at Student Life, like, at that time, most of the Black women had natural hair, so it was no big deal at work,” Echols said. “Actually, everybody liked it. They liked the change – most people liked the change.”
When she first came to campus, Gross said she looked for a stylist in the area who could do protective styles, such as sew-ins and braids, but she had difficulty finding resources.
“Everybody doesn’t do those types of things, so I basically had to realize that I’m going to have to be doing my own natural hair a lot more than I normally would,” Gross said. “I had to come up with, like, easy styles that I can manage.”
When it comes to products and tools designed for natural hair, Gross and De La Cruz said there is a lack of hair supply stores carrying these items in close proximity to campus. Gross said the closest beauty supply stores are 10-15 minutes away.
Although these resources are not readily available in the campus area, Gross and De La Cruz said joining the “bOSU naturals” group chat on GroupMe, which has over 1,100 members, allowed them to be part of a larger natural hair community on campus.
Hateana Gross, a second-year in human development and family science, said she has found a community for natural hair on campus. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
“They have plenty of African American women with the same hair type, the same problems that we all go through,” Gross said. “It’s just a really great community for everyone who has the same hair type.”
Daryl Griffith, academic services specialist at The Women’s Place at Ohio State and a panelist at the “Curl Talk” event, said natural hair textures and styles are often embraced in her workspace, and she has seen students explore more natural hairstyles.
“At Ohio State, I’ve noticed there is a bit of a hair revolution that is taking place, and I find myself in an office where they accept me for being able to wear braids, being able to wear curls and really choose to style myself the way I feel best fits me,” Griffith said.
However, Roberts-Crews said at Ohio State, students with natural hair have had to face microaggressions — everyday behaviors or incidents that are subtly or indirectly discriminatory against a marginalized group.
“I’ve had students, some of my Black female students, come up to me at office hours saying, ‘My white professor just touched my hair, what should I do?’ This is still going on. I’ve had some of my colleagues tell me ‘Oh, I touched my student’s hair; she just had this lovely hair, and she told me not to do it,’ ” Roberts-Crews said. “Unfortunately, this stuff still happens.”
Griffith said on campus, spaces such as the Office of Diversity and Inclusion exist as resources for students to speak with someone who looks like them and can relate to their experience. However, she said there isn’t an exact space allocated for people with natural hair to feel emboldened with the choice to wear their natural textures.
“I think it’s important to recognize even when they do exist, there is a culture that needs to take place, like a cultural shift around the campus, that we embrace natural textures,” Griffith said. “And until, like, Ohio State University has that, like, overwhelming culture of just accepting in every scenario, I think there’s still always work to be done and spaces to be created.”
Leaving behind her relaxed hair and embracing her natural texture has been a liberating experience, Echols said.
“It’s probably one of the most freeing things I did, is letting go of that,” Echols said. “I like my natural curls. For me, it’s like a big form of self-love, to embrace your hair the way it comes out of your scalp.”
De La Cruz said it’s empowering seeing other Black people on campus wearing their natural hair, and she views her hair as a creative space and styles it based on how she feels or wants to present herself on a day-to-day basis.
“Whenever you feel good, it’s probably because your hair is done,” Gross said. “Honestly, your hair is your staple. Like, it’s your crown; it’s literally at the top of your head. It’s the first thing people see, it’s the last thing people see and you want to be sure that you’re confident in your hair so that you can be confident in yourself.”
