Last year, I never thought I would go natural. I, like many other misguided Black women, was fed the lie that straight hair was the best hair. I was stuck on pressed hair and sew-ins. It wasn’t until I saw Rochelle Ritchie’s local WPTV News documentary short, “Natural Hair,” that I began to understand the reality of my hair and its adequacy.
Ritchie recorded her own natural hair journey, as well as that of another family, in her short. This completely changed my perception of hair. The young girl featured in the documentary was reminiscent of a younger me. I would cry when my mother wouldn’t let me press my hair. Like me, the girl couldn’t understand how her mother expected her to love her own hair while seeing her mother’s silky straight strands every day. The mother felt bad upon recognizing her hypocrisy and decided to cut all her hair off and go natural with her daughter.
The last part of the video is what changed my life. I saw, for the first time, a news anchor with natural hair. Rochelle Ritchie decided to be herself. The documentary cut to a shot of one of the most beautiful Black women I had ever seen.
At that moment, I realized that my hair was beautiful, versatile, and definitely good enough. I now know that I can be a successful journalist with kinky hair, and I will not be held back by comments or practices that suggest my hair makes me any less of a journalist. Rochelle Ritchie taught me that the best me is an authentic me. Without having seen her documentary, I would have never been comfortable with just being me.
“I realized that my hair was beautiful, versatile, and definitely good enough”
As an aspiring journalist, my biggest fear in my pursuit has always been not being accepted. Being a Black woman is hard enough in world full of misperceptions and prejudice. Kinky hair is almost impossible for those people to understand.
It is no easier that my Black sisters often are more comfortable with Eurocentric, flat hair, which leads them to damage their curl patterns with relaxers and hot combs. We don’t understand that our hair is beautiful and should be as respected in the professional world.
Pam McKeIvy once said, “A woman’s relationship with her hair is sacred. Her hair is her crown of glory. And for women in TV, it is intensified.”
I now realize that I want my journalism legacy to be the real me, natural hair and all. Without Rochelle Ritchie, I never would have been comfortable being me in the media.
