I wrap my hair, deal with it!
I wrap my hair, deal with it!
The odd responses to black women who wear head wraps and scarves
Writer’s Note on Oct. 2, 2022: As much as I enjoyed seeing Trina McGee on “Boy Meets World,” a sitcom I already enjoyed, that “love your syrup” line made me cringe and remember this post I wrote a few years ago. This Medium post was originally written on December 16, 2019.
I stood in the bathroom mirror with my wide-toothed comb, and my hat lay close by on the sink. As I got ready to comb my hair into a swirl that perfectly wrapped around my head, a woman (white, maybe in her late 50s) came out of the bathroom and froze in place.
While I’m sure she was initially headed to the sink to wash her hands, she just didn’t seem to understand what I was doing. I made eye contact with her in the mirror, initially to give a friendly “hello” with my eyes. But eye contact turned into gawking, and my eyes narrowed. The simple flick in my eyes made her remember her purpose, and my eyes followed her until she left the bathroom. I went back to wrapping my hair.
She wasn’t the first person who looked at me like a museum exhibit for wrapping my hair, but I still haven’t figured out why this is such a big deal.