“Even though I know it’s up to me to decide how I wear my hair, I know it makes a big difference in how people see you.”
AOIFE (pronounced “Eefa”) DOYLE
(daughter of Marcie Burke)
Age: 15
Occupation: High school student
Ethnicity: Jamaican and Irish
Scarborough, ON
Why did you decide to go natural?
I started wearing my hair natural just in the last few months. It sort of happened organically. I had been having my hair blow dried straight for a few years and just wanted to try it curly. It was a difficult decision for me because some people like it curly and some people like it straight. Even though I know it’s up to me to decide how I wear my hair, I know it makes a big difference in how people see you. There are both pros and cons of wearing my natural curls verses blow drying my hair straight. I have school and play rep hockey which takes up a huge amount of time, so that really dictates how much time I have for my hair. When I was younger my mother would put my hair in a braid so it could fit under my helmet when I played hockey. We called it the “hockey braid”. Eventually my mom found a great hair stylist and we would go to the salon and get it blow dried straight on occasion or before a picture day at school. This started around grade 3. The salon visits would have to be worked around my hockey practices. I could not and would not miss a hockey practice or game to get my hair done. That was not allowed. My mom felt it was a good alternative to manage my hair and keep it healthy. She insisted on not using any chemicals or relaxers in my hair because they are known to really damage the hair. I started asking for my hair to be regularly blown out in grade eight because I wanted a change and because I felt it made me look more mature and grown up. It was also easier to handle and less time consuming (need the time for hockey) when it was blown out
Starting high school has also helped me to embrace my natural hair. The fact of being in a new school that is multicultural and diverse encouraged me to embrace the uniqueness of my hair. Also around that time my father, who is Irish, walked out and it brought me closer together with my Mom–I began to want to find out more about her heritage. The elementary and middle schools I went to were predominately white and I had mostly white friends. I didn’t think about embracing my Jamaican heritage then because all I wanted to do was fit in. Now at high school standing out is a good thing. I am bi-racial and I am in the gifted program. At school, people don’t say “I’m mixed” or “she’s mixed” but “she’s light skinned”. I am the only “light skinned” girl at my high school that is both academically and athletically strong.
What do you dislike about being natural?
There is not a lot of variety of hairstyles to choose from. It requires more maintenance because it gets knotted and it takes time to get it under control. Frizz is the enemy. Frizz does not look good. I went to my school’s Athletic Banquet and I wore my hair curly, half up half down. It was formal but I couldn’t leave my hair fully down because I was afraid it would totally frizz up. My hair has different textures. The upper part of my hair is frizzier than the bottom part of my hair. There was a dance floor so I had to consider how the humidity, after dancing all night, would impact my hair. I have to think what style would look best for the longest amount of time. Some people said I should have made it curly but they don’t know what it will be or look like at the end of the night. Their imagination of it isn’t my reality.
What do you like about being natural?
I feel special. There are a lot of people who have straight hair but I feel I stand out with my curly hair. Also straight hair does not fully connect me to my ethnicity. Wearing my hair natural allows me to connect to another part of who I am. It’s another part of me where people can recognize I am mixed. In the summer, when I go to pool parties, I don’t have to worry about my hair as opposed to when I have my hair straight and have to worry about it getting wet because it will go curly when I don’t want it curly. My mother wears her hair natural and in a short cut. It is low maintenance and doesn’t take a long time to style. For Black women it’s never just about hair – it’s so much more.
Diverse Women Collective 