"Taking up space with my hair started for me when I cut off all my hair last year and went fully natural. I was in an international school with people from all around the world who had never seen natural hair. Everyone wanted to touch it or say something about it. For me and my friends who also cut off their hair at the time, it was a reminder to them that white hair is not the 'default' and it's not the only setting. Black hair and Black culture are the blueprints and what everyone wants to see, but also don't want to see, because of reminders it brings of the past.
"As a visibly Black person, I know many other people just like me who haven't had the chance to take up space. If I can just do that small piece of rebellion with my hair, I am going to do that every day."
Taking up space with my hair means on Monday, it's just braids and I don't want anyone to make a big deal about my braids. By Tuesday, my braids are a reminder that I'm a visibly Black woman from the African continent with hard 4C hair — and I'm taking up space because it's something that has been passed down and something that is precious to me. Taking up space with my hair is an acknowledgement of the simultaneous realities that my hair — because of the texture, because of my skin color, because of where I come from and how I speak — is so many things at once. It's not just a twist out, or braids, or curls.
I will continue every day to take up space with my hair. And the day it gets long enough to become an afro, I am going to block people and I'm going to be happy about that. As a visibly Black person, I know many other people just like me who haven't had the chance to take up space. If I can just do that small piece of rebellion with my hair, I am going to do that every day."
