Where'd You Get Your Hair?
This is my piece “Where’d You Get Your Hair”, I finished creating it in February 2021. I used charcoal on 25x30 inch heavyweight paper and I am currently selling it for $3,500! This is most definitely one of my favorite pieces as well as it is one of my most popular pieces. Although I made this piece a year and a half ago I still get so many comments and questions about the concept regarding this piece, and today I am here to shed some light on my thought process going into this art piece.
In this art piece I have illustrated two black women shopping in a black beauty supply store and as you can see the mannequins on the shelves are indeed human heads with blood dripping off of the shelves. So what does it mean? What message am I trying to send? Black women in America identify with their hair and for many generations they have faced discrimination for it no matter what they do. I made this piece as a message to the world saying “ black women need to be shown more respect.” The kinky hair along with protective styles that are worn by black women have been called ugly, ghetto, and ratchet for many years which conformed them to wear wigs and even making them ashamed of their natural beautiful hair. skip forward in time and now they are still being shunned about their hair, but now it is seen as ghetto for them to wear wigs. That’s not all… those protective styles (such as box braids, cornrows, and locks) that were seen as ghetto and ugly are now the new trend for white women; it’s culture appropriation.
The black community have expressed how they don’t like it and how it is disrespectful after all they have been through but everyone just “sees it as hair”, and continues to dismiss our feelings yet again. The heads of women on the shelves represent all of the black women who were beaten, killed, raped, and outcast just for how their hair and their features look. The Woman looking back towards the audience gives off a look of strength and confidence in her unique beauty, I tried to make her look as though she is proud of however she decides to wear her hair whether if it’s her natural hair, in protective styles, or if she wears a wig. I wanted her to represent self-love and confidence as if she’s unbothered by all the hate that the world continues to throw at her. She’s looking back at you to let you know… this is where she gets her hair!
This is my piece “Where’d You Get Your Hair?” and it is my favorite because I have made my community proud by giving our women a voice that speaks volumes through this piece! Prints and the original piece are available for purchase in my shop!