There is nothing novel about short hair, especially in the black community. Outside of those in my neighborhood, I grew up watching famous women like Halle Berry, Grace Jones and Nia Long rock pixies and buzz cuts on the big screen. However, I’d be remiss to ignore the fact that I still subscribed to Eurocentric beauty standards as a teenager. In short: I believed that long, straight hair was beautiful and my coils and kinks were problematic.
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It didn’t matter how many times I watched Angela Bassett chop her hair off in “Waiting to Exhale;” I still wanted Mom to style my big curls into a long silky ponytail everyday. Admittedly, it wasn’t until college that I began to see the beauty of black hair in all forms, and contemplated a big chop myself. Luckily, just as this personal transformation took place, so did the re-emergence of the natural hair community.
By the early to mid ‘2000s, black women were not only transitioning to their natural texture in droves; they also had the support of countless online forums, video tutorials and magazine articles to guide them along the way. And today, the beauty industry has evolved to support that community, with brands created exclusively for textured hair and sales in the billions of dollars.
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Hardly anything has surprised me about the complexity of the natural hair community, but one place I never expected to frequent is the barbershop. For as long as I can remember, it’s been an exclusive locale for men, but now, I and other women with short cuts are leaving the salon and entrusting our curls to a barber instead.
Source: Instagram
You can see this niche community growing on Instagram accounts like The Cut Life, where founder Tahira Wright reposts the most head-turning low cuts from women on her feed.
“Women love options and don’t want to always fit into society’s standard of beauty,” she says. “The Cut Life is almost 5 years old and I would like to say our site encouraged more women to go short in recent years.”
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Tarik Mallett, a barber with over 20 years of experience, and a popular landing page himself (@DreamCutsBarberLounge), agrees that social media has put a bigger spotlight on women in barbershops, though it’s hardly a new trend.
“I can’t say more are cutting their hair now. Women always cut their hair in low natural styles.,” he says. “We have access to this industry now at our fingertips. In the past, we would have to wait for haircuts of women to be published in magazines. In today’s society, we have celebrities and ordinary people using social media to share their haircuts and hairstyle to the world for free.”
Source: Instagram
Tahirah Carter, a beauty blogger whose intricate cuts can be found on both The Cut Life and Mallett’s Instagram page, thinks women were simply tired of being confined to one place and look.
“A lot of the younger generation such as myself find it liberating. We live in a society where we are expected to wear straight hair down our backs,” she says. “It’s killing us to manage our daily lives, workout and be bothered with hair. It’s not lazy, it can be really stressful for an active woman.”
So, if you’re a woman with a short cut, how exactly do you go about entrusting your hair to a barber. For starters, know what to ask for.
“I usually I ask for a fade. When you are looking for a barber, find someone who is knowledgeable about the softness of women’s cuts,” says Carter. “Always talk over with them in detail about what you want and have a picture available.”
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Wright also recommends being prepared with the proper payment (most shops are cash only), and to understand the amount of maintenance that comes with whatever style you choose.
“Find a professional stylist in your area that specializes in cutting hair & schedule a consultation… Ask to see some of their work in advance or stalk their IG to make sure they can execute the look you’re going for.”
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