I Am Not My Hair Poem Analysis

It was December 2006, I was nine years old, and that was the first time I had ever heard India Arie’s songs; “Video” & “I Am Not My Hair”. While both of these songs are inspired by rhythm & blues, and Neo-Soul, their overarching meanings are somewhat different. “Video”, is a powerful self-love anthem; in this song, India Arie celebrates who she is naturally, and acknowledges that she would not change who she is. “I Am Not My Hair” is more complex because while it acknowledges the versatility of Black hair, it also pushes the idea that one’s hair does not define who you are as a person. While “I Am Not My Hair” seems to push Black hairstyles to the background, I want to argue that both “I Am Not My Hair” and “Video” are songs that celebrate

This song with its neo-soul influences, hit the music scene in 2001 as a powerful anthem that sought to subvert and go against the prevailing stereotypes that surrounded women and their self-image during this time. India Arie, celebrates her natural beauty and acknowledges that she is not bound by the beauty standards that the media place on women, and this celebration can be seen throughout the song in the lyrics. At one point she sings, “I’m not the average girl from your video/And I ain’t built like a supermodel/But I learned to love myself unconditionally, /Because I am a queen” . In these lines, she is celebrating her uniqueness. She is preaching self-love and the fact that she cannot be defined by societal standards or stereotypes. The choices made, i.e. “Sometimes I shave my legs and sometimes I don’t/Sometimes I comb my hair and sometimes I won’t” , don’t define who she is as a person. It is completely her choice whether she chooses to conform or not. “I Am Not My Hair” was the single for India Arie’s album Testimony: Vol. 1, Life & Relationship. This song, can be seen as an extension of Video, that becomes more specific, focusing on a key indicator of blackness, hair. This song is a vibrant call to action to both black men and black women, promoting the idea that they are not defined by their hair or their skin color, while at the same time presenting just how versatile black hair is. India Arie

During this time period, women were often inundated with the idea that the ideal beauty standard was fair skin, light colored eyes, and straight hair. As a result of this, within the black community, we often saw women attempting to conform to these standards. Perms and relaxers became the norm for most Black women. I was just starting kindergarten when I heard Video for the first time, and when I heard I Am Not My Hair for the first time, I was just starting the fourth grade. During this time, I observed many of the girls in my grade and the women in my family, getting relaxers. Getting a relaxer was seen as a rite of passage for most women. I had always had really thick, coarse curly hair, that was always a hassle to wash and braid, so when I would see my friends, with their bone straight hair, I would be envious because I knew that they did not have to go through half of the hassle that I went through when doing their hair. In the early 2000’s there was an increase in the amount of relaxers that women got. There was a clear shift from celebrating one’s natural hair to making sure that they conformed to the prescribed beauty standards. Currently today, statistics show that between 70-80% of black women get perms and relaxers. Thus, unknown to me at the time, when Video and I Am Not My Hair came out, they were seen as progressive songs, that encouraged women, especially women of