What would your hair say if it could speak? A documentary to reframe hegemonic frameworks of racist beauty

Abstract

A documentary produced by the international research group ALMARGEN was centered on the core research question: What would your hair say if it could talk? The methodology employed was autoethnographic and analytical. The primary tool that gave meaning to the field was the interview, which was conducted spontaneously and without preparation from the collaborators. Following a triple analysis approach –visual, critical, and anti-racist– three core categories emerged: Care, Social Pressure, and Identity. From these categories and their corresponding film stills, intersubjective dimensions were revealed,  ranging  from  treatment and dyeing practices to outright racism. The topic of hair proved to be a powerful subject, one that speaks and creates epistemology. The research contributed new developments in counter-grain hairstyling. Furthermore, it demonstrated that the body's dialogue with hair establishes a common thread that connects feelings beneath the scalp with outward image: an inside-outside dynamic mediated by hair. For the ALMARGEN group, the documentary served as a culmination of five years of transdisciplinary work. We understood, from the outset, that we were not merely talking about hair.