Abstract
Black women do not want to become white women because they know that this is impossible. Yet, some black
women straighten and curl their naturally kinky hair, or wear hair extensions, weaves and wigs that resemble
Caucasian hair. Still, they recognize that hair is only one attribute of their Being and that even if they choose
to wear non-African hairstyles, they can concurrently embrace other aspects of their black identity. So, is this
a matter of cultural assimilation or integration, or is there a deeper ontological problematic underlying these
cross-racial hair styling choices? I interrogate three arguments that black women usually advance for their
hairstyling choices – the survival strategy argument, the protective styling argument, and the options-choice
argument. I use Mabogo Percy More’s interpretation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s concepts of “the Look,” “facticity,” and
“bad faith” to analyze Black women’s hair consciousness through the lens of his “Politics of Being” concept.