The bulk of this project lives on the Black Hair Series website, developed by Eric Lau, which we encourage you all to explore.
Stylists
Taliyah Wright (she/her) Senior – General Studies – Chicago, IL
How did you become interested in doing other people’s hair?
Wright learned how to braid herself at the age of 5 after practicing on her baby doll. She then taught her cousins how to braid as well.
After her mother said she would stop paying for her consistent hair salon visits, Wright was driven to learn how to do hair professionally. She started serious styling seriously in high school as an apprentice to her aunt, who was a professional hairstylist. After a while, she was able to do silk presses and touch-ups by herself. By junior year, she was working in her aunt’s salon as an assistant. There, she was tasked with shampooing, conditioning and coloring the hair of clients.
In the salon, her aunt taught her the basics of doing Black hair and the etiquette within the salon when dealing with clientele. She learned how to protect clients’ hair and take care of them properly.
To make money, she decided to do other people’s hair. Her personal stylist journey began with doing her hometown friends’ hair in Chicago. “And you know, we from Chicago, we got a certain look and a certain style that we like to wear our hair in,” Wright said. She said that the way she and her friends wore their hair informed the styles that she wanted to perfect most. When Wright came to the University, she wasn’t sure what to do with her hair, as her aunt was virtually the only person touching her hair for seven years. Without a known hairstylist, she had to rely on herself to do her own hair. At school, she expanded her skillset, frequently doing sew-ins, quick weaves, ponytails and braids. Her clientele also broadened outside of just her hometown friends to people she knew at school.
“My slogan became, ‘You name it I can do it,’” Wright said.
What is healthy (Black) hair care? Why should we care about our hair?
Wright said she believes that it’s always important to treat Black hair with tenderness. In her sophomore year of college, Wright did a “big chop” and decided to go natural. From this point on, she took a more protective route when styling herself and her clients, wanting to promote hair health and growth.
Wright said she wants her clients to learn how to take care of their hair themselves, so she tries to incorporate tips on haircare maintenance into her styling appointments with her clients. She values the rich history of Black hair, noting that certain tribes would wear their braids to indicate their origins. To Wright, upholding the prestige of Black hair is extremely important. “We have to take care of the crown that’s on top of our heads because that’s what our hair is,” Wright said. “Crowns.”
Wright also said she believes hair care is a form of self-care, that it is a necessity for Black people even if it looks different for everybody.
“Hair is like our skin – have to take care of it just as much as the rest of our bodies,” she said. “However, we also have to give ourselves grace. No one has the perfect hair routine. But if you not feeling like yourself, I bet if you do your hair you might feel a liiiitle bit better.”
How has our increasingly globalizing and technological world impacted your hairstyles or perceptions of Black hair? What are the affordances and drawbacks of Black hair operating under late-stage industrial capitalism?
Wright thanks social media for the increased awareness surrounding Black hair care — all that she’s learned about natural hair came from the internet. She is overjoyed that wearing natural hair has become much more popular amongst Black women in recent years due to the natural hair movement. She also appreciates that newer Black stylists have been encouraged to work with as much speed as possible when it comes to completing styles. Wright said that styles that would have taken seven to eight hours to do are now being done in around four hours and sometimes even fewer.
However, she expressed her disdain for the vast number of unprofessional hairstylists that have saturated the industry. “I’m an old-school stylist at heart. These new-age stylists have been driving me crazy!” she exclaimed with a laugh. “They overcharge with no license, don’t have proper PPE equipment and play into the ‘fast life’ that social media portrays, which causes people to not care about the quality of their hair.” She explained that such stylists only care about if the hair looks good and if it’s long, as opposed to the actual health of the hair.
Wright prides herself on maintaining old-school standards when it comes to her clientele, which is why she offers consulting services to all new clients to understand the client’s hair history to know how to better execute the desired style.
“I believe in sticking to my style but keeping up with the new age of things too,” she said.
What have been some of the biggest challenges in your styling career?
Despite her love of styling, Wright admitted that the job could be frustrating at times. After a period of feeling discouraged by difficult clients, pressures of social media and new-age stylist culture, Wright said she felt driven away from doing hair.
“I had to grow tougher skin through the industry,” she said. “I’ve had to deal with difficult clients and people who feel overentitled to my time.”
Wright said she was able to pull herself out of this rut by remembering that hair is her biggest talent. Every time she was at a low or in a financial hardship, doing hair was always the thing that brought her out of that. Wright quickly realized that she hated the styles she was doing. Specifically, she said she hated doing braids and no longer desired to be known as a braider. Now, Wright said she would consider herself a natural hair stylist. Locs, natural hairstyles and weaves are her specialties these days.
This realization also drove a rebranding of Wright’s hair styling business, transitioning from being known as a braider to a natural hair stylist. She even changed her business name from TeeStylist to TeScenTials. With this rebrand, she also said she had to broaden her audience.
“After doing hair while at college I’ve come to learn that broke college students can’t help other broke college students (financially),” Wright joked. She started off as a stylist for college students but now also markets her services toward the general public and targets slightly older age groups.
Where do you see your styling career going in the future?
In addition to attending the University, Wright is also in cosmetology school, intending to graduate from there in 2024. After graduation, Wright plans to open salons in Detroit, Chicago and Houston. She said she wants to hire employees and give younger, upcoming stylists the opportunity to work in a professional hair environment and get experience in quality styling, similar to the mentorship and creative freedom that she was provided by her own aunt. “I want to give them the space and platform to live out their stylist dreams,” Wright said. “I want to pass on the torch.”
In the long term, Wright hopes to retire from hair at some point within the next 10 years and focus on managing her salons. She also hopes to launch her own product line, which will consist of Black hair products that will promote healthy haircare and is interested in opening a beauty bar to give a platform to Black hairstylists, estheticians, barbers and therapists.
Ultimately, Wright said she aims to build a hair empire that will extend far past just styling hair.
“Unless I have kids, I will not be picking up another comb unless I’m getting flewed out to Dubai to do a celebrity’s hair,” Wright laughed.
While we await the construction of her Black hair empire, if you’re looking to book a session with the incredibly talented Taliyah Wright, this can be done through the website for her hair styling business, TeScenTials.
Caira Blevins (she/her) – Junior – Information Science – Detroit, Mich.
Tell me about your hair journey.
“My mom always secured my hair but not really my natural hair, if that makes sense,” Blevins said. “As a toddler, I had twists and berets. Then as I got a little older I was always getting perms and getting my hair hot combed. In middle school, I was getting a silk press every two weeks because my mom made sure my hair was done. My mom took care of my hair, but not my natural hair.” As she grew older and tried to begin wearing her natural hair out, Blevins said she became frustrated with the damage from her mother’s care.
“When I saw other girls my age wearing their natural hair out, I tried to do the same and I found out that my hair was incredibly damaged,” Blevins said. “I had heat damage all the way down to the end of my shaft. I thought my hair was the ugliest thing in the world.”
During the era of the “big chop,” Blevins said she transitioned from middle school to high school and from permed hair to natural hair. Despite deciding to take the steps towards healthy, natural hair, Blevins still had trouble letting go of her hair, even with how damaged it had been.
“We have strong attachments to our hair, sometimes to the point where it’s unhealthy,” Blevins said. “And I couldn’t bring myself to cut off all my hair. I was literally transitioning for four years because I couldn’t let go of that length.” On top of her attachment to her hair length, Blevins noted the pressure she received from her family as well. “They would tell me, ‘Your hair is beautiful and long! Don’t go cutting it off.’ But it wasn’t healthy, though. So I didn’t cut all my hair off — I would just let it grow and then do a little trim and I did that with no heat for four years until my hair was fully natural.” Since Blevins’s hair became healthy, she only gets silk presses once a year, usually for her birthday.
How did you become interested in doing other people’s hair?
After going natural, Blevins said she realized she had to learn how to do protective styles to learn how to take care of her hair. After learning how to perform these styles on herself, she said she became interested in doing hair for other people in college because she couldn’t find a hairstylist in the Ann Arbor area that specialized in affordable ethnic styles like locs and twists. “Faux locs and twists I found were good for college students because they last,” Blevins said. “Then I figured that I had to share my knowledge with the girls. I would teach them how to maintain their length and keep their hair healthy.”
After hearing from fellow Black students at a Zeta sorority event, she said she found motivation in knowing that many other Black girls on campus were searching for a hair stylist that does locs, passion twists and Senegalese twists. From this event, Blevins found her two first clients and created stylign-related content to post on her social media. She was very eager to get clients in her chair after she began doing hair. “And I even made goodie bags – I gave the first five clients to book with me Forever 21 gift cards,” Blevins laughed.
What is healthy (Black) hair care? Why should we care about our hair?
“It’s finding a regimen that works for your hair,” Blevins said. Blevins emphasized the importance of a good hair regime, focusing on finding good conditioners, oils and shampoos. She said that social media influencers often push an agenda that doesn’t account for how different everybody’s curl types are.
“Always sleep with your ends tucked,” Blevins advised. “A lot of Black girls think they have short hair but they just not retaining the length. If you’re not wrapping the hair at night, putting oil on the ends and getting routine trims, then your hair is literally splitting at the shaft and you’re losing that length. And people always wonder, ‘Why is my hair not growing?’ It’s not that it’s not growing it’s just not retaining the length.”
Blevins said she believes that hair care is significant because the styles in which Black hair can be worn serve as a form of expression. “And our hair is so versatile,” Blevins said. “We can rock a ‘fro one day and braid down to our knees the next. It’s really our personality. And it’s something you wanna take care of because it’s like your lil’ baby.”
How has our increasingly globalizing and technological world impacted your hairstyles or perceptions of Black hair? (Celebrities, entertainment media, social media apps, YouTube tutorials, digitalization of barber/salon contact information, amazon/online product access)
“Our advances in the technological world have definitely improved Black hairstyles,” Blevins said. “However, our influencers, especially the ones that do wigs, convinced people that it’s the best protective style for us because you can wear a braided wig or a twisted wig while keeping your own hair braided underneath. But it doesn’t really allow us to learn how our natural hair works. If you want to learn how to style your natural hair then you shouldn’t follow every influencer on the internet.” She also said she feels that social media posts about Black hair don’t represent the time that goes into completing a hairstyle. “The process of posting hair online makes it seem faster than it is,” she said. “You’ll see a 10 second reel on Instagram or a short TikTok and think that’s it. There’s a lot that goes into it. It might take several hours just for one style.” She also noted that the culture of online booking for hairstyles has removed a lot of the human interaction between stylists and their clients.
“I like booking sites because they’re efficient but they don’t allow you to provide personal details about your hair,” Blevins said. “Digital booking sites are not human-centered. They’ll just say ‘If this is the style you want then this is how much the price is’ and that’s it.”
Blevins said when she launches her site she seeks to ensure that her clients can tell her more about their hair before doing their styles.
Blevins said that on a positive note, “YouTube and TikTok have really helped the girls out. We know about so many new products and styles now. TikTok will give you tutorials down to the nail, which has really taught us a lot.”
Getting products online makes things more accessible for Blevins nowadays. “You don’t always have to run to the beauty supply nowadays, you can get it on Amazon for much cheaper and your product will be delivered in a day or two,” she said.
What is the relationship between Black hair and perceived socioeconomic status?
Blevins prefaced by saying her own views are relatively unbiased because she understands that the styling of Black hair and apparent socioeconomic status often don’t correlate. However, she pointed out how this correlation operates in the outside professional world. “From a professional perspective, someone might look at a (Black person) with 4c kinky hair and associate them with a lower socioeconomic status because the hair is kinkier,” she said. “But the truth is most of the time, their hair is being taken care of. It’s just that it’s different from what another ethnic’s group might look like when their hair is taken care of.” She acknowledges the other side of this spectrum as well.
“But if someone sees a woman with pressed hair, they might automatically think she’s of a higher social status,” Blevins said. “They’ll say ‘Oh, she has class. She takes care of her hair well.’”
“I noticed this pattern (in the professional world), so to counteract that, I wear my natural hair to higher-status events,” she said. Blevins notes that she’s inspired by other Black women that she sees wearing their natural hair to proms, weddings and job interviews. “I wear my natural hair at graduations and in a lot of job interviews,” she said. “Especially in job interviews because I don’t want to work in a place where people see my natural hair and think ‘She’s unkempt.’ They think of it as having no respect. And I have a lot of respect for myself and my hair. You just don’t understand the chemistry behind the hair. It actually took a lot to get it like this.”
She talked about a client she had who wanted long, blue passion twists and was preparing for an internship in Seattle. “And we all know how Seattle is,” Blevins laughed. “She DM’d me three hours before my appointment saying that she no longer wanted the blue passion twists and wanted Black twists instead that wouldn’t go past her shoulders. And of course, I would do whatever style she wanted, but I asked her why she no longer wanted the style. She said she had an internship in Seattle and was the only Black intern there. She didn’t want them to perceive her as ‘ratchet’ or ‘ghetto’ because of her hair. I was just shocked at how (Black people) have to change our hair because of what we think we might be perceived as. She had been wanting this style for months. It was really sad and I felt bad for her. Fortunately, she came back a month later and got the blue hair, though.”
What have been some of the biggest challenges in your styling career?
“Creating styles that lasted the time that I intended them to,” Blevins said. “And to all my clients who stuck with me … Thank you. Because when I first started out, I would spend six hours doing faux locs. And then a week later I would get DMs (on Instagram) saying ‘My locs or twists fell out.’ And I would get so discouraged ’cause I swore I was doing it right.” Blevins said these instances almost made her quit doing hair entirely.
“I didn’t want to keep making these girls pay,” she said. “And I would offer their money back and even offer to come back and re-do their hair for free. My biggest challenge was learning how to make my styles last.” Blevins said she invested in a lot of different types of hair extensions and styling gels because different hair types require different products.
Blevins said fitting clients into her work and school schedule was difficult as well. “I’m a part-time intern and a full-time student trying to do hair on the side,” she said. “But I knew there weren’t a lot of stylists doing locs or passion twists in the Ann Arbor/(Ypsilanti) area.” She often receives clients who are looking to get their hair done on short notice.
“Sometimes I’d get a client who says ‘I need my hair done within three days because I have an event,’” Blevins said “I have a lot of empathy for my clients so I try to fit them in (to my schedule) whenever I can because I know how hard it is to get your hair done out here. And I had to learn that sometimes you can’t do a client or sometimes you have to say no to preserve the quality of the service.” Blevins asserted that she didn’t want to rush a style and not have it turn out well. Another frustration as a hairstylist was dealing with disrespectful clients.
“Customer service was also a challenge for me because I faced a lot of rude, rude clients,” she said. “I had to learn that even though we are the same age, I realized that I need to have patience and respect for the client.”
She also said her career as a stylist has permeated into other aspects of her college life, especially in a social sense. She found that her friends would be asking for hair appointments even while at parties and events. “People would come up to me at parties and it’s never ‘Caira, how are you?’ It’s always, ‘When do have appointments available?’ ” Blevins laughed. “Like I’ll literally be running my hands through peoples’ hair at functions.” She continued to say that it could be difficult sometimes to create boundaries between her social life and her work because her career as a stylist often permeated into other aspects of her school life as a stylist with a clientele predominantly made up of fellow students.
How has your relationship with hair changed in college? How have you adapted?
Blevins said her relationship with her hair began to change her freshman year while living in Bursley Residence Hall. She recalled that washing her hair in the community bathrooms was not sufficient for her hair’s needs. She said she believed that the water there was drying out her hair and wasn’t truly cleansing it either. She also said that living in a residence hall didn’t allow her the space she needed to set up her equipment and do her hair. Blevins adapted to this issue by doing faux locs – it was a style that would last long without requiring too much maintenance on hair natural hair.
“Plus, I was on North (Campus) with no car so I was isolated from most of campus as well as any stylist or store I could buy beauty products at,” Blevins recalled. “So I used to have to take the bus to get my products.”
Blevins said that it wasn’t until she moved to her current apartment that she could come back to doing her usual natural hair styles. Being on Central Campus more frequently encouraged her to wear her natural hair out a lot more often, noting that fellow Black students inspired her to do so.
“People don’t realize Black UMich got some culture,” Blevins said. “We know how to wear our hair!”
Where do you see your styling career going in the future?
“I’ve really been hoping to open a beauty supply store (somewhere in the Metro Detroit area) in a location where Black products are less accessible,” Blevins said.
Blevins mentions that the bus station from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti doesn’t work very well, as she learned from experience. A bus ride to the beauty supply would take roughly an hour and a half as opposed to a 15 minute drive from campus. Accessibility is a very important matter to Blevins, so when she first started driving on campus she frequently found herself taking Black girls on campus to the beauty supply store.
“I’d drive girls that I’ve never even met before to the beauty supply store in (Ypsilanti) to help them get their products because they had no other way to get products for their hair,” she said. “All we have in Ann Arbor is Sally’s Beauty. What do they have there for us? They don’t sell extensions there. They don’t sell faux locs there.”
She also noted the discrimination that she often saw while shopping at beauty supply stores in her hometown. “Growing up, I’d never seen a Black-owned beauty supply store,” Blevins said. “It was mostly Chinese (or other East Asian) owners in my area and we would always get accused of stealing.”
Blevins stressed the importance of having beauty supply owners that have a holistic understanding of Black hair. “We need owners who are educated in our hair types and what styles work for our hair types,” she said. “Owners who can recommend their customers products based on factors like hair texture and porosity.” She said Black hair influencers on social media often influence their followers to believe that the products they use will work for all hair types.
“A lot of people assume that they can walk into a beauty supply store, buy a product they saw on TikTok and assume it’ll do magic on their hair,” Blevins said. “Then when it doesn’t work they assume they don’t have good hair, when really they just don’t understand the chemistry of their hair.”
Caira Blevins can be booked for her hair services on her Instagram page, CairaBStylin’.
Barbers
Parish Kennedy (he/him) – Ann Arbor, Mich. – Premium Cuts
Why’d you become a barber?
“So what happened was my dad was cutting my hair,” Kennedy said. “Back then cuts was $10. But he wasn’t cutting taper or fade. I wanted to look like everybody else look, you know? So I started messing with the clippers, and it was something that I liked. I liked being able to make a crispy line-up.” Kennedy said he likes the enthusiasm of the barber shop atmosphere, the conversations sparked and experiences made. He went to barber school in 2019, driving from Ann Arbor to Detroit every day to train. He explained barber school give you the basics of cutting, shaving, cutting different textures and skin types. Kennedy said he liked barber school in that there’s a network of shared interests formed. He said he believes the school is more of a forgiving, training atmosphere, whereas in the shop people want it done right. Kennedy explained when starting out it’s necessary to cultivate a strong work-ethic. He stated that when starting out there’s a lot of self-conscious, self-doubt at first: “Is this gon work? Am I doing this right?”
Kennedy stated that once you get one or two clients you start getting into the rhythm of it, getting better with ever dut. “These clippers will put you in rooms you never thought,” he said. “They can give you opportunities. They brought the shop) together.” Kennedy’s ultimate goal is to get a shop, and he plans to work toward that by continuing to grow the brand and his skills.
How’d you describe your experience in the shop?
“It’s the first shop I’ve worked in and I’m glad it’s been a success, cause some guys bounce around four, five times before they find a shop,” Kennedy said. “It’s a real thing where people go into shops and it don’t work out. You’re not compatible with the people around you.”
Kennedy talked about having to cultivate his skill level in order to make his cuts acceptable as a necessity in order to protect the brand. He said he believes a good environment, the culture and the standards you set contribute to compatibility within a shop. “If you just go about it and let anything fly, that’s what yo shop turn into,” he said. “If you want an upper-echelon shop, it gotta be on point … cause people go around and share their experience and leave reviews. This shop like second-to-none cause we might kick it and still get work done. That’s one thing I’m still working on … some barbers, they can run they mouth and then, ‘ok boom, I’m behind on my cut now.’ Some barbers don’t like to talk. I can fall in both … at the end of the day, you coming into get your hair cut, and at some point a relationship gotta be developed. If not, you just coming and spending your money.”
Kennedy stressed the importance of establishing authentic connections with clients. “You never know what people going through, and a haircut can change a person whole outlook on their day,” he said. “Make a person feel good about themselves. That’s why I like to do it. You see that smile on people face and boom, you boost they confidence by 101.”
What is your creative process like when cutting?
Cutting hair is second-nature for Kennedy. He explained he often zones out during a cut, entering “a whole different space, a whole different world.” He said to him, he enjoys doing the work because he gets to hear different perspectives and opinions throughout the day.
How’d you go about servicing different identities at your shop?
Kennedy talked about the necessity of being able to cut all textures. He said he believes being able to cut folks of different cultures makes you a more versatile barber. “If you get one person (from a culture), you can get like five, cause that one will tell like four, five others,” he said. Kennedy further emphasized the importance of staying educating and up to date with current events in order to meet the needs of a diverse set of clientele.
James Taylor (he/him) – Ypsilanti, Mich. – Premium Cutz
Why’d you become a barber?
“There’s two answers two that question,” Taylor said. “I fell in love with the barber shop as I kid cause I got infatuated with it. Spending so much time getting to get a haircut, developing an appreciation for it. I got serious wanting to become barber when I got older, and when I got to high (school) — I’m the second oldest of six boys and my mom is a single mom and so I remember not being able to afford to have a fresh cut for school pictures. I was thinking ‘what can I do to fix this?’ I wanted to come self-sufficient.”
Taylor said barber school in Detroit helped him learn new perspectives about the history and industry. He also learned microbiology. “It’s just cutting hair,” he said. “You learn how to sanitize the tools, using hospitable grade chemicals, learning to protect the general public. There’s a whole other side you got to learn about sanitation and microorganisms. It’s more than just cutting.”
His mentality has grown, not been limited, by the profession. Taylor’s happy where he is but still wants to grow. He said he wants to be a shop owner, incorporating other grooming and personal care services, ultimately establishing a wellness center for folks to come and look good and feel good. “You can do so much with a barber license that I didn’t even know,” he said.
How’d you describe your experience in the shop?
“It’s been a family-oriented experience since day one,” Taylor said. “I came in my first week and it felt like a family. We not perfect, but (family) always been our mission. This the only shop I been in and I plan on being here til I decide to my own thing. Keeping everything sanitized and safe. I been to some barbershops where you can’t even have your kids in there cause you don’t know what’s going on.”
Taylor stressed the importance of having a zero-tolerance for nonsense in the shop in order to keep protect the clients and reputation of the shop. He recounted a reading program they had when he first started for young kids to come and get half off their services for reading during the cut.
What is your creative process like when cutting?
“I don’t even be thinking about hair for real when I’m cutting,” Taylor said. “You can cut hair without even thinking about hair. ‘Less you doing something you not used to be doing. I’m pondering about life or all this other random stuff we’re conversing about. When I do run into tricky situations with hair I just think back to barber school.” Taylor’s usually just in the zone until encountering something atypical like how some people have cowlicks and swirls.
“I remember when everyone had the South of France (burst fade) or the Mohawks and I had to learn how to do that haircut cause I hadn’t really done it too many times before,” Taylor said. “It’s all about repetition. Taking it down and slicing it into pieces. When you can simplify it and get that reputation you get to a point where you can really be on autopilot doing hair. I really think more people can cut hair than they know. They just never know if they never try. All it takes it repetition and simplifying it. If you have a good eye for art that’s even better. People should just try it. It’s a trade. You self-employed. There’s freedom and mobility.”
What role do barbershops play in Black (male) culture?
“Barbershops are pillars of the community,” Taylor said. “They’re neutral, universal places where everybody who has hair is welcome. It really is a therapeutic experience. It’s a place for people to talk, and a safe haven for people who don’t really get the time for expression. Even if you not expressing yourself, you getting your haircut and that’s a form of expression. The role it places in Black male culture specifically is pivotal.”
Conclusion
So it seems we’ve arrived at a hairy situation. As centuries of sorrow, shame and self-hate have placed us densely against the perdurable odds of a white power structure, hell-bent on denying, decrying the bountiful, blessings of Blackness. Are we not afraid to believe ourselves beautiful? To dare, to deem ourselves dark, and glance ourselves glamorous, not despite — nor in spite — but because of our deep-rooted divine right to do so? To know so.
Ion really know … though the apprehension which arises as eyes look in the mirror, mixed at loving what you see, seems to me to be a maniacal product of mass programming. But don’t worry … they got a product for that! They say, you too can be beautiful if you’re stocked full, got plentiful money and time, eternally assiduous in your efforts to fall aligned with the designated politics of desire.
So in the morning, we soon bolt, beyond the bloodshot eyes, bound to bathe in the waters of sink and shower. Gathered at this most ungodly hour are our most malicious thoughts. The I musts, I needs, I oughts to do this to my hair, my face, my teeth, my skin, my body, my mind, my soul so others will like me, look at me, love me. How do we reconcile the hours above, days behind and years unwinding down a path of pity, of powerlessness, of pain? Shall we refrain from refreshing these woes, these hurts, these split hairs that we wear? I fear any action otherwise would pale in comparison…
To liberate is to spiral out of control! New developments occur in utterly perplexing ways. Utterly perplexing waves which come crashing down, derailing the wretched detriments, the dualistic tendencies of terror. The many stages of progress exist in the precious parts braided and braved, this gelled-back journey in which our world reels whirled. In every instance, we stand, swirling, meandering in dialectical amalgamation from future to past. Always ebbing and flowing. But we been knowing this — as these curled truths unfurled long before… we were conditioned otherwise. It’s all been there. It’s all been hair.
MiC Columnist Karis Clark can be reached at kariscl@umich.edu.
MiC Senior Editor Udoka Nwansi can be reached at udoka@umich.edu
MiC Photographer Akash Dewan can be reached at abdewan@umich.edu.