Hair Identity
Hair is never just hair.
Hair Identity explores the cultural and personal significance of hair in the lives of Black women. Hair can be a source of beauty, pride, creativity, culture, and self-expression, while also being subjected to judgment, expectations, and ideas about what is considered acceptable or desirable.
The installation features ten charcoal and chalk drawings of women's hairstyles, viewed entirely from the back and created on 12 × 24-inch birch plywood panels. By removing faces and skin tone, each work asks the viewer to focus solely on the hair, its texture, shape, style, and individuality.
That absence is intentional. Without other identifying features, the work asks us to consider the assumptions we make based on hair alone. What do we think we know about someone because of her hair? Where did those ideas come from?
Hair Identity challenges labels such as “good hair” and “bad hair” and examines the ways beauty standards can influence how Black women are seen and how they learn to see themselves.
Part of The Colorism Project, the installation expands the conversation beyond skin tone to consider how hair, beauty, identity, and representation are deeply connected.
Hair Identity #2 - Charcoal and chalk drawings on 12 x 24-inch wooden panels. 2016 – 2018.
Hair Identity #8 - Charcoal and chalk drawings on 12 x 24-inch wooden panels. 2016 – 2018.
Hair Identity #5 - Charcoal and chalk drawings on 12 x 24-inch wooden panels. 2016 – 2018.
Hair Identity #1 - Charcoal and chalk drawings on 12 x 24-inch wooden panels. 2016 – 2018.
Hair Identity #9 - Charcoal and chalk drawings on 12 x 24-inch wooden panels. 2016 – 2018.
Hair Identity #3 - Charcoal and chalk drawings on 12 x 24-inch wooden panels. 2016 – 2018.
Hair Identity #6 - Charcoal and chalk drawings on 12 x 24-inch wooden panels. 2016 – 2018.
Hair Identity #10 - Charcoal and chalk drawings on 12 x 24-inch wooden panels. 2016 – 2018.
Hair Identity #4 - Charcoal and chalk drawings on 12 x 24-inch wooden panels. 2016 – 2018.
Hair Identity #7 - Charcoal and chalk drawings on 12 x 24-inch wooden panels. 2016 – 2018.