The Salooni Project: Black women’s hair through the past and into the present and future

Hair is political. Black women’s hair, especially, is political. The Salooni Project, a series of photographs representing different hairstyles through the past, present and future, takes this as its premise. Established by four close friends – Kampire Bahana, Darlyne Komukama, Aida Nambi and Gloria Wavamunno – the project was first presented as a hairdresser’s salon art installation at the La Ba festival in Kampala.

Mindful of all the ways in which black women’s hair has been politicised, the project began with the call that went out for this year’s Chale Wote Street Art Festival 2016 in Jamestown, Ghana, themed Spirit Robot. In the call that was put out for artists to participate, Spirit Robot was described as ‘a sacred current that decodes worldly systems of racism, capitalism, alienation and subjection’. The festival wants to construct a present where the mechanical constraints (robot) that people of African descent deal with every day are reclaimed and intentionally coded through a collective creative process (spirit).

When Kampire saw the call, she wanted to be a part of it. “I immediately began thinking about black women’s hair practices and the way in which they have been passed on from generation to generation – despite the disruptions of slavery, colonialism, capitalism – as ways of being and survival for black women,” she says.

Through conversations with friends Aida, Darlyne and Gloria, the Salooni Project took shape. Even among the four of them, Darlyne recalls, there was joy in sharing and surprise at the similarity of experiences, even though they grew up in different spaces. From their intimate circle, where they shared laughter and tears over hair, they finally figured out how to share their experiences with other women. They would recapture this past and use the lessons and strategies that had been passed down to them to imagine a new future.

Darlyne wears her hair in locs; she has had them for almost seven years now. Is this political, I ask her. “I guess my philosophy on hair is the same for all life, people should be allowed to do what they want.” She believes that there should be no comments, no questions. Everyone should be allowed to just be. It is a matter of choice and it is their hair.

Aida, on the other hand, has rocked a bald hairstyle for a while. In her Salooni photographs she maintains the short hair. In the ‘present’, however, she sports a taper fade haircut with cut lines as design.

As black women, choice isn’t always an option for our hair. We wear it down because the afro is ‘not official enough’ for the office and we pull and stretch it to obey different commands and fit into an array of boxes. We subject it to heat, and we keep it in weaves.

Lessons in survival

However, the Salooni Project reminds us that all these are ways in which we survive. Sisterhood and support are pictured in images from the past of women sitting around, combing each other’s hair. “Our mothers taught us which styles worked when, as their mothers before had done. So, for instance, we know if you braid it the night before, it is easier to comb in the morning.” These were lessons and guides on how to survive the world, in black women’s hairstyles.

But they also passed down some of the subjugation. Kampire says she also recalled “aunties who taught me that my natural hair was ugly or unacceptable or had to be hidden”. These are not attitudes they want to pass on into the idyllic future where black girls grow up to do what they want with their hair, no comments, no questions, no repercussions.

The Salooni installation at La Ba festival in Kampala was mindful of this in the present as well. As different women sat in the chair and let others play with their hair, the usual salon commentary was deliberately positive and reaffirming. You were not told what you were doing wrong with your hair, or heard – yet again – about the problem with the texture of your hair. It was a really loving experience.

Doing the research

When asked about the kind of research that went into the Salooni Project, the women say they read many black beauty blogs, looked through the work of many black photographers and watched hair tutorial videos. They mention names like Malick Sidibe, Seydou Keita and JD Okhai Ojeikere. Naturally, a host of actual hair salons served as inspiration. They also consulted Esi Sagay’s book African Hairstyles: Styles Of Yesterday And Today.

There is not nearly enough scholarship, or art installations, that centre African hair in the story of the world. The Salooni Project is important in that respect, but also because even when black women’s clothes change, their hairstyles remain largely the same. It reminds us of the strength and resilience of our spirit from the past that keeps us sane in our present and which we will (hopefully) carry into the future.

This article is brought to you courtesy of the Black Feminisms Forum. The Black Feminisms Forum will be held on 5 and 6 September 2016 in Salvador, Bahia, ahead of the 2016 AWID Forum. Check here for updates, information and activities of the BFF.