The Pan-African Student Association held an art exhibition last Saturday featuring photographs of natural hair in Haven’s Lounge.
The event was one of three held as a part of the group’s Natural Hair Campaign Week, which took place from Nov. 7 to Nov. 12.
The students in these photographs treated their hair with only natural hair-care products, rather than convenience store shampoos and conditioners. Such natural hair products included shea butter and coconut oil, to name a few.
The exhibit was dedicated to the practice of maintaining natural hair rather than promoting a particular type of hair, and featured hair styles ranging from large afros to straight hair.
Many of the photographs featured profile views of UR students. Some students in the photos had the sides of their faces painted with simple, elegant line-work designs done in a variety of colors.
The exhibit displayed more than just photographs.
On one table, toward the center of Haven’s Lounge, was an assortment of head wraps, coming in all kinds of unique colors and patterns.
The head-wraps were another way of promoting the message of support for natural hair. Such head wraps are often used by people with long hair to keep their hair above their head while they sleep. Wearing a head wrap while sleeping provides both the benefit of protecting the health of one’s hair and also the benefit of preventing oils from one’s hair from seeping down to their face.
A few members of the Pan-African Student Association were in attendance.
“Natural hair has a bias against it,” sophomore and event organizer Bruno Sacatuca said.
Sacatuca said the exhibition was a way to “promote everything associated with natural hair” and to spread the message of “owning and feeling comfortable with your hairstyle.”
Sacatucua also mentioned that the exhibition, and the Natural Hair Week campaign, were in no way set up to antagonize hair styled with non-natural hair products.
Rather, he said, the motive for the campaign was to shine a spotlight on those who are limited in their options of styling their hair (due to the type of hair they have) for the efforts they’ve made in proudly displaying their natural hair styles.
“Be confident about your hair, no matter what it is,” Sacatuca said. “Diversity creates beauty.”
