Rural Realities

Author: Crystal Belle

The typical prospective college student worries about future courses, making new friends, fitting into the social scene and hooking up. However, the typical black woman coming to a school like Middlebury College, worries particularly about one thing: getting her hair done!
I will never forget the day I visited Middlebury, observing the town, which was no bigger than one New York City block. My first thoughts were, "Wow! Where and how will I ever get my hair done?!" This was a scary thought for me, as I often frequent New York City beauty salons in Brooklyn, Harlem and even the Bronx. In many New York communities, one is guaranteed to find hair salons packed with women of color of all ages at any given time on any given day. So here I was in Vermont, with the lovely O'Brien's as my sole option.
As I complained to my mother on the telephone about this calamity, she assured me that there had to be other black women on campus who did each other's hair in order to survive. Taking my mother's word, I searched the campus for a black woman, finally encountering one on my way into The Grille. Luckily, her hair was well coiffed, and seeing her actually made me feel at home and relieved. I kindly spoke to her about Middlebury, finally asking the question of the day: "Who does your hair?" She smiled with a look of total understanding and told me that although she did her own hair, many black women on campus wore their hair in braids due to the lack of "black hair" specialists in Vermont.
The only thing left for me to do was frown, as I had no intention of braiding my hair. Do you understand how difficult it is to sit in a chair for over five hours? Yes, that is what a black woman goes through while struggling to keep her hair intact in the middle of nowhere.
Living in Battell my freshman year did not help much as I was the only black girl on my hall. Every weekend I would spend hours in the bathroom attempting to get my hair "just right" like the way the Dominicans did it back home in the over-crowded, low-priced hair salons. As usual, someone would walk in and say "Crystal, how come it takes so long to do your hair?" I would endeavor to explain - in vain - as other women did not realize the weekly strife black women face here at Middlebury with their hair.
No, many of us do not wash our hair daily as a result of chemical relaxers. And no, we do not relax our hair because we do not love the natural texture of our hair. Instead of judging or assuming, simply ask us, while keeping in mind that it is a touchy subject. With that said, I sit here in my room, with a head full of braids which I got done at an African hair salon in Harlem.