Social identities are important ways in which individuals and groups construct ideas of themselves and relationships with others. Recently, studies show that the component features of race, such as skin color, facial structure and hair texture, are important factors that differentiate how Black-identified people are perceived and evaluated by others. Yet identity-relevant features of race are rarely examined in adolescents’ own racial identity development. For Black women and girls in particular, hair and a sense of identity may be intertwined, yet almost no research has examined the role of hair in developing social identity.
Hair, both style and texture, is a component feature of race that is widely un(der)examined, yet may be uniquely relevant and salient in the identities of Black girls and women. In this way, hair may be conceptualized as a site where intersectionality is made visible and measurable in adolescent identity development. Our work, in collaboration with the D.I.C.E lab, examines whether, when, and how Black girls reference hair when discussing their racial and gender identities.