In this blog for Mental Health Awareness Week 2025, Claudette Maharaj, Director at TRIYBE, reflects on the complex relationship between Black hair and the mental well-being of those who wear it.
For Black heritage communities, one of the most deeply personal and politically charged aspects of identity is hair. Black hair is far more than a style statement – it is a living archive of identity, culture, and resilience. Every curl, kink, and coil tells a story.
Hair as history, hair as healing
Hair in black cultures has long been a symbol of community, pride, and resistance – from traditional African hairstyles signifying tribe and status to the 1960s “Black is Beautiful” movement that politicised natural hair as a form of self-acceptance and protest.
But navigating that legacy in a society shaped by Eurocentric beauty standards has often come at a cost. Many Black individuals grow up being told their natural texture is “unprofessional,” “messy,” or even “dirty.” These messages, whether in schools, workplaces, or media, are not simply about aesthetics; they’re about belonging, self-worth, and the pressure to conform.
The mental health toll
The emotional impact of these experiences is profound and often unspoken. Constant microaggressions about hair also contribute. From TRIYBES’ research and community dialogues, the mental health consequences of hair-based stigma and hair loss include:
- Internalised racism and negative self-image
- Anxiety and hypervigilance about how others perceive hair
- Chronic stress in academic or professional spaces
- Cultural disconnection and isolation
- Grief and depression from hair loss due to illness or stress
These issues are magnified when students or professionals are the only Black person in a space and when institutional support systems are culturally ill-equipped to respond. Research shows that Black women, in particular, often feel pressure to chemically straighten their hair to avoid discrimination – a process that can be both physically and psychologically damaging. Young Black children are disciplined in schools over hairstyles that are natural and culturally significant, teaching them early on that who they are is somehow “inappropriate.”
At TRIYBE, we’ve seen firsthand how hair-based discrimination and exclusion can feed into cycles of poor mental health, especially when left unacknowledged. At first glance, hair may appear to be a matter of personal style. But for those of African and Afro-Caribbean descent, it often holds profound cultural, emotional, and psychological significance.
Our work through the Black Heritage Hair Research Project (Project Natura), delivered in partnership with the British Science Association and University of Reading and funded by UKRI, has shown that the politics of Black hair is also a mental health issue – one that urgently needs recognition in academic, healthcare, and community spaces.
Hair, identity and the authentic self
In Black cultures, hair is often referred to as “the crown”. It’s how many express pride, creativity, spirituality, and connection to ancestry. Whether adorned in braids, twists, locs, fros, or silk presses, hair is both a personal and communal expression of identity. However, Black hair remains politicised. From childhood, many receive overt or subtle messages that their natural hair is “unruly,” “unprofessional,” or “distracting.” Schools and workplaces continue to impose Eurocentric standards that disproportionately penalise Black hairstyles. These experiences can deeply affect self-image and belonging.
While the stigma around wearing natural hair has long been documented, less visible is the emotional and psychological impact of losing one’s hair due to stress, trauma, or illness. For Black individuals, hair is often deeply intertwined with confidence and cultural continuity. When hair is lost, whether due to alopecia, chemotherapy, or stress-related shedding (telogen effluvium), the impact can be devastating. It is not merely cosmetic; it is a loss of self, of visibility, of expression.
As one participant shared during a TRIYBE lab workshop held at Reading University:
“When I lost my hair, I didn’t just lose strands … I lost a part of my identity. People stopped recognising me, but worse, I stopped recognising myself.”
This sense of disconnection can lead to depression, withdrawal, and a reluctance to seek help due to shame or feeling misunderstood in health and mental health settings.
Hair activism
The celebration of World Afro Day, founded by Michelle De Leon, marks a turning point in global recognition of hair-based discrimination and its emotional consequences. Supported by the United Nations, this day affirms the right to wear natural hair proudly, free from prejudice. At a policy level, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy has taken these concerns to UK Parliament, calling for legal protection against hair discrimination in schools and workplaces. Her advocacy builds on years of work by educators, campaigners, and communities fighting for equity in how Black people are seen and supported in society.
Voices from Reading
In partnership with the University of Reading, TRIYBE hosted a number of Black Heritage Hair research events, where students and the local community were invited to share their experiences navigating hair and identity in university life. What emerged were honest and powerful testimonies.
Many students expressed that they could not fully show up as their “authentic selves”:
“I feel like I have to shrink my hair to fit into white spaces. The bigger my hair, the more I feel I’m being judged.”
“Sometimes I question if I’m taken seriously when my hair is in an afro or braids. It shouldn’t be like that.”
Tyler, a community researcher at TRIYBE, shared during the research project:
“As a young Black heritage male, it’s become clear to me that the impact of hair-based experiences is particularly pronounced in spaces where Black heritage individuals are underrepresented, such as many UK universities and professional spaces. In these environments, both students and staff often feel isolated or misunderstood when it comes to their experiences with hair.”
These reflections illustrate how hair becomes a site of daily negotiation, especially in predominantly white institutions. Feeling the need to conform or hide one’s hair can lead to identity suppression, increased anxiety, and a diminished sense of belonging.
Black hair is about far more than aesthetics; it is about freedom, dignity, and belonging. To lose your hair, or to feel compelled to alter it for acceptance, is to carry an invisible burden that deserves both empathy and systemic change. This Mental Health Awareness Week, we must ask not only how to support individual wellbeing but also how to challenge the structures that compromise it. From parliament to campus, the movement is growing, and the voices are getting louder. Let us continue to listen.
“My hair is my crown. When I’m able to wear it freely, I feel whole. When I can’t, something in me goes silent.” – Claudette Maharaj Founder and Director at TRIYBE
This project is part of the Community Led Research Pilot, a programme that has been funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and co-created by the British Science Association (BSA), UKRI and the University of Reading.
Cover photo by Anthony McKissic on Unsplash.