The Black boy conversation about hair is one that travels through self expression, vulnerability, and home grown culture. But this relationship is understood through the boundaries of stereotypes, toxic masculinity and cultural misunderstanding. Hair textures, patterns, and densities navigate the styles and looks that symbolizes years of culture. But throughout this beauty young boys are having conversations with themselves and others about the villainization of their hair.

Sealing his hair with a durag is enough for an immigrant mother to worry about looks and stare at her young boy. Braids that intertwine relationships with community members are argued about and debated in households. Neglecting his hair because of fear that hair care will make him feminine has him stealing products from his sisters.

The balancing act of knowing your place in this world, in your culture, and in your own skin will never end, and only grow in its complexity. The hope is that as we grow and learn to accept and love ourselves and our own self expression, we will negate all the voices that tell us who we are, and what our hair represents, especially to those who have never seen value in it. To teach ourselves that our self expression and creativity is more important than the thought of what others might think of us.

Our hair will always be a conversation, but let it be one that we come to take control of. - Layla Berih