The Black Hair Movement

Hair has historically been a crucial part of a Black Woman’s identity. Hair has always been the chosen medium to “display culture, beauty and spirituality” (Chapman, 2007). This pride was no more identifiable than in the 1960’s and 1970’s during a new movement Black hair movement. Black Women began wearing their hair in its natural state as a symbol of “political change, Black self-love, intellectual historical knowledge, and Black Power” (Johnson, Bankhead, 2013). “Natural hair” for the purposes of this research is defined as hair free of any chemical straightener or heat (Johnson, Bankhead, 2013). The importance of hair has not changed, however, today the desire to wear their hair in its natural state is growing among African American; not
Black women are using SNSs as a platform to connect with likeminded peers on a global scale. Social media users are connected bi-directionally by viewing each other’s profiles and posts (Vitak et al., 2011). This means information can be shared and responded to directly, creating greater user interaction unlike traditional media. African American women are a prevalent population online. Maxwell (2016) found that African American women were more likely to use Social Networking Sites (SNSs) than their male counterpart. She found, by conducting an online survey, that they represent 53.6% of active Facebook users, 58.2% of active Twitter users, and 66.7% of active Instagram users (Maxwell, 2016). Many studies have discussed the use of social media by African American women, however the methodology usually surrounds surveying the women, rather than analyzing the content. Specific platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, remedy the problem by offering the ability to trace the content being
A Hashtag is “any word(s) preceded by a hash sign ‘#’ are used in Twitter to note a subject, event, or association. Hashtags are an integral part of Twitter’s ability to link the conversations of strangers together. (n.p.)” (Seward,2013). Hashtags allow users to create their own tag to communicate and search specific information in specific communities, or on specific topics.
Four years after Twitter, Instagram was launched in October 2010. It has become a leading photo-sharing and popular SNS. Similar to twitter, the Hashtag is an important function on Instagram, which allows users to provide photo description, link users with similar interest, and overall help in photo classification and expressing feelings (Hu et al., 2014).
Previous studies have uses hashtags to analyze the existence of specific communities on social media, however, little to no research has been done with the purpose of looking at African American women. Studies have yet to examine the self- presentation of African American on SNSs. There is also a deficit in the information on the Instagram hashtag. It is possible the previously reviewed studies on social media use and young adult women captured the experiences of Black women; however, they fail to looked at the actual content and interactions on a specific