Aria |
Aria Eghbal, 19, Persian
Born in D.C. Lives in Maryland 17 April 2016 |
Harmony Jackson: What does the term, Natural Hair, mean to you?
Aria Eghbal: Natural hair doesn’t have to mean pure, it means that your body produced it and it comes from yourself. You can do things to it, and it can still be natural.
Aria Eghbal: Natural hair doesn’t have to mean pure, it means that your body produced it and it comes from yourself. You can do things to it, and it can still be natural.
HJ: Has there ever been negative commentary about your hair?
AE: "Regarding facial hair, when I was a lot younger, someone pointed out that I had a 'mustache,' which kind of impacted my self-image. If I ever came to school with straight hair, people would say, 'You look so good with straight hair!' and I would think, 'What does that mean? Do I not look good with curly hair?'"
HJ: If you had to give advice to a person of color struggling with their natural features what would it be?
AE: I don’t want to push someone to be comfortable with themselves, because it’s a process. I would want to foster a place of acceptance, and that it’s okay to look however you want to look. Even if you don’t want what your body naturally produces. Your relationship with your body is complex and that’s okay. Body positivity can be neutral.
AE: "Regarding facial hair, when I was a lot younger, someone pointed out that I had a 'mustache,' which kind of impacted my self-image. If I ever came to school with straight hair, people would say, 'You look so good with straight hair!' and I would think, 'What does that mean? Do I not look good with curly hair?'"
HJ: If you had to give advice to a person of color struggling with their natural features what would it be?
AE: I don’t want to push someone to be comfortable with themselves, because it’s a process. I would want to foster a place of acceptance, and that it’s okay to look however you want to look. Even if you don’t want what your body naturally produces. Your relationship with your body is complex and that’s okay. Body positivity can be neutral.
HJ: People of color in the media and the affects on their hair acceptance.
AE: It goes back so far that it’s hard to unpack. It shows up in communities of color in general. South Asian communities have this problem as well. People use skin whitening creams to look whiter. It is hard to find makeup, because every person has a different skin color and the limited amount that’s available makes it seem like if you can’t fit into those then you don’t fit in.
AE: It goes back so far that it’s hard to unpack. It shows up in communities of color in general. South Asian communities have this problem as well. People use skin whitening creams to look whiter. It is hard to find makeup, because every person has a different skin color and the limited amount that’s available makes it seem like if you can’t fit into those then you don’t fit in.
HJ: What are your thoughts about colorblindness In America, and how our natural features can be ignored on POC until, those features are appropriated onto white bodies?
AE: I think it points to a deeper problem because it sort of says “oh, I don’t see you as your ethnicity or nationality, therefore I put you at the same white standards. For example, “your blank for a blank person”. It’s saying you’re not allowed to be different and white is the only thing you’re supposed to be.
AE: I think it points to a deeper problem because it sort of says “oh, I don’t see you as your ethnicity or nationality, therefore I put you at the same white standards. For example, “your blank for a blank person”. It’s saying you’re not allowed to be different and white is the only thing you’re supposed to be.
Photographer: Harmony Jackson
Interviewer: Harmony Jackson
Interviewer: Harmony Jackson