Tamron Hall is like many Black women who feel the need to manipulate her hair texture to appear “appropriate” and “professional” in the workplace. Up until recently, most didn’t even know that the MSNBC correspondent was a natural girl, but it looks like she’s ready to share her natural hair story with the world. The 20-year industry vet recently shared her story with natural hair blogger Curly Nikki during a trip to South Africa.
“Like many Black women on television, straight hair has been her professional life and look… that was until our trip together to South Africa,” Nikki writes. “After hearing about my hair story and experiencing for herself, the positive and supportive natural hair community, she felt inspired to finally share her curly story with the world.”
“In a moment of pure honesty, she also shared that she sometimes felt a bit of resentment at her White colleagues who could wake up in the morning and come right in to work, entirely ‘appropriate’ or ‘professional’, but that she’d have to spend hours- that she could’ve spent resting or preparing- manipulating her hair to meet the straight hair standard of beauty,” she continued. “Sound familiar any one?”
“Tamron has been natural for a while but most folks wouldn’t know. Until this post, only close family and friends have witnessed the awesomeness that is her curly hair. She shared that most vacations end with her having to wear her natural hair and that when she returns from vacation, she has to take an extra vacation day to get her hair straightened for work. As we all know, straight hair is also beautiful and the limited use of heat-treated styles does not necessarily prevent us from having healthy natural hair. However, I suggested to her that the NEED to straighten one’s hair for personal or professional reasons can sometimes become a ‘quality of life’ issue. Tam’s response…‘I totally agree, and hope that being honest about my story helps other textured women struggling with this issue to try going natural either full or part time.‘”
Since her revelation, Tamron has received an outpouring of support from the natural hair community.
