Setting standards of conduct and appearance are very important for every person, particularly young black men, and black colleges have a special way of getting the job done. As members of a “dangerous” class, black men in America must be aware of the higher manhood, and a piece of that is looking the part. As I stated in my “She Hate Justin” post, I had an S-Curl in high school. For those who don’t know, an S-Curl is a “curly top,” a hair relaxer added to a traditional flat top haircut that results in the enlarging of the curls on the top of the head. The sides and the back of my head were shaved bald. I thought I was fresh. To that point in my high school life in Los Angeles, S-Curls were nearly mandatory if you wanted to be cool, and I never thought a thing about it. I was somewhat like “Detroit Red” from Malcolm X, lost in a myth. And I thought nothing of it when I flew down to Atlanta to begin my days at Morehouse.
My first week at Morehouse College was the single most influential time period in my life–bar none. One of the most important events of the week occurred on the second night, when the upperclassmen returned to campus and pulled all 900 freshmen out of their dorms in the middle of the night. We were all marched from our dorms to the middle of the campus quad, and summarily stuffed under a huge white picnic tent. There, the current Student Body President grabbed a microphone and yelled, “I heard some of y’all got some jheri curls!! No Morehouse Man will ever have a jheri curl!! Them shits is comin’ off tonight!!” And then all the seniors started looking frantically through the crowded tent for freshmen with jheri curls. Those of us without jheri curls howled in laughter as those with jheri curls were pulled up front and paraded around like helpless swine. Then the SBP screamed, “And don’t forget about the jheri curl’s dreaded cousin, the S-Curl!! No Morehouse Man will ever wear an S-Curl!! If you’ve got one, we’re cuttin’ it off tonight!!!” Then the upperclassmen started chanting, “Jheri curls, and show caps, Morehouse Men don’t look like that! Jheri curls, and shower caps, Morehouse Men don’t look like that!”
I thought, “Oh shit. They’re about to shave me bald!” So I ducked and hid among the masses, barely missing discovery by marauding upperclassmen. Lucky me, they didn’t discover my S-Curl that night. But they made their point. So I went back to my dorm and shaved my head bald. While I was cutting my hair, I was looking in the mirror, and I realized just how ridiculous I looked with an S-Curl, and how even little things like the texture of one’s hair can affect presentation, and, more importantly, self esteem.
Filed under: Uncategorized
