Recently, antidote partnered with Afro Diva Salon to put on the Rock Your Fro Party. I’m glad to say it was super successful! The day went very smoothly and the workshop/discussion was well received. The discussion I found really interesting. Hearing other people’s stories and listening to what other people have gone through made me realize even more, that hey, hair is a big deal. Throughout the course of the discussion the term ‘good hair’ came up. Everyone was pretty much agreed that the term ‘good hair’ shouldn’t really be used. That it separated and created standards for what our hair should be. What does ‘good hair’ even mean? If there’s ‘good hair’ then that means someone has to have ‘bad hair,’ right? The term creates segregation that doesn’t need to be there.

The contrasts between everybody’s stories were really interesting to hear. The experiences everyone had with their hair were completely different. I remember one lady saying it would looked down on to wear her hair naturally when she was living in the Caribbean during the 60s, while another lady said it was a proud political statement when she was living in Montreal. We talked about how hair can make decisions for us about what we can and can’t do, depending on weather, activities and how it’ll effect our hair.

The Rock Your Fro Party was an open positive space for looking at hair. Everyone could get advice on their hair, share their stories and have a good time.