Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown

Black Girl Miracle
Nov 4, 2022
2 min read

Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown is a photo series exploring the weight and meaning of Black hair in a world where it remains deeply politicized.

For Black women and girls, hair is rarely just hair. It holds memory, shapes identity, and often carries meanings far beyond personal expression. It can be a source of joy and cultural pride—and also the site of scrutiny, policing, and exclusion.

Michelle Akomea, photographed by Chineze Okpalaoka

This body of work considers both the beauty and burden carried in our hair rituals: the time, cost, discipline, creativity, and negotiation often required simply to exist in spaces not built with us in mind.

In her essay, Shedding the Shame of a Black Girl's Broken Edges, Dara Mathis writes that "Black girls are trained early in beauty salons to smell smoke on themselves but to never yell 'fire.'" By disrupting the shame many Black women and girls have often carried for their crowns, this project also addresses the privilege of cultural appropriation—which is to say, that many who covet and attempt to impersonate Black hair and Black culture would never embrace the totality of our experiences.

Jennifer Prempeh, photographed by Chineze Okpalaoka

“Black girls are trained early in beauty salons to smell smoke on themselves but to never yell ‘fire.’”

— Dara Mathis, Shedding the Shame of a Black Girl’s Broken Edges

At once celebratory and interrogative, Heavy is the Head honors the cultural, personal, and generational significance of Black hair while asking what it costs to carry beauty under pressure.