Dunno what I'm on about. I’ll show you. What do these
beautiful Brazilian passistas have in common?
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| Lovely, lovely passistas (blackwomenofbrazil.com) |
They’re all wearing itsy bitsy shiny bikinis, have the same
megawatt smiles, but hang on one cotton picking minute! You there! I say, Miss
Blue there’s something different about you! Its....its.....Bingo! It’s the hair. You‘re not sporting the same luscious hair as the others.
For many passistas ‘Megahair': long, flowing, ultra feminine hair, usually loosely curled, is part of the look and hair flicking, a compulsory part of any self respecting
mulata’s choreography. You don’t often see passistas sporting natural afro’s like
Clara Paixao, who I featured last month in Carnaval carry on. Those
who don’t naturally possess Megahair, fake it, turning to
Brazilian blow outs, weaves, wigs, extensions and straighteners, and then, there’s
the phony pony.
Being the centre of the samba world, Brazil dictates samba
fashion. So if the samba gods decree female dancers be decked with flowing
manes of hair, then so it shall be, and most female dancers obey this command. But
not I.
When I dance, I never straighten my hair or never wear it out.
I have my natural hair in protective styles like twists, tied back or
pinned out of the way (like below mini twists, pinned back), and here’s why.
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| Me at Coburg Samba Festival 2012, Germany (Noriega Photographics) |
1. It’s easy ‘n’ fuss free...ish.
2. When you samba you sweat! You could be wearing a samba bikini outdoors in 7˚C London (yes I’ve done that before), and after a couple of minutes you're perspiring in places you never knew had sweat glands. Think about that next time you want to hug up close to a passista 'n' get your picture, mwhaha! Freshly straightened hair wouldn’t stand a chance, sweating out sooner than you can say ‘afro’.
3. Samba dancers wear elaborate headdresses that are secured tightly onto our heads. They might look stunning, but after a while your skull feels like it’s being crushed and your hair’s the only thing providing any cushioning. Us passista’s have to suffer a little for our art!
Smooched, sweaty hair after a performance is never a good look. Certain styles would be completely ruined, so I keep it simple. Leaving my hair free flowing would be an open invite to have my curly kinks caught in my headdress, at which point me and Mr Scissors become bosom buddies. It’s annoying but I do have to plan what my hair’s doing at least a few days before I have a show.
My bra strap length hair skrinks up nice and cotton candy like at the first hint of moisture, so in order to achieve the ‘Megahair’ look I’d have to fake it. The phony pony, a clip on ponytail, is a popular choice for many of my samba sisters here in London (if they don't already have long, flowy hair) and it would probably be the most likely option for me, but alas, I don't intend on buying one anytime soon.
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| Pretty perfect pony |
As beautiful as my friends look with their swishy hair, I don’t want to hinge my confidence on an item of clothing or hair accessory. Having longer, straighter flowy hair won’t make me a better performer, it might give me a confidence boost but then it’s just soothing an insecurity and not fixing the real issue. I know it’s all in my mind anyway and I want to be able to build my own confidence without a material thing propping it up. It’s why, for instance, I really dislike wearing thickly padded bras or why I don’t regularly wear must make up - but that’s for a whole other post.
Don’t get me wrong I'm hardly the world’s most confident person, but one thing I realised early on, is that it’s easy to have lots of crutches keeping you upright but too many will stop you from moving at all.
Does this stop me gazing at pictures of my lovely swishy haired friends, all tumbling tresses (real or no real) framing their radiant smiles and spangly bikini clad selves? Heck no! But, it is what it is. My natural hair's not getting blowdried to death, chemically fried or added to with anyone elses ‘hair’ just so it can fit in. It’s quite happy being pinned back and protected in all it’s tight curly wurly glory!
Kanika x
Love this post kanika :))) your hair is beautiful :) wear it proud
ReplyDeleteThank you lovely X
DeleteHi Kanika,
ReplyDeleteI find this really interesting. I'm a "retired" passista (lol) but when I was one I felt it the norm to stick a luscious pony tail in my lack-luster natural hair. I did this though because it felt like I was fulfilling the 'passista' package like you say. What I want to question (and this is not a personal attack, I'm just curious) is when you say "As beautiful as my friends look with their swishy hair, I don’t want to hinge my confidence on an item of clothing or hair accessory. Having longer, straighter flowy hair won’t make me a better performer, it might give me a confidence boost but then it’s just soothing an insecurity and not fixing the real issue. I know it’s all in my mind anyway and I want to be able to build my own confidence without a material thing propping it up. "but isn't the whole performance side of sambe to some degree lent itself to the "material", I.e. if you feel so strongly about the impracticalities of long fake hair, what about the impracticalities of the shoulder ornaments with sticky-out-wires, beaded thong chafing or the gigantor -healed passista sandlasl? I guess, my question is- why is it just this aspect of the archetypal mulata that you choose not to follow and not others also?
Not meant to be attacking your opinion-just interesting to hear your viewpoint!
Payanita x
Hi Payanita, once a passista, always a passista! Thanks for the comment.
DeleteIt's a good question, I mean I'll happily wear uncomfortable, ridiculous costumes for a show but not hair extensions, why?
I guess I focused on hair because it became apparent quite early on that what I do with my hair is quite different from what my friends do. Being a samba dancer makes you confront your body image and I feel that there’s an expectation the more professional you are, the more you look like the archetypal mulata.
The passista's in my samba school are of all shapes, sizes, ages and ethnicities. But the one thing that unifies us is hair. Even with our differences, most of us adhere to this unspoken rule that passista hair = ‘feminine’, loose and lots of it, whether that be with a bit of help or in the style we wear it. And that’s what I was questioning. Why with our difference hair types and lengths is ‘Megahair’ the ideal? But then that isn’t unique to samba, it’s something that could be applied to body idealism as a whole.
I see hair as different from costumes or shoes. Maybe because there’s more choice in what you wear to perform, but hair wise it seems more rigid.
A comment on Facebook pointed out that when we perform we create a persona of which hair is a part of. I’m not criticizing anyone’s choice to play with a stage persona, enhance their appearance or suggesting that they’re insecure if they choose too. I do it myself, I wear makeup, false lashes etc, and have fun with it. But when it comes to my hair it’s something that I'm not willing to change. Growing up with insecurities about my hair that I’m still trying to address, I don’t like feeling that I have to do something specific with it to fit into someone else’s ideal. Having longer straighter hair might make me feel more like a stereotypical mulata, but for me, I know it would just a temporary fix. I want to be a better dancer and I know I can be, but it will be down to my confidence and my ability, not relying on anything else.
Ultimately then it's quite a personal issue for me. But the more I've looked at it the more I see the uniformity in hair, so it makes think that there must be something in it.
Sorry of the essay, hope that explained my point of view more x
I really enjoyed reading this :) Keep them coming gurlies!
ReplyDelete