00:00For whatever reason, there's just a bit more attention on us in the workforce when it comes
00:05to our hairstyles and fashion choices. Recently, there have been a lot of headlines where women
00:09with natural hairstyles, or no hair, have been fired or asked outright to change their
00:14hair for work, school, even in the military as well. So, let's go there. Twist-outs, locks,
00:19throws, thoughts. Does it have a place in the workplace?
00:23Yes. I think that it's very different now than it was a few years ago. So, part of the
00:29story I always tell about why I decided to go natural and then I went back to getting
00:33my hair relaxed was because I graduated from school, I didn't have a job, and I thought
00:37that with my natural hair, that no one would hire me. So, I got a relaxer, regretted it,
00:42like six weeks later decided to go natural all over again.
00:44But why did you think that though? Is that something like you were taught?
00:47It's not something that I was taught, it's something that I saw, right? So, my mom, you
00:51know, growing up, she always worked for law firms. She had a relaxer. Everyone in my family
00:55who worked in an office had a relaxer. It's, you know, the composed, you know, ponytails
01:02or the straight hair, like, they don't, they never wore their hair curly because it just
01:07wasn't accepted. And they had so many other barriers that were keeping them, I think, from
01:13being taken seriously. They didn't want their hair to be another obstacle, yes. But now we're
01:17in the day and age when, you know, natural hair is so much more prevalent. So, I think that
01:22there's a lot more acceptance, but there's still kind of a long way to go, I think, for
01:26certain work atmospheres.
01:28For certain atmospheres, fair enough.
01:29I've had every hairstyle you could think of. So, I was with Associated Press for 10 years,
01:33and I was at E! and NBC for four years, and I do mostly for the Insider and CVS. And, first
01:38of all, when you're on air, your hair is an expression of self, especially in entertainment
01:41space. So, like, right now I have a weave because every day people would blow dry my hair.
01:46I was getting burnt out. So, I was like, put the weave in. But some days I wear it natural.
01:49Just, you know, in my business, you want to keep your hair. You try to keep it this
01:52same. You're calling hard. But then sometimes you just want to have fun. And there is a
01:55place for it. I can name so many women of color on TV right now that have natural hairstyles,
02:00have short hair, long hair, weaves. Now it's part of fashion. And guess what? White folks
02:04are doing it now, too.
02:05No, listen.
02:06I don't care. I don't care. I think, of course, nobody should care. It should be what's in here
02:14instead of what's out here. It just doesn't make any sense. So, I mean, and I work at a place
02:20where self-expression is literally just that. You will self-express all the way down to your
02:26feet. And that's what I do. It's what I want to wear. I wear a pant. Well, I wear spandex
02:31and shirts every day. So, and if there is a place where I don't feel comfortable wearing
02:37that, then sometimes I won't go.
02:39We're all in creative industries and we all work for ourselves. But if you're in a really
02:43corporate structure, no, you signed that contract. You got to play by the rules.
02:47I think it's unfortunate that we can't tell our own narrative through, like, how we dress,
02:53how we wear our hair. Like, for so long we've been put in this box to kind of look this way
02:57and be this way over the angry black girl or the, you know, the propitious one. You know
03:01what I mean? Like, I think, like, to Christina's point, like, it's 2016, so we're evolving a
03:05little bit. But to Alicia's point, we still have certain industries who haven't caught up.
03:10What up?
