Your Hair, your Protest. Celebrating International Womens Day
Hair has always been political.
Across every era and every culture, the way women wore their hair was never just aesthetic. It was a declaration. A defiance. A deeply personal act of power — and sometimes, the most radical thing a woman could do.
On International Women's Day, we pay homage to that power — to the women who wore their hair as armour, as protest, as joy, and as identity. To every act of defiance, large and small, that has fought against injustice for all women, across all time.
"To change your hair was to change your story — and sometimes, to change the world."
— A thread through all of women's history
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Chapter I — Ancient Egypt: Crown of the divine
In ancient Egypt, hair was not simply worn — it was encoded with meaning. Elaborate wigs, braids threaded with gold, shaved heads adorned with headdresses: each choice signaled status, divinity, and belonging. Egyptian women were among the first recorded users of hair oils, crafting blends of castor and moringa to protect their hair in the desert heat. To care for one's hair was to honour one's body as sacred. That idea never really left us.
Chapter II — The 1960s: The Afro as manifesto
When Black women began wearing their natural hair in the 1960s, it was an act of profound cultural reclamation. The Afro became the most visible symbol of the Black Power movement — a deliberate refusal of the straightening irons and chemical relaxers that decades of assimilation pressure had made feel compulsory. Angela Davis, Kathleen Cleaver, and countless unnamed women wore their crowns loudly. Their hair said: we are not asking for your approval. It said: this is who we are, and we are beautiful.
Chapter III — Sinéad O'Connor, 1990: The shaved head as refusal
When Sinéad O'Connor shaved her head, the music industry told her she'd made a mistake. Record executives asked her to grow it back. She refused. In a world that demanded women be palatable, decorative, and agreeable, her bare scalp was an act of profound non-compliance. It said: I am not here to be looked at on your terms. It said: my appearance belongs to me. The backlash she received only proved how threatening that idea was — and still is.
Chapter IV — Iran, 2022: Hair as the frontline
In September 2022, Iranian women cut their hair in the streets and held it up to cameras. They burned their hijabs in public squares. The act was simple, wordless, and devastating in its clarity. Hair became the frontline of a revolution — not for the first time, but with an urgency felt around the world. "Woman, Life, Freedom." Three words. One of them written in a single strand.
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Moments Worth Celebrating
3000 BCE — Ancient Egypt. Women weave gold thread into braids and craft hair oils from castor and moringa. To care for one's hair was considered sacred — among the earliest acts of beauty as devotion.
1644 — Qing Dynasty, China. The ruling dynasty mandates hairstyle as a mark of submission. For women across China, controlling hair becomes an instrument of social and political order for centuries that follow.
1790s — Revolutionary France. The towering wigs of aristocratic women become symbols of excess. Their fall from fashion marks not just a shift in style — but a redefinition of power itself.
1920 — The bob cut sweeps the West. Women chopping their hair was seen as a direct challenge to Victorian femininity and male authority. Some employers fired women for it.
1960s — The Afro as manifesto. Black women wearing their natural hair become a symbol of cultural reclamation and resistance — a deliberate refusal of decades of assimilation pressure.
1968 — Tommie Smith raises a fist at the Olympics. In the stands, Black women watching wore their naturals as quiet solidarity.
1970s–80s — Punk tears through Britain. For young women, a mohawk or shaved head was a full-body refusal of the role society had assigned them.
1990 — Sinéad O'Connor shaves her head. Record executives ask her to grow it back. She refuses. Her bare scalp becomes one of the most defiant acts in popular culture.
1994 — South Africa repeals discriminatory dress codes. For Black South African women, natural hair in the workplace became a daily act of reclamation.
2019 — The CROWN Act passes in California. The first US law to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on natural hair texture and style.
2022 — Iranian women cut their hair in protest. The images circled the globe within hours.
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Your hair is yours. It always has been.
We make products for every woman who has ever stood in front of a mirror and made a choice — to protect, to transform, to celebrate, or simply to feel like herself. Today, we honour that.
