Can I wear a headwrap to work? That was the question I asked myself back in the fall of 2017. I have always had a love/hate relationship with my hair. But the relationship had an additional stressor, corporate America’s “unspoken” standards regarding hair and professional attire. Women in general struggle with their physical image in the corporate world but there is an added pressure on Black women in particular when it comes to hairstyles. If you ask any Black woman working in corporate America, if she has ever looked in the mirror and asked herself “Can I wear this hairstyle to work”, I am sure the answer would be yes.

I looked in the mirror and asked myself, “Is the headwrap appropriate for the workplace?”, “Is the headwrap too casual?”. As with many Black women, I consider my hairstyle choice more so than my outfit. People will notice my headwrap before my outfit. I can wear a designer suit but my headwrap can be deemed “inappropriate”, “against company policy”, or even “offensive.” But who sets these standards ...