I often get asked about my mohawk. Surprisingly, during the course of our two-plus year relationship, we’ve yet to solicit a single negative comment from a potential employer, nor have we lacked in male or female attention. I say “we” because, over the course of being natural (which, in my case, is

I often get asked about my mohawk. Surprisingly, during the course of our two-plus year relationship, we’ve yet to solicit a single negative comment from a potential employer, nor have we lacked in male or female attention. I say “we” because, over the course of being natural (which, in my case, is practically a lifetime), I’ve seen women feel more “oneness” with their hair than at any other time. I am no exception. Prior to the mohawk, I wore a TWA from the ages of 15-19. I then grew my hair out for the next four years, experimenting with everything from twists to bantu knots, although the shake n’ go ‘fro was my usual style of choice.

When my growing out phase concluded, I reverted back to the TWA for about two years before craving the next big change in my coily existence. Always known for my rather quirky and occasionally eccentric behavior, it wasn’t a shock to my friends that I was considering a mohawk during that period, despite having been newly hired in the corporate sector. Roughly two months after landing that job, I spotted a young woman with a similar hair type on the train, rocking the mohawk that I wanted. After the obligatory compliments, she gave me the information for her stylist, and the rest is history. Although my new bosses were shocked to see the new ‘do, no ill comments were ever spoken regarding my hair.

During my period of unemployment this year as a result of massive layoffs in my industry, I never once considered changing my hairstyle as a means to appear more “presentable” during interviews. My rationale was, if I didn’t get hired, I will have changed my hair for nothing. I’d then be left without a part of my current identity, and without a job to boot. Corporate America has taken enough away from us already – it doesn’t deserve everything. Now employed, partially as a result of self-employment, I often hear of women wondering if they should wear wigs to job interviews in an effort to mask their kinks from the scrutiny of hiring staff. Even with my hair in a more traditional natural style, I would never enact such behavior.

Having lived in both the North as well as the South, I’ve been privy to many different attitudes towards natural hair, and none have made me reverse my position. I personally believe that a lot of times when we don’t get hired for a desired position, we look for an issue that sets us apart from others, and then use that anomaly to rationalize why we were passed over in lieu of another applicant. For black women who wear their hair naturally or are considering going natural, as a result of latent insecurities and projection, hair often becomes the target as opposed to equally obvious features not shared by certain prospective candidates. In fact, natural hair may be the patsy in these cases because it’s more easily modified and because black women accept criticism of hair more easily than other attributes largely germane to our segment, such as skin tone, obesity, accent, and dialect. In my experiences, many black women appear eager to label their hair as the primary culprit before dissecting other characteristics about themselves, the company, or the interview process that could also have led to rejection, fairly or unfairly. Oddly enough, any criticism that has been directed at my natural hair has come from people of my own race.

In saying all of this, I am in no way suggesting that you run out and get a mohawk right before a recession-era interview with a Fortune 500 company (if the corporate lifestyle suits you, that is). What I am saying is, hair styles and the choice of being natural are probably great indicators of who you are as a person. My willingness to wear a mohawk to work probably means that I’m not cut out for a certain lifestyle in terms of employment. And if your employer truly has a problem with you being natural, you’re probably not cut out to work for a company run by an openly regressive bigot. Even in a recession, you can and will find better options than that.

Lauren gets her mohawk cut and reshaped once a month by Porsche at Ebony Design in Manhattan. 212-741-5050.

By: Lauren Cannon; Contributing writer for Brokelyn.com.