Quarantine Freed Me From a Lifelong Struggle With the Idea of ‘Bad Hair’

The pressure to tame, slick, or clip my ‘pelo malo’ into submission has been eliminated

My hair has begun to spiral. Black wires sprout and shift from all angles, like shaded vines in search of the sun. It has been two months since my last haircut. As we all have experienced, the coronavirus pandemic has shuttered the barbershops, offices, schools, and restaurants. My clippers lie fallow. My calendar is clear of social obligations that require “getting fresh.” Simply put, I’m wolfin’. Under quarantine, the pressure to tame, slick, or clip my curls into submission has been all but eliminated. While stay-at-home orders have felt for some like a loss of freedom, for me it’s been liberating: I’m once and for all freed from the archaic concept of pelo malo.

In 2020, I am a 31-year-old man reestablishing a healthy relationship with my hair and identity.

Pelo malo, or “bad hair,” is another concept in Latinx culture, like colorism, that insidiously elevates European standards of beauty over African ones. Pelo bueno is silky, soft, straight, or wavy; whether on a man or woman, it’s easily manageable and lends itself to a variety of styles. Pelo malo is hair that needs to be tamed. It is coarser, thicker, and curlier. It…