Title

The Seal

Creator

Feyi Obiri

Preview

Creation Date

2022

Description

This is a digital drawing I created using the Procreate app. Inspiration comes from my personal experience. It depicts a Black girl getting her freshly made braids sealed with a hot water bath by grabbing the braids and placing them in the bowl. Her face is in a grimace from the rough handling.

Getting my hair done has never been a particularly pleasant experience for me, but it is a core part of my childhood. Hair has always been a big part of my life and is an important topic in the Black community. Growing up in a predominantly white city, my hair was one of the biggest things that set me apart. I used to not like how different my hair was from my classmates’. I’d get asked questions about it, people would touch my hair, and I was generally uncomfortable with the constant attention it brought me. On top of all of this, getting my hair done was a painful experience. I hated the sectioning, the brushing, and all the time it took to do it. Even with all the perceived negative consequences, I felt my hair “brought” me, I always loved how it looked at the end. My hair was something that I love. A lot of Black people, especially young girls, grow up believing that their hair isn’t “good”. In my art, I’d like to portray the not-so-positive way I felt about my hair, but I also wanted to show the inherent beauty that it has as well.