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BALD, BLACK AND POWERFUL: Ruth Sutoyé is amplifying the experiences of black women who shave their heads with her new exhibition

Life & Style: Black women have been shaving their hair for as long as we can remember. What inspired you want to launch the multidisciplinary Bald Black Girl(s) project now?

Ruth Sutoyé: I shaved my hair almost three years ago now and I’ve always had really, really long hair. I think it’s been a point of joy for my mum, so she really wasn’t impressed when I initially did it because I didn’t tell her, I just met up with her one day and I was bald. But I think the project kind of stemmed from when I think about the natural hair movement and when I think of [the] representation I’ve seen of bald black women, they’ve primarily been American black women or women across Africa...the context that I’m currently in is black British and I hadn’t seen work in the way that I wanted to do it currently in our context.

L&S: The black experience in America and the black experience in the UK are often conflated. Do you think that’s an issue that’s improving or getting worse?

RS: Both...I think through the rise of social media and I think also the rise of black Britons being really conscious about documenting our experiences, the conflation I feel is decreasing. But I think you also have to be active in wanting to seek another experience. I’m always saying that black people aren’t a monolith, even Black Britain, we’re not a monolith our stories aren’t the same. The bald black women involved in this project not all of their stories are the same, which was the point.

L&S: What motivated you to shave your hair off?

RS: That year was a good year but it was also a really difficult year, and I think, without wanting to be cliché, I wanted to let go of a lot of emotional trauma from that year and I’ve always had my hair and at the time I finally decided it was just like, OK cool, I’m ready to do this.

The day experience in itself...I couldn’t have been prepared for it.

Over the course of waiting, so many people were just asking: Are you sure? Is this what you really want to do? Who did you lose a bet to? Is your husband OK with this? Is your dad OK with this?

I even had one auntie come in when I got into the chair, my barber was blow drying out my afro and she came in and was literally shouting at me like, why are you doing this? Your hair is your glory as a woman.

REDEFINING BEAUTY: Ruth Sutoyé's exhibition challenges European standards

L&S: The barber shop is somewhere many black women who shave their heads, frequent, but their experiences in this male dominated space are often excluded from the narrative…

R&S: Yeah, and that was a point of wanting to do this project – bringing our narratives to the fore in a space that we also occupy.

My barber shop experience, at least for me, has been really...I’m still figuring that out because my original barber who I shaved my hair with there was just a lot of passa there in terms of harassment, him not understanding boundaries, me feeling really uncomfortable and that being kind of a repetitive thing and so I eventually left him.

Some of the women involved in the project haven’t experienced that but quite a lot of women have.

Some women felt they shouldn’t occupy a barber shop space because, you know, that’s a safe haven for black men so it’s my own fault for even being there in the first place and experiencing whatever I experience as a result. [I had] to be like, actually, no, you’re a customer who’s trying to get a service and that’s not OK.

L&S: What impact has this project had on you?

RS: I didn’t know there were so many bald black women in London [laughs].

STRIKING: One of the images which will be displayed at the Bald Black Girl(s) exhibition

I think the impact was like, yes, OK, there are so many other people like me and there are so many nuances in the stories that are being told. And I think this has been really overwhelming, I can’t even lie.

I did some audio interviews with the participants and just listening was just an honour to hear so many people’s different definitions of what it means to be feminine, to be masculine, how to navigate sexuality, how to still be considered soft with a bald head, how to be queer and not be stereotyped.

What do you hope the Bald Black Girl(s) project will do for black women whether they’re bald or not?

RS: There are many conversations to be had about hair. Not just the growing of it, there are nuanced conversations to be had about autonomy, because it’s not just about what we can wear. It’s not just about the way we wear our hair in having it, it’s also about not having it, and I think black women who’ve internalised European standards of beauty or the white gaze or the male gaze or even misogyny, it’s challenging that.

I think also knowing that we are the authors of our stories and if there’s something we want to investigate or document that we definitely can do that and there are resources to do that, there are people who will come on board just to support that idea.

L&S: For you personally, how does it feel to be a bald black woman in Britain today?

RS: It feels complicated. I think after this long now it feels really – liberating is the word but isn’t the word I want to use – liberating from like, I don’t have to pay mad money to get my hair done.

If I want to throw on a wig, cool, but I haven’t in a minute so I don’t foresee that happening.

I think being bald and black, I’m very conscious about people’s perceptions and projections of me and I think it’s taken my height of consciousness even further.

Black Bald Girl(s) runs at Unit 5 Gallery, Yorkton St, London, April 12 - 16. Visit www.baldblackgirls.com for more information.

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