Day 6 Reflections - Barbara Thompaon

Howdy everyone! Ok, I’ve been asked if I could follow-up with any other experiences tied back to my hair and elaborate on my hair’s attention grabbing status. So, let me paint a picture for all of you who asked. I’m an African American female with mid shoulder length “locs” also known as “dreads” or “dreadlocks”. Under normal circumstances I believe my ethnicity would grab a few looks but it really is my hair that people want to touch and talk about.

Our group attended a Chinese Acrobat performance where for the sixth or seventh time I heard similar verbal references to my hair but this time it was coupled with hand gestures that made it easier for me to understand that the topic of discussion was indeed my “mane”. The women that sat in the two rows behind me were ecstatic that I 1) understood there interest to engage and 2) there desire to touch and exam my hair. We held an entire conversation with hand gestures and at no point did either of our communication attempts become overwhelming frustrating because we treated it like a game of sorts….charades even.

At the end of the show about five women from the group approached me waved, gave me a thumbs-up and reach to my hair and conjured the word beautiful. The fact that they sought me out to share their one word expression was a moving and humbling experience. My Lesson: The action behind the sentiment can sometimes be stronger than the words used to express the thought... even in international waters.