WHEN BILL DE BLASIO stepped onto the national stage Tuesday night to celebrate his victory in the New York mayoral race, his liberal policies weren’t the only thing on display. His wife Chirlane McCray’s long dreadlocks were pulled into a smart, flowing ponytail. His son Dante’s famously large afro stood triumphant. His daughter Chiara wore her loose kinky locks framed with a band of roses.
For a rare moment in the nation’s electoral history, the African American hair politic was on full display.
The hair aesthetic of de Blasio’s family speaks to the political moment and the culture of New York, says Brooklyn-based writer and image activist Michaela Angela Davis, who calls Dante’s afro his father’s “most interesting surrogate.”
It’s “the optics,” she says. “This family probably understands the diversity of New York in a way we haven’t seen before.”
The family could have made more conservative choices. Dante, 16, could have cut down his afro. Chiara, 18, could have nixed the crown of flowers. But the family is self expressive, and that comes across.
Davis calls them “typically Park Slope,” describing the Brooklyn neighborhood known for its progressive politics, architectural history and multiculturalism.
“This one family has these three hairstyles,” Davis says. “They kind of help explain the bouquet of who we are.”
The family’s hair story has been a through line in de Blasio’s campaign and is guaranteed to be imprinted onto American consciousness during the mayor’s term. New York’s stop-and-frisk policy used heavily to detain black and Hispanic boys and men was a pivotal issue in the Democratic primary, and his son’s afro — which identifies him as black at a glance — marked the future mayor as a stakeholder in the debate. It made clear that in navigating the hair politics in his own house, de Blasio has an intimacy with black culture that most white politicians don’t.
That Jim Kelly-style towering silhouette got a great deal of play this summer in a well-received advertisement in which Dante vouched for his dad’s credibility. De Blasio began to rise in the polls soon after. John del Cecato, a longtime Democratic strategist who refers to himself as “folically-challenged,” created the ad. He said in an e-mail Wednesday that “the image of such a well-coifed family” evokes youthfulness, “while also inspiring me about New York’s future.”
De Blasio’s campaign also referred to a summer interview Dante gave to DNAInfo.com.
“Honestly, for years my hair was really just for me. I didn’t think people would love it so much,” Dante told the website about his afro, which he’s been growing since the third grade. It was, in part, inspired by Huey Freeman, the black nationalist main character in the comic cartoon “The Boondocks.”
Political women understand the potential of hair not just as an expression of personal style, but a way to telegraph meaning. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s headbands, bobs and smart, no-nonsense short cuts were all discussed during her tenure as first lady and US senator. She famously said: “Pay attention to your hair because everyone else will,” and in her 2008 campaign for president produced brochures showing her hair through the years, which her staffers passed out to beauty salons in an appeal to female voters.
First lady Michelle Obama’s fresh-cut bangs after her husband’s 2012 reelection, which was also around the time she turned 50, were the subject of headlines. (President Barack Obama joked they were “the most significant event” of the inaugural weekend.) The haircut added interest to the family’s look, which the nation had grown familiar with after four years in the White House.
But commentary on the hair of de Blasio’s family has ventured into new territory. When Dante said he washed his hair only about once a week — normal for black hair, which can become brittle and dry from over-washing — a reporter cheekily tweeted that perhaps his parents should encourage him to wash his hair more often. His mom tweeted back: The reporter “obviously knows little, if anything, about African American hair.”
The nation is about to get a primer.
Hair has been a proxy for respectability and standards. Rare is the corporate executive with pop-star hair. For African Americans, whose hair, by definition, is countercultural, the negotiations between self expression and mainstream acceptance have been particularly fraught.
But natural black hairstyles — first politicized in the 1960s — have been enjoying a renaissance. For women, hair products for all textures have made chemically straightening hair less a convenience than a choice.
“It is still an affirmation of black is beautiful, but I don’t think people view it as a militant choice,” says Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, where she studies black politics.
Within de Blasio’s family there’s a range: His wife wears longer locks, which signifies a longtime commitment. Chiara is more bohemian with her piercings, loose locks and flowers in her hair. She’s also worn bantu knots, where the hair is parted and twisted.
So if Gracie Mansion is about to be home to natural hairstyles, is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue ready?
While endorsing de Blasio for mayor this summer, the president complimented Dante’s afro, saying the teen has “the same hairdo I had back in 1978. Although, I have to confess, my afro was never that good.”
The first lady wears her hair in more traditionally straight styles, but her daughters have at various times worn cornrows, twists and curly styles, especially for the summer. However, their hair is often straightened for special occasions.
“It wouldn’t have mattered” whether the de Blasios straightened their hair or not, says Gillespie. “The fact that this is an interracial family is going to be notable in politics.”
Interracial families remain relatively rare on the political scene, she says, and the fact that the new mayor-elect wears his graying hair in a traditional close-cut manner, while his family is more unconventional is politically singular.
While it’s unclear whether the nation as a whole is ready to embrace kinky hair, Davis sees the DeBlasios’ look as perhaps a baby step toward a new political and cultural era. “We’re going to have locks on the national stage. That’s awesome, right?“
