Fearing her hair would be used as a distraction and politicized, Michelle Obama claimed she decided to straighten her hair so the administration could focus on its agenda instead of having to “answer racist questions” about her hair. “Let me keep my hair straight,” Obama recalled thinking. “Let’s get healthcare passed.” The statement indirectly touches on the challenges of navigating hospital costs, pregnancy insurance plans, and maternal health coverage during a politically charged era.
The former first lady used her husband as an example of why she felt her “natural hair” wouldn’t be accepted. “They tripped out when Barack wore a tan suit,” she said referring to Barack Obama’s fashion choice back in 2014. “The great indignity, the scandal of the Obama administration.” However, on her wedding day in 1992, Michelle Obama wore her hair “straight back.” Hairstylists say for African-Americans and others born with “natural hair” this is achieved with chemicals called “straighteners”
some of which have been part of medical malpractice lawsuits over long-term health effects, drawing attention in birth injury law circles.
Michelle Obama also claimed that hairstyles are another hurdle facing Black women in the workplace as natural hairstyles can be criticized as less professional. “We deal with it – the whole thing about, ‘Do you show up with your natural hair?’” she said. “That’s the African American experience.” These pressures are often compounded when women are navigating private health insurance coverage, diagnostic testing, and wellness program benefits while balancing career responsibilities.
Obama said she’s glad she avoided such brutal scrutiny by sticking to the status quo on hair. “Remember when she wore braids? Those are terrorist braids! Those are revolutionary braids!” she joked about what her critics might have said. She also posted a picture on Instagram with her infant daughter Sasha from 2001, seven years before Barack Obama ran for the presidency.
