Loc’d, Layered, and Liberated
A Reflection on Hair, Identity & Brand Personality
This post began as a discussion board assignment for my Psychology of Interactive Media course, asking us to explore a brand that expresses our personality after reading Aaker, (1997) Dimensions of Brand Personality which aimed to develop a theoretical framework of the brand personality construct by determining the number and nature of dimensions of brand personality.
Through a multi phased quantitative study grounded in factor analysis of the “Big Five” personality dimensions, they landed on Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness.
The idea of aligning myself with a brand felt… dishonest, or at the very least, insufficient in the context of now and my continued becoming. But the more I reflected, the more I realized that this simple prompt offered me a chance to explore the journey of my identity, my hair, and my resistance to being “marketed to” while ironically needing to better market myself, my products and my services.
So I let it flow. Well that, and I only had one hour to write it as I chose to go line dancing for a quick spell with one of my dear friends the evening it was due.
What follows is my unedited post, a rare moment where I allowed myself to show up exactly as I am in a largely unmelanated academic space with people almost half my age.
But first, I word from our sponsors…just kidding. But this is the Commercial I shared and referenced for my assignment.
What Is Your Brand Personality?
OK, this one was really hard because I have been disengaging from marketing tactics and "feeling" connected to brands for a number of reasons AND I'm not sure that there is a brand that can truly express my personality, because my personality is both fluid in some aspects and firmly rooted and layered in others. But as I type this and I thing about the connection between my personality and my hair and how their journeys intertwine, I can also see how the brand I chose is more appropriate than I first considered.
The brand is Pattern and like me, it is daring, spirited, imaginative, up to date, it is also reliable, intelligent and successful ( "you just gotta know how to cocktail it"). Then there is the charming sophistication, something I exude when when I find myself in "upscale" places, when leading with my ego or when compensating for the discomfort I feel when inhabiting non-diverse/inclusive places. Really though, I prefer to be down-to-earth, honest, wholesome and cheerful, which is something I can really lean into when I'm with my Girlfriends (See what I did there)? Lastly, because I inhabit these current identities, in this land and this timeline and increasingly brutal climate, I have had to learn to be tough and on the lighter side, outdoorsy, thanks to my decade of car camping at Coachella and other adventures.
When I think about my personality and the personalities of the actresses who came'od on the Pattern commercial, I can also appreciate the continued duality and fluidity of personality as all 4 actresses were both playing "themselves" but also playing the iconic roles they filled on one of my favorite shows to watch as I was coming into my own that was cancelled 17 years ago. I chose this brand first because of my connection to the characters from Girlfriends and the nostalgia of a time when I had space to be more care free and having explored the concepts from this assignment and reflecting on the happiness of my growth and the grief for "easier" time filled with laugh tracks, I think for Pattern's target market, they have tapped into something quite special. And I haven't even touched upon the vivid and bold colors and imagary featured through every second of this 1 minute ad.
Up until the last 5 years, the market for Black hair care and all of the many ways we choose to express our hair was quite limited and quite frankly, ill suited for our health in many ways, and discouraged full expression of it. Frustrated with the lack of information and access to quality ingredients and research for our immensely unique curl patterns and textures, many took to YouTube University and more conscious for us by us brands emerged. Using her access afforded to pedigree, Tracy Ellis Ross founded her Brand to "be for everybody". While I now wear locs and do not have the energy to be cocktailing a bunch of products in THIS economy, I can respect the intent of this campaign to show up and show out to stand out in a market that is now saturated with celebrity hair care lines by women of similar pedigree, like Beyonce's Cecred, and Tabitha Brown's Donna's Recipe. I think with this ad, it will be quite easy for someone to see their own self, ideal self and specific dimensions as I have in the actors and actresses featured or the characters they played, Joan, Mya, Toni and Lynn.
This ad is so timely, relevant and fresh as it also plays upon a long held desire for a proper Girlfriend's Reunion and Movie as we (her audience) have all grown and aged gracefully with the cast. I am curious to see how this impacts sales as I wasn't in the market for it, but now they have planted the seed that her products even work for locs, I might have to reconsider.
And now for a proper flash back. Rest in Power Angie Stone.
It’s wild how a class prompt about branding helped me articulate something I don’t always feel safe expressing in these institutional contexts: my complexity, my longing, my joy, my grief, my critique, unmasked. I’ve spent so much of my life making sure I code right, sound “smart,” stay palatable, when really, all I needed to do was get real and stay real.
And honestly, had I given myself the proper amount of time to do the assignment, I could have gone deeper about the nuance of being “extra” as both a good thing and thing to side eye when it is being used to market to our demographic. I also could have commented on how limited and Western the framework still feels. How even though I saw myself reflected in the subcomponents of the five factors, I question whether the construct fully honors or captures the ways Black and Indigenous cultures relate to expression, symbolism, and collective identity.
But I’d already written more than what is typically posted on our discussion boards and no shade, and ain’t nobody reading all that.
If you’re feeling this, let me know in the comments. Or better yet, tell me what brand (if any) feels like you, and why. Is that still (or even) a thing for you?