The sequential exploration of figurative mobility navigates the Black hair care industry within the context of reclamation of Black space in Harlem. This multifaceted project initially examines the relationship between the hair, labor, and time, uncovering the forceful manipulation of hair as a manifestation for the struggles against Eurocentric beauty standards and systemic oppression. Expanding the focus to Harlem’s history, beauty parlors emerge as vital to Black entrepreneurship, meeting the growing demand for transformative hair services and a desire for proximity to whiteness. Moving forward, the project reimagines reclamation as an urban intervention in Harlem’s geographic, historic, economic and sociopolitical context. Embracing “"black geographies,”“ the project transcends traditional spatial confines, unraveling intricacies of Black identity through spatial relationships. Maintenance processes, like braiding, contribute to the structural framework of this intervention—a radical and disruptive manifestation of resistance and reclamation, perpetually generating its own unregulated wildness within the urban fabric.
