Those of us with naturally curly black hair have probably had to deal with a lot of nonsense. First there are the annoying and constant questions. We get it, you're curious, but seeking the third degree about someone's hair when they are just trying to go about their business is annoying to say the least.
Some people even take the liberty of touching hair without permission. This is not okay. After years of dealing with microaggressions about her hair, one woman decided enough was enough.
Momo Pixel is a 27 year old art director who lives in Portland, Oregon. She channelled all of her experiences of dealing with people who kept touching her hair into developing a game. It's called 'Hair Nah', and the internet loved it.
DO 👏🏾 NOT 👏🏾 TOUCH 👏🏾 MY 👏🏾 HAIR 👏🏾#HairNAH pic.twitter.com/UdDeJJqDCN
— SOPHIE (@ICONICSOPH) January 6, 2018
I just decided to play #hairnah at 1 in the morning and I’m lowkey upset because i couldn’t get past the last level and the game told me to “..Moisturize and try again” EXCUSE ME pic.twitter.com/VescIRslwe
— HearessMarie🇻🇮🇳🇬 (@nubianintrovert) December 28, 2017
So we decided to give the game a go to see what all the fuss was about!
Pick your look
So, the game is based around the character Aeva, who "loves to travel, but is hesitant because people often invade her personal space by touching her hair without permission." So far, so funny.
Before you can help Aeva catch her flight by protecting her hair from reaching hands, you get to choose your look. The game lets you pick from a variety of skin shades and hairstyles. This makes a powerful point that many black people, whatever shade or whatever style your hair might be, have had to deal with these issues.
Where are you going?
Travelling while black is not always easy. Hair Nah lets you choose between three different locations, Osaka, Japan, Havana, Cuba, and Santa Monica Pier, California. We decided to pick Osaka.
It's go time
So Hair Nah gives us 60 seconds to swat away the hands coming for Aeva's hair. We have to fill the Nah Meter before we run out of time. Here we go!
What did we think?
Okay, so we weren't very good at it. The game is hard! The hands come flying in out of nowhere, and you need lightning-fast reactions to swat them away.
What did we think of the game? It's silly, it's over the top - but it works! Sometimes you have to take thing to the extreme to show people how absurd and weird things are.
Touching someone's hair without permission is not okay, maybe the silliness of this game - and its brilliant 80s-style graphics - will help more people to realise.
Can you do better than us? Play Hair Nah here and let us know how you did in the comments below.
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