Rhonda Lee sat at her laptop intently scrolling through the website, trying to decide if she wanted to purchase a wig. There were various styles and colors to choose from—long, short, black and blonde—but she just couldn’t wrap her head around the idea. She had worked in television news for over 25 years, but as she compiled her resume reel to apply for a meteorologist position, she felt pressure to conceal her natural hair. She’d previously worn a relaxer to straighten her tight curls when she was working in Washington D.C., but she decided to give up the bimonthly treatments to protect her hair and save money during a 9-year break from the broadcast industry.

Now, as she stared at the options on the screen, she was apprehensive about whether she would still be accepted with her kinky hair. Few African American women wore their hair natural on television. Instead, the majority had long, straight hair courtesy of relaxers, extensions, weaves and even wigs. 

Lee contemplated the decision and eventually slammed the computer shut. Although she had planned on buying a short, “believable” wig, she couldn’t picture herself plopping a fake unit on her head every morning just to be accepted at work. “If they can’t hire me for my ability and not my hair, then I don’t need to be at that station,” she said.

Like countless other African American women, Lee has to deal with this internal struggle on a regular basis. All women are analyzed and judged on their appearance, but for African American women, it can be particularly challenging when choosing how to style their hair. They must either conform to the dominant societal notions, which dictate that straight hair is acceptable and attractive, or resist and be labeled radical, unprofessional or ugly. 

Since the era of slavery, African Americans have been forced to yield to their oppressors’ European standards of beauty. In order to assimilate, women camouflaged and manipulated their natural hair with chemical relaxers and hot combs, spending hours maneuvering a blow dryer or sitting in a salon chair. “The whole project to civilize black people was instilling the idea that as we are, we are not human, we are not beautiful and we are not good enough,” said Yaba Blay, a professor of Africana Studies at Drexel University. 

In March 2014, the U.S. Army released AR 670-1, a revised list of appearance and grooming policies, which banned twists, dreadlocks and braids more than ¼ inch in diameter, and used offensive language such as “unkempt” and “matted” to describe the unauthorized hairstyles. The announcement was met with backlash and led to accusations of discrimination against African American women.

“You can tell that [the rules] were slanted toward a certain demographic of people,” said Whitney Alston, an Air Force contracting officer. “The majority of the regulations didn’t apply to Caucasians because they don’t wear their hair in those styles. You can tell that they were only trying to control how African American women wear their hair.”

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Alston has worn her hair natural for almost eight years. She made the decision to stop relaxing her hair as an undergraduate student at Howard University when it began to break off from the chemical damage. But none of her colleagues or commanders at the Los Angeles Air Force Base has seen the natural texture of her hair—she always flat irons it stick-straight for work.

“I straighten it to make it easier because of the status quo,” Alston said. “I understand that if I want a good job I have to conform, which is what I do with my hair. It has to be conservative in their mind.”

Following this year’s Academy Awards, actress Zendaya Coleman was attacked on "Fashion Police" for wearing dreadlocks on the red carpet. “She has such a tiny frame that this hair overwhelms her,” host Giuliana Rancic said. “It’s really heavy and it’s just too [bohemian]. I feel like she smells like patchouli oil and weed.” Coleman quickly responded to the offensive comments on social media. "There is already harsh criticism of African American hair in society without the help of ignorant people who choose to judge others based on the curl of their hair," she posted. "To me [dreadlocks] are a symbol of strength and beauty, almost like a lion's mane."

In the past several years, the African American community has witnessed the resurgence of a natural hair crusade, which began in the 1960s during the Black Power Movement. At that time, African American women, who had been taught to feel ashamed or embarrassed of their coils and curls, started wearing Afros as a sign of rebellion against narrow-minded mainstream ideals. With just one hairstyle, women sent the message: “I’m black and I’m proud.” 

However, the natural hair movement began to lose momentum over the next decade and eventually ended in the mid ‘80s. As the Afro became conventional in the late 1970s, it began to lose its original meaning when other races began adopting the style. The era also welcomed the invention of Wave Noveau, the Jheri curl, and other permed hairstyles, which quickly gained acceptance with African Americans, while braids, cornrows and other natural hairdos were restricted in the workplace. 

Now, once again, black women are promoting self-love by ditching their chemical relaxers, flat irons and wigs to embrace who they naturally are. YouTube channels, blogs and social groups devoted to the care of unprocessed hair drive the rise in popularity, while beauty brands, like Pantene and Dove, are joining the conversation with natural hair care products and strategic marketing. 

In the past, biased hair care campaigns suggested that women are more beautiful, and therefore more professional, with sleek hair. An advertisement from the ‘90s for Raveen No-Lye Créme Relaxer depicts a smiling African American woman, dressed in a red suit, on the telephone. The tagline brazenly boasts, “Was it her resume…or Raveen?” implying that she only got hired because of her silky-smooth tresses. The copy continues, “When you’re ready to take care of business, get straight to the point with Raveen Relaxer System.” In contrast, Pantene’s advertisement for their “Truly Natural” line encourages women to remain true to themselves and emphatically reads, “Express Yourself, Naturally!” Similarly, Dove’s poignant “Love Your Curls” campaign aims to inspire the next generation to appreciate their natural hair. 

READ MORE: Natural Hair, Don't Care: Why More Black Women Are Avoiding Chemical Relaxers

Powerful media representations of natural-haired African American women are also more prevalent than ever: Viola Davis removed her wig on ABC’s "How to Get Away With Murder," Lupita Nyong’o graced the cover of Vogue with short hair and "Black-ish" actress Tracee Ellis Ross advocated for Hollywood’s acceptance of kinky hair during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. 

While these media images are significant, Blay believes we still have a long way to go. “If we were to start seeing more mainstream actors and musicians wearing natural hair and still being doted upon that would be a powerful statement,” she said. “If Beyoncé or Rihanna wore their hair natural and were still as successful, that would be more telling than one character with natural hair here or there.”

As a meteorologist at Weather Nation in Denver, Lee makes a conscious choice to wear her hair natural on television, but she still feels the daily pressure to look like her white coworkers. She often listens to her colleagues discuss cutting or dyeing their hair without any concern for the possible implications. Many white women don’t have to think twice about whether they wear their hair long, short, wavy or straight because their natural texture aligns with society’s expectations. Unlike African American women, they don’t have to deal with the scrutiny when they chop their hair. They don’t have to brace themselves for how the world will react to them based on their hairstyle. And, they don’t have to worry about appearing unprofessional, unkempt or incompetent in the workplace. 

“Why do I have to go to such great lengths and put my hair at risk to look like my white counterparts?” Lee asked. “For them, there’s no discussion about being biologically different. All they have to think about is what color looks good on them. That’s where their conversation ends. But mine becomes a question of how they can make me more pretty.”

Romney Smith, an anchor with Action News in Jacksonville, Fla., routinely tames her curly hair for her on-air job. “They never sat me down and told me that I absolutely have to wear my hair straight, but that’s just the professional expectation,” she said. Smith goes through a five-step process just to get camera-ready. She shampoos, conditions, blow dries, flat irons and hot combs her curls slick, a routine that takes up to three hours of coaxing to get her hair to behave. 

Growing up, Smith never assumed her curly hair would be a problem for her professionally because that was just how her hair grew out of her head. It wasn’t until one of her graduate school professors pulled her aside that she began to think differently. “She told me that I needed to assimilate to how people on television look because it would increase my chances of getting a job,” Smith said. “She told me that on television, perception is reality and even if you don’t mean to make a political statement by wearing your hair natural, you’re still making a statement.” She took her professor’s advice and straightened her hair. Two weeks later, she got hired. 

Despite her career success, Smith doesn’t completely agree with the reasoning behind her professor’s guidance. However, she definitely understands where she was coming from. “I don’t think curly hair makes someone unprofessional,” she said. “If I’m talking about an overnight shooting, it doesn’t matter what my hair looks like. I can have curly hair and deliver news in a compelling way without being a distraction. [Natural hair] is just different. It’s not what some people are used to seeing, so they don’t want to give it a chance.”

Reach Style Editor Gabi Duncan here. Follow her on Twitter.