Hair Nah! The Cathartic Travel Game for Black Women

I’m not going home for Thanksgiving, but if I were, there are a few things I would do to prepare myself for traveling back to the Midwest during one of the craziest times of the year: Force myself to pack light, download a meditation app, and mentally prepare to have my hair touched.

For many black women (but not all! I don’t speak for all of us! ) traveling means putting yourself in the line of fire of overly aggressive hands. But now there’s a game for us, by us. Hair Nah takes one of the more stressful parts of traveling and turns it into a cathartic, fun and hard as hell pixelated video game.

Created by Momo Pixel with support from On She Goes (which, full disclosure, I’ve contributed to) the game lets you choose your player, her hairstyle, and her destination. She has to swat away hands coming for her hair from all directions at varying speeds. It is the best game I’ve ever played.

In an interview with On She Goes, Pixel discusses her hopes for the game:

I think Hair Nah! will make this more digestible to some people, obvious to others, a wake-up call to some, and a sigh of relief for a lot. I think that this game, if shown to kids, will be a no-brainer. Like, “Yeah! Keep your hands to yourself.” That’s the number one golden rule you learn in school.

Clearly you shouldn’t invade someone’s personal space. But who I’m really hoping to get are those women and men who may not really be paying attention to their actions or don’t see them as offensive. I hope they see themselves in this game and be like, “Oh my God.” And then from there stop doing it.

My hair has been short, long, twisted, braided, top-knotted and still pat down by the TSA, touched by strangers in the bathroom and commented on when I’m just trying to buy my New Yorker and gum in peace, so this game speaks to my soul. And as my coworker Ari said, this is for all those times you just want to say, please respect my personal space and listen to Solange’s Don’t Touch My Hair.