For the most part, I’m not. The most part.
Right now I’m very much stuck on hair. For the past few months I’ve been noticing other people’s hair and wanting desperately to comment on it, give advice, and other such things one doesn’t do to perfect strangers. The reason is that I’ve become more aware of my own hair lately due to my job.
I write and do web-work for an online fashion magazine. My friends find this incredibly funny due to my aforementioned not caring about fashion and cosmetics and other such things. To me, it’s just a job. I make the web pages and don’t have to know my Manolo from my Prada. But when my boss gave me some shampoo and conditioner for curly hair and told me to write about their effectiveness, I started to really consider my hair for the first time in years.
Obviously, I’m a black woman. And, like most black women, my mother started relaxing my hair at an early age. Five years old, I believe. This is something black people do. As soon as that hair gets long enough or too hard to comb, off to the hair dresser you go to get those kinks stamped out like the evil bastards they are. If you’re not a guy and you’re not sporting a ‘fro, you need to have your hair straightened. Then, of course, it’s up to you to spend hours blow-drying it and using every different kind of curling iron on the planet to curl the ends under or something more complicated. The point is that one’s hair is straight or regimentally curled - like a white person’s.
This is how I related to my hair in childhood. I spent long hours trying to get my hair perfectly straight only to have genetics and humidity foil me over and over. Then I tried to get my hair curly, which required mad curing iron skills or painful nights in rollers. And then there was my father. Dear God, there was my father.
My father is one of those black people who, due to his skin color and ‘good hair’, can pass quite easily for a white man. His genes + my mother’s genes gave me my own brand of ‘good hair’. But my father was obsessed with giving me, at 7, complicated hairstyles and cuts I could not possibly maintain. I, stupidly, allowed a hairdresser to cut my hair like my stepmother’s when I was 11 because my father insisted. I should have known better, but I adored my father and listened to him against my better judgment. I would live with that mistake until I was 17 and finally grew that evil cut/mullet business out over a summer.
All through this trauma, of course, was the relaxing and recurling and other frying of my hair. I did all of these things even though they a) hurt and b) never came out the way hair dressers promised/I envisioned, because this is what most black people do. This is The Way. Thou shalt not deviate from The Way.
The summer before my senior year in high school I read a book called Every Good Bye Ain’t Gone for a special class. In it there was an entire chapter about the (black, female) author’s struggles with her hair and trying to find good people to do it. One of my classmates, a black female with very close-cropped curly hair, wondered why the author wasted her time with a whole chapter on this small topic. I was completely surprised to hear this coming from that particular student. I was only 17 at the time, but if I’d written about my life up until that point, there would definitely be a whole chapter on hair. Now? Maybe two.
After all, talking about black people’s hair isn’t just a matter of finding a good style or a good dresser or a good product. It’s also about how we as black people feel about how our hair looks in its natural state and what we do based on those feelings. It’s also about how American society and culture (read: white folks) feels about what black people do with their hair. If you don’t think that black people’s hair isn’t a battleground for issues of race and culture and assimilation and bigotry, you haven’t been paying attention to the news.
When a U.S. Congresswoman can be called names because of her hairstyle (or lack thereof) and people can be denied/fired from jobs for not wearing a hairstyle that makes white people feel comfortable, there is a serious, serious problem. Even in the black community, straight hair is considered more acceptable because it emulates white people’s hair. It doesn’t emulate white hair well, but it’s closer to assimilation than braids or dredlocs. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard black people praise a woman’s straightened/fried hair or go on and on about the merits of ‘good hair’ while remarking on how much of a shame it is to waste long hair on dredlocs. Braids are more acceptable to blacks than dreds, perhaps because they are considered ‘cleaner’ and can be undone easily if one wants to go back to relaxer. Dreds must be cut completely.
And Lord help the poor woman who wants to go without braids, locs, or relaxer and have a natural hairstyle. Everyone and their mama will talk about her like a damn dog. That is, unless she’s got hair like mine.
When I went off to college in New York City I knew maintaining my hair was going to be a challenge. Everything in NYC was more expensive, including the salon. I couldn’t afford $80-$300 relaxers, even if it was only every 3 months. I had to eat. I embraced baseball caps and scarves until I could go home for holidays.
One day during my sophomore year I stepped out of the shower, looked in the mirror, and noticed something extraordinary. Half of my hair was wavy. Really wavy. Trying to be curly. This was the top half, the bottom half was straight - leftover from my last relaxer, so many months before. I never knew that my hair was wavy/curly, I always thought it was just bushy, kinky, and untamable.
What else was I supposed to think? I had black people’s hair.
Good hair, certainly, because it was thick and styleable. But certainly not that good.
I decided to let my natural hair grow out to see what it really looked like. The result: I have fabulous hair, y’all. I have, naturally, the hair I always dreamed of having. It curls in coils/ringlets and will either curl in big locks or small sections, giving me a modicum of control over the amount of body it has. I have white girl hair.
Now wait a damn minute, you’re saying. Didn’t we just go over black people’s hair esteem issues and didn’t you basically express an opinion that wanting hair like white people’s is bad? I did, yeah. But that’s an intellectual view of the situation. Emotionally, I was so happy to have white girl hair I flaunted it all over the place. I found the perfect product to keep it from going over into frizzyness and proceeded to flip, play with, and highlight the merits of my hair every chance I got. I went a little crazy for a while.
I’ve come to understand that my hair is actually more typical of black people than many realize. After all, most blacks in this country have some white blood in them, and that affects the relative kinkiness of the hair. There are still many of people with a nice, tight kink, but there are plenty of us with this medium kink as well. (They don’t know it, though, because they’ve never gone without a relaxer.) White people also possess this medium kink, though they tend to call it ‘ringlets’. This is the kind of curl most women are trying to get when they get perms. Jewish people, as far as I can tell, have it in abundance.
The understanding came when, under the auspices of the magazine, I visited a salon in Brooklyn dedicated to natural, curly hair. They can work with people of any ethnic background, but most of their clientele are black women. Going to Miss Jessie’s Salon opened my eyes to just how many black women out there are dealing with hair similar to mine and fighting against the same kind of indoctrination I did. The women who own the salon are doing something - Dare I say it? Dare! Dare! - radical. They’re telling women with kinks and curls that their hair can be beautiful and natural and easy to maintain.
The end result is that I am lucky in that I know I possess such hair and that my natural hair style is acceptable to mainstream white society. I am even luckier in that I now know how to keep my hair looking wonderful and curly with a minimum of fuss (thanks to my testing products for the fashion magazine). My long hair odyssey is over. I have wash & wear hair.
But I can’t help feeling as if this is a bit of a cheat. I’ve resolved my hair problems without resolving my hair problem. I haven’t addressed that part of myself that wants to have long, flowing, shiny hair because that’s the standard of beauty American culture has shoved down my throat since I first started watching TV. Every now and then I still get the urge to straighten my hair (which I did once, about 18 months ago, with a flat iron and a very patient hair dresser) because I know it will look good that way. I have two reactions whenever this desire crops up: 1. If you relax your hair it will take you hours to do every day, make our hair unhealthy, and it will take years to get it back to curly. 2. If you go straight you will be denying your heritage, your racial background, your individuality, and your right to be a proud black woman with proud black hair.
I feel my priorities may be out of order on this one.
The issues surrounding black folk’s hair will continue on and on for the foreseeable future. Especially if black people keep giving each other shit about their choices. Even with hair like mine I still get crap from my family. The same women who raised me to be proud of my skin, my ancestors, and my heritage will take one look at my curls and say, “Why don’t you let me take you to Ms J’s and get your hair straightened? It would look so pretty…”
When you’ve got militant traditionalists handing you pamphlets about the evils of relaxer and assimilation on one side and black colleges like Hampton University banning ‘unusual’ hairstyles like braids on the other, it’s hard to know what to feel or think.
I’ll get militant for a moment and say that any hairstyle requirements outside of being neat, manageable, and not an unnatural color are damn stupid, possibly racist, and fueled by ignorance. It’s true that people will make assumptions about you based on how you look and how you choose to wear your hair, but we as black people are completely falling down on forcing American society to accept that our hair, in any state - natural, relaxed, braided, loced - is just as legit as any of the crazy shit white people do to their hair. And we should force them to recognize this.
Black folks allowed the media to obsess about Cynthia McKinney’s hair and probably won’t protest Judge Mablean’s absence from Divorce Court because, deep down, we feel that hair styles that reflect assimilation attitudes are better, more desirable, and culturally correct. Personally, I’m more for individual preference and expression. If you like the way your hair looks when it’s relaxed, even if outside forces are at the heart of that feeling, then wear your hair that way. If you prefer a natural style, from locs to curls like mine, even if it means the loss of employment or respect, then wear it. There are advantages and drawbacks to either choice.
I have no conclusion to offer. However, I do have further reading. Check out these books:
Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America
Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts
And these articles:
The politics of hair - Neal Boortz edition
Still Trying to Kick the Kink (the comments are very interesting)
On The Road: American Writers and Their Hair
Here we are standing at the intersection of politics, race relations, and hair care. Who knew that all three could be so intertwined? And yet, they are.
Unpaid Pimping: I love the Love Your Curls t-shirt from NaturallyCurly.com. I’m honestly in danger of wearing it out.
Pimping: I made a Zazzle store so I could make a shirt telling people not to touch my hair. I figured other folks might want one. Also has the Guide to Hair Etiquette on the back.
Tags: Cynthia McKinney, black+hair, dredlocks, dredlocs, braids, relaxer, natural+hair, black+peoples+hair, curly+hair, kinky+hair, kinks, race, culture
i know some may want to villify me for saying. But as a Black man, i say it’s just hair. i don’t straighten mine, but it’s nobody’s business but mine if i do. who cares what people think? do what u want. free urself b4 u go out & free the world.
I love my afro! I style my hair the way I feel comfortable with and also what is healthy for my hair. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder let the beholder be you. People have different ideas of what beauty is.
Every women has something they can work with. Personally I dont see anything wrong with my afro thats me.
http://lilkemet.wordpress.com/
I have a strong belief that us blacks and mixed race people should be proud of our hair and prevent damaging it as much as possible like relaxing unless it is a must. i have found a product for mixed race people that everybody has been going crazy about and i think its amazing iv seen it work and really restores the stregnth ancurls back in their hair. i have put it as a link if any one is interested. and remember that relaxing your hair damages it. stay beautiful and natural sisters.
http://www.mixedchicks.co.uk or afrotherapy
Hello!
I feel like I should admit to being a white girl. *sheepish* However, ever since I was little I thought that black girls’, and black ladies’ braids were very, very cool. It might have something to do with the fact that I always wanted thick, lovely hair that I could do that with, rather than the thin limp stuff that I got. I’m still jealous. Especially of pretty curls.
So I’m really glad you’re enjoying your curls. Keep doing it, you lucky lady!
Is jealousy even healthy these days? Can someone also tell me why people stare at me for a long time when I wear my afro? I went natural when I was 17 in high school. I didn’t care about what people thought of me. I even cut my hair off very short, and I sported that style like it was the greatest thing in the world. Now that I am older and my hair has grown a bit longer I get stared at no matter where I go. I love my hair but I hate being stared at like I am a case study.
i am a black man and i have been accused of having good hair by the women in my family , i watched with
total disgust as they fried there hair with straightening comes and chemical relaxers destroying the natural texture of there hair ,while me being a man i only washed my hair and occasionally used hair grease to keep it from being brittle and dry , years later some of the woman in my family decided to do the same and accepted the hair that they were born with and was amazed when they finally relized that there hair was at its best in its natural form without the abusive treatments
i think it is a mental condition that causes a person to feel negatively about who they are . i feel that black woman have a beauty that goes beyond hair and i have seen some of the most beautifill black women with barely any hair at all because they have been blessed with some of the most beautiful facial features kinky hair on a woman is so exciting. so to all the black women who stress over hair, know that when you eccept your natural beauty you become beautiful inside and out.
hey, just found you today. it’s so true…as an african woman, all i can say is- we have issues! only recently are dreadlocs being perceived as “clean” in kenya and lo and behold some hairdressers in nairobi are doing locs now in addition to the usual relaxing, flat ironing, etc! it still surprises me that i have to explain why i want to keep my hair natural after years of frying it (+ my scalp!) and the occassional braids. i intend to blog on african/black hair in the near future and will be sure to put a link to your piece.
interesting discussion.. . the topic definitely needs to be discussed. though some progress has been made, black folks still have issues with nappy hair. the fact that people are still talking about “good hair” and that we are spending so much of our $$ in the pursuit of straight hair is evidence of that. generally, i do not buy the “i straighten my hair for convenience” argument, because a lot of women say that having never worn their hair natural. many of them also follow up that argument with the “natural hair only looks right on some black people” argument, to which i respond -”how is your hair gonna look wrong on you?” real talk - many black folks still do not like the way we look and are not willing to directly or indirectly challenge that fact or the society that encourages us to feel that way. i too get the stares, but it’s more disconcerting to get the compliments from black women who say they could never wear their hair the way i do. and make no mistake - my hair is nappy, and it would probably be classified as “bad hair” by some idiots.
anyhow, i hope black folks continue learning to embrace their hair, especially those working in professional environments. let’s stop limiting ourselves.
well said cloud 9 “real talk”
Well I did it. Thanks to this website, I’ve been debating the merits of going natural for a couple of months. Yesterday I did the big chop and now I have a teeny weeny afro, but I’m very happy with the wonderful texture of my hair. I can see beauty where I only saw ugliness before. I’m also noticing so many black women I see that actually wear their hair naturally, but I just didn’t notice before. There are so many different ways to wear your hair, in fact, I feel like there is more variety than if it is chemically straightened (not to mention how many people get their hair burned straight only to immediately burn some curls into it).
I’ve already had the opportunity to expand someone else’s perspective: my brother, a young black man who never realized what was really going on with black women’s hair. He’s now become enamored with the natural textures of our hair. And then there’s my mother, who will never really support kinky hair, but she is supportive of my decision. She’s learned that there are different types and textures of black hair. She’s always had thin wavy hair, and wanted my hair relaxed so that it would be like hers. I realize I can’t take advice from my mom because she has no idea how to care for hair like mine.
I had an unfortunate incident this summer that caused a lot of hair to fall out; I rolled with the punches and cut my then below-shoulder length hair to bob length. I developed a palm sized bald patch that was covered thanks to extremely thick hair. Seven months later (and my first wearing of braids/extensions) I have a 3 inch afro where the bald spot was. During this entire ordeal, I have come to realize just how much of my self-image and notion of beauty was tied into my hair. The growing-out process has been hard; I have been wearing a lot of scarves and head wraps.
I grew up in a household that disallowed the term “good hair” and I have a particular aversion to it. My hair was always healthy and strong and long because I didn’t torture it with chemicals, heat, and damaging products. Hopefully my hair will return healthier, springier, energized. I have a wonderful photo of myself in Tokyo, flanked by two beautiful women in Kimono. The contrast of their restrained hairstyles and my long curly, frizzy, wild hair, different aspects of beautiful women of color.
Well said definitive.dot! Congrats on going natural! It takes a lot of courage because we get so many external messages that say that straight hair is better. I also decided recently to go “au natural”, and after 20 years of “fried, dyed and laid to the side” I am just now beginning to see the natural texture of my hair, and it is beautiful! If I may make a suggestion, check out motowngirl.com. Sistah girl knows a lot about natural hair care, and the things that I have learned from her website have been so helpful! My mom is the same way. In fact, she perms her hair before she gets it braided!!! LOL!!! I think most Black folks think that natural hair automatically means nappy, or ugly. But, the truth is that our hair can have many different textures. But, if you’re constantly frying it, you’ll never get to see how beautiful it can be! I finally accepted the fact that I’m never going to have naturally bone straight hair. And you know what? I like my curly hair better!!! God didn’t mean for everyone to have straight hair or blue eyes. We have to learn to love ourselves the way that God made us!
Girl, thank you for this post…..I was on a blog earlier (monicamingo.com and err those people are delusional….truly…about hair that is…..thanks for keeping me sane
wow, what you’ve said is very true. I’m one of those gurls who wants to go without out relaxers, braids and and dred locs. Because braids pulls my hair out, relaxers make my hair fall out and dred locs aren’t me. my family did talk about me, because i was trying to grow natural hair and they called me a run a way slave from the 1800’s and tha t i was crazy,so i learned to adjust to wigs or press and curls. thanks a lot for the post.
When I was 13 I begged mother for a relaxer I was tired of getting burned from the hot comb or sitting still as my hair was combed after being washed. I loved my hair but I just wanted to be able to do it on my own, two months after getting it I regretted it, I wanted my own long, thick, curly kinky hair back, not this limp, thin, smelly (it always smelled burned to me) crap that was now on my head, but I was young and everyone was telling me how much better I looked and how so much prettier it was so I kept my mouth shut for 7 years.
Finally in my freshmen year in college and I got sic of people asking me if I had a weave or HAVING COMPLETE STRANGERS WALK UP AND TUG ON MY HAIR!!!! This pissed me of to no end, I don’t like to fight so when my friend had to step between me and some women on the street that just tug my hair, it was time. I went back to natural it was a wonderful, it took forever to learn how to take care of it but now I’m back to my thick curly beautiful hair. I see the beauty of my natural hair and was never really happy with relaxed hair. Since going natural many of my friends see the beauty and the ease of natural black hair and many of them have made the switch to natural. Its not an easy process by this I mean learning how to take care of your natural hair and dealing with people who think your crazy when they see natural hair (this will include people in your family in my case my mother), and your own preconceived notions.
I was reading this entry and wanted to advertise the FREE seminar on the Art of Curly Hair. I saw the ad on craigslist and went the the seminar last month. The seminar was very informational and the product and styling methods were very helpful. I had my free consultation with Tameeka, the natural kinky hair special and she was GREAT! or you can go on the website, http://www.curlisto.com it has an instructional video on how to style curly hair. I hope this knowledge helps someone like it helped me. O, to sign up for free seminar i emailed seminar@curlisto.com and its by grand central station
yeah I agree with you. I dont have caucasion hair but I have a good brand of the “bad stuff”. If I’m patient I can wear it however I want.
I’m surprised you didnt’ realize, if you have a light skinned near white parent with straight hair, you would inherit some of that. I have friends who want to intermarry with brown skinned straight haired men so thier children will never have to get a perm or get too dark. Its a strange world.
I just wish we, as individuals, could set our own standard of beauty. Most of us are raised to believe certain things are more beautiful, while others are ugly. From skin tone to hair texture to body weight and shape, we decide what is beautiful. In Senegal, West Africa, a woman with extra weight, especially due to bearing children is called “Drianke,” a celebrated term for inside out beauty. The extra weight is beautiful because of how she carries the weight and the sacrifice of her prenatal body to bring life into the world. I wear my hair natural and have ever since I graduated high school in 1994. My scalp appreciates it and so do I. I love afros, locks, 2 strand twists, and just naps everywhere. It shows when I wear it that I love it. That is why natural hair is beautiful on me. I have had other family members wear natural hair, but fuss over fuzzies when the style is not neat, with every nap tucked in its place. Natural hair does not look nearly as beautiful on them. What makes you really feel beautiful will show from the inside out. No need going natural if you’re only going to feel “ugly,” because you’ve been raised t(brainwashed) to believe that natural is ugly. You have to truly believe natural is beautiful in order to pull it off. For those who really embrace their hair in its natural, God-given state, feeling beautiful about hair is easy. Don’t complicate your life. If you one day become awakened and get tired of high maintenance, pain, and high cost to maintain a beautiful head of hair, try going natural for a while and see how you like it. If you are not at peace with being natural, then go back to synthetic, tracks, or perms, whatever makes you feel good. I just know I am thankful to be one who loves myself the way I am. . . black, nappy, and beautiful.
Loved your post.
Here in Jamaica for some people natural hair is a religion. I’m serious, some denominations are opposed to relaxers, church members are required to wear their hair natural.
Then there is rastafarianism - you know the ones who invented dread locks.
Some Jamiacans truly have no issue with their hair.
Then there are the rest of us who resent being born with coya (named for a coarse material that the ancienst used to make mattresses) or coconut brush (you can figure that one) or picky-picky head, or bumpy head.
I’m hoping I can come home to myself sooner than later.
I think this is amazing. Even though I know about it, I never really trully thought that black people’s hair was assimilating to the world.
The only thing that bothers me is when people with ‘good hair’ complain. My father has good hair, I don’t. He talks about relaxers like it’s a sin, they are damaging of course, but he DOES NOT understand what I have to go through when it’s natural.
I don’t care about the look, but when it’s natural it grows very slowly, and it HURTS.
But anyway, this article just reinstates my wanting for my natural kinks. Great job!
i think this is something that needs to be discussed however i think women should wear their hair the way they want it, and yea some people don’t think they look good with their hair a certain way, and yes my hair is natural but i don’t think it’s a bad thing if black women or any race who has thick curly or kinky hair want to straighten it, it doesn’t mean they were taught to feel curly or kinky hair is bad as some people would say, they might honestly not like how they’re hair looks in a certain style, and i can’t blame them. i don’t really like when my hair is straight so if i want a more “polished” looked so to speak i put it in a bun and occasionally i wear a fake ponytail, so what it’s what some people like. also it’s similar to if you get a bad haircut and you don’t like the way it looks, then you’ll either deal with it or not, my bestfriend wears a relaxer and while her hair is straight it’s not bone straight or lifeless and her hair is down her back and it looks nice. me i like having my hair nice and curly and i guess it’s long cause it’s to my shoulders when it’s curly, even though i hate when people say i have GOOD HAIR, ugh so darn annoying so for people who DON’T buy the i straighten my hair for convenience argument or don’t like the way it looks argument, you don’t have to because it’s not your place to do so, i say however a women or person decides to do their hair just do what you can to keep it healthy!!! i’m a natural sister and proud, for those who want to choose the chemical route, go on and do what makes you happy.
I have kinky hair that has softened some with age, and I wear locks now, but even that has it’s problems (they break off and everyone I know with locks complains about the same thing). I love my locks, but don’t know how long I’ll be able to maintain them (pulls moisture away from scalp over time). I love black hair but it is so difficult to work with and that still frustrates me though I should be old enough to be over it by now. I’m presently in school but I’m also in the south and once I graduate I am wondering how to handle the hair thing. Though, I’ve been covering for religious reasons so it may not be as much of an issue as it seems.
Great article, and I love reading the responses. It’s good to hear from others in the know.
I thought I was the only one! <8O
Coming from outside (the US), I’ve always thought kinky black hair looked awesome.
Since coming here, I’ve read about some of the sociocultural pressures and how they work against hair that (I think) is aesthetically lovely. I don’t understand them, but I do understand that people often glom onto superficial characteristics as an alternative to being aware of their deeper prejudices.
*sigh*
Thanks for sharing your viewpoint, just wanted to comment as I am currently wearing my hair natural and this time trying to see it through, hard to accept what an emotional process this is. Always thought my hair was ‘nappy’ and ‘bad’ then discovered that even though it is very tightly curled not quite kinky, I love the natural curl!! I still sometimes wish I could wear my hair straight though, and sometimes I feel guilty about that, but I’d like to wear it that way occasionally. But I want to avoid the chemicals, and I want to learn to love my natural hair before I go changing it. Still, I figure that women should wear what they like and makes them feel beautiful. That’s what’s so great about it, that we have a choice. I just wish there wasn’t so much of a battle between those who straighten their hair and those who go natural. I wish we didn’t have to choose one or the other. And also just wanted to comment on how it was deep for me when I realized that even white girls with thick curls are encouraged to straighten their hair. I wish folks of all backgrounds could at least be happy with what they’ve got, then even if they change it at least it wouldn’t be because ‘my hair’s bad’ or they need to ‘fix’ it, but just because that’s the fashion they choose.
I think that we have so much problems with this because softer silky hair is “the norm” and is hyped and publicized! but i think if not only black people, but other races and mixes with curly and kinky hair be proud of their own hair, and wear it acceptably then all of this good hair non-sense wud die down… Hair is such a beautiful part of us. If all of us decide to have long silky hair, who will have kinky hair?
We can twist it, straighten it, afro it, dread it, braid it and so much more it!
Because other races can shake their hair and spend minimal time doing it and it comes out well, and because men, MEN, whether black or white, think it atractive is why some of us even bother to brake out necks at the salon every week!
Look, hair for women in general is a big deal.
Long, lustrous, shiny, long, thick, voluminous, did I mention LONG hair = beauty.
Europeans have it.
Middle Easterners have it.
Indians have it.
Koreans have it.
Latinas have it.
Black women DON’T have it. Our hair grows differently, I don’t care what anyone says, no one has the tightly coiled ringlets like we do.
When all of the above all have the same hair type and that type is considered the standard of beauty, where does that leave Black/African women? Hmmm?
The only thing we can do is embrace it and hold a standard for our own selves and let the WORLD watch in awe. We have to look at ourselves like a mythological beauty, an unrelenting, unconforming, dominant, unconventional type of sexuality/beauty. Then we can feel proud.
I read this article and I am impressed with the majority of it but not all of it. Are you saying that because Blacks in this country have been mixed with white or Indian for centuries that it has helped our hair situation? That African-oriented coils are not as good as the mixed type of hair? I don’t get your agenda, and its quite disturbing that you take pride in being able to get out of the entrapment of natural black hair, unmixed and untainted.
Man, whatever.
The only people that have a problem with my natural hair are other black women. I am sorry I love my kinks. Deal with it!
This article was written about 2 or 3 years ago, but it’s steal a big debate! I still hear young people talking about “good” an “bad” hair and that’s a sad thing… On the other side, I see more and more people trying to raise their children with the conviction that they are beautiful as they are. For example, Chris Rock produced the movie “Good hair” for his little girl, go check out my article: http://kyaras.blogspot.com/2009/03/kyara-doesnt-care-about-good-hair.html
K.
“I never knew that my hair was wavy/curly, I always thought it was just bushy, kinky, and untamable.”
LOL. What a relief for you not to ‘just’ have kinky hair. So sad…
[...] I’ve noticed that my hair post a few weeks ago gets the most clicks from Google hits. I’ll throw my keyword analysis up here sometime to show you the kind of messed up queries that lead people here. Many seem to be people looking for hair care options or just looking to understand certain things about black people and hair. I hope this post will be equally informative. [...]
[...] But to post those kinds of images, then backpedal with I know its not funny! Srsly I have a black friend, two even! Makes my fucking blood boil. Some more fuel for the fire… from theangryblackwoman blog is an article about hair, and specifically the fascination with black women’s hair. [...]
[...] “Good Hair, Kinky Hair” - The Angry Black Woman After all, talking about black people’s hair isn’t just a matter of finding a good style or a good dresser or a good product. It’s also about how we as black people feel about how our hair looks in its natural state and what we do based on those feelings. It’s also about how American society and culture (read: white folks) feels about what black people do with their hair. If you don’t think that black people’s hair isn’t a battleground for issues of race and culture and assimilation and bigotry, you haven’t been paying attention to the news. [...]
[...] “Good Hair, Kinky Hair” - The Angry Black Woman After all, talking about black people’s hair isn’t just a matter of finding a good style or a good dresser or a good product. It’s also about how we as black people feel about how our hair looks in its natural state and what we do based on those feelings. It’s also about how American society and culture (read: white folks) feels about what black people do with their hair. If you don’t think that black people’s hair isn’t a battleground for issues of race and culture and assimilation and bigotry, you haven’t been paying attention to the news. [...]
[...] make sure she understands the choices before her. They will affect her for life. Related Posts: Good Hair, Kinky Hair | Black Hair Etiquette Guide [...]
[...] Yurugu: An Afrikan-Centered critique of European Cultural Thought & Behavior (pages 219-222), on blogs, in song, and even in documentaries like this insightful work by 17-year-old Kira Davis. When I [...]
[...] originally posted @ the angry black woman [...]
[...] On a related note, the Angry Black Woman has a long and informative post about hair here. [...]