Like India Aries says, "I AM NOT MY HAIR!" That doesn't make it any easier to deal with my hair blues though. After JUST (yes, I know I'm laaate!) watching Chris Rock's "Good Hair," it was just confirmed. But the documentary really made me start thinking.
Ever since I can remember, I've had relaxed hair. When I was younger, I suffered alot of damage and my hair was never healthy. For the last three years I've been going to the same stylist and finally it grows so I got some hang time and it's healthier than ever. KUDOS to her...and me! When I first started going to her I had a short cut and now its past my shoulders. Since she's been doing my hair I've done color, cuts, weaves, and more. Yea, fried, dyed, and laid to the side more than a lil bit! Aye...I like variety and I get bored! lol
So far I've had three weaves. It's kind of a love/hate relationship. I love it when I first get it done. Then I hate it when I start to get tired of the same style, it itches, the maintenance. Ughhh! Other than that, you have to deal with the weave critics. Its funny that some people think that every person who wears a weave has unhealthy hair or that she's superficial. There's probably other opinions, but I wont even entertain them. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion though. SMH Their ignorance irks me. Hmmmph not enough for me not to still be thinking about getting one though!
Lately, I've been going back and forth with the decision to go natural. I've tried, and failed. I got my sister and my friend to go natural, yet I gave up while transitioning. My sis has been going a year strong and my cousin has shoulder length dreads now. I don't know, guess I really am addicted to the CREAMY CRACK! Watching "Good Hair" seriously made me think about attempting to transition to natural again though. I didn't realize how dangerous sodium hydroxide, better known as relaxers, are. More importantly, I didnt really think about how oppressed we are by our hair. How over the years we have made advances to create products to make our naturaly curly and/or kinky hair emulate our White sista's grain. Time will tell though. Might just have to get my daily inspiration from my natural sistas on Youtube.
Welp that's my Hair Blues rant...
Relate? Comments? Questions? Suggestions? I'd love to read.
|xoxo|EB|
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It makes me laugh when people assume that just because you wear tracks or a weave that you don't have any hair. What a ridiculous thought! It's not like I can't see the connection but still...in the year 2010 it seems an absolutely silly assumption to me, especially for women to think it because they should know better than men. I wear quick weaves all the time and I have pretty long hair (it's way past my shoulders). My mother is always begging me to wear my natural hair since it's so long but I HATE the maintenance and I don't like putting a lot of heat on my hair. Aside from when I go to get my relaxer and have my hair blow dried, or when I go get it washed and blow dried, I don't put any other heat on it. In fact, I dread the day I do wear my natural hair because I feel like people might slap me upside the head because I kept it covered up for so long, lol.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel oppressed by hair. And when you think about it, and from what I've been told, it takes just as much time to maintain natural hair as it does relaxed hair, so really, there's no escaping the maintenance part. I think it has more to do with societal pressure of how hair "should" look. However, I'm fine with preferring to style my hair the "white" way. India Arie is right but only to a certain extent. We ARE our hair. It's apart of us, it's apart of who we are, and how we style it is a reflection of us, of our personal beliefs and preferences. You can't separate yourself from something that is apart of your body, and thus is YOU. I guess what India was saying was that we shouldn't judge each other based on hair, especially on hair that doesn't align with your worldview on how people should look.
Great post!