Does Wavy= Crazy? I got this from my Blacktino.net feed.
I think I touched on this, though briefly, a few days ago. Hair politics are one of my fave topics. In fact, today’s post was to be about relaxers and hair straightening. I was a moderator of a natural hair group for about 4 years. While my hair doesn’t “need” to be relaxed, it ain’t bone straight swingy hair. So for all the people who will whine to me that I dont understand, and that its easy for ME to say people dont need relaxers because I don’t have to deal with kinky nappy hair, *shrug*. Mine is work too. And mine is curly enough that I do feel the pressure to conform.
But why spent an hour a day flatironing hair? Why fry it all out? Ihate to see children with broken damaged stubbles of straightened hair, because they feel that even THAT is preferable to their hair in its natural state, whatever that state may be.
Now, in the interest of intellectual integrity, I will post a photo of my hair. It is very curly, and fairly long. I typically wear it in a bun, but sometimes I will wear it in a ponytail or with the top up and the bottom loose. So we know exactly what Im dealing with here as far as my hair.
I rarely wear it all down. Rarely as in never.
My mother, who has baby fine stick straight hair, was never one to criticize hair. In fact, she often voiced her longing for a head of thick nappy hair, like that of some of her friends. Hair that was strong and full, hair that could be straightened and relaxed and coaxed into all sorts of styles. My grandmother will often say of people with very coarse nappy hair “She has hair that can take a good relaxer”.
These are expressions of admiration. I, for example, cannot relax my hair without it all breaking off. I cannot wear a hairstyle that requires it to be straightened and then hardened with gel or sprays, it will break like raw spaghetti. My daughters have curly, but not “afro-textured” hair. It cannot be relaxed or straightened well, and because it is so very fine, it tends to go POOF even when properly flatironed.
FOr people who like hair that is moldable, pliable and obedient, relaxed hair is cool. It can be made straight then teased into any number of styles, some gravity defying, that wouldnt work on finer thinner hair.
However, despite saying that they liked certain sorts of hair, my mother and grandmother are vehemently anti- wild hair. They were constantly on me to tame my hair, keep it from being “bushed out”. ANd when I do not tame my daughters hair, they ask me why their hair isnt done. Curly hair, even when clean and combed, is seen as unkempt.
Exhibit A- The Girls with Properly Tamed Hair
Exhibit B- The Girls with Wild Hair (Later the Same Lovely Easter Sunday)
This means I am a Bad Mother.
But I LIKE their hair like that!! I like the curls! I like the liveliness of it, I like how the sun illuminates it and you can fully appreciate the color of their hair.
Moi-
Good-
So tame,so sleek, so pretty and adult!!! So Well Groomed
Still tame and sleek, quite delightful.
Rather tame, though certainly pushing it. There is some curl here. Dangerous!!
Approaching the danger zone. Which is-
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
The above hair means one cannot be professional. One is not well groomed. The above hair probably means you are a slut. A Bad Girl. It means you are not polished, not sophisticated. Not chic.
For black women, straight hair is a sign of adulthood, as women often wore their hair braided until they were Of Age and could then wear their hair “down” or “out”.
I work on trying to loosen up everyday, let mycurls show and still be a sophisticated intelligent professional adult. Its my way of bucking the status quo, and also showing the world that the above qualities and curly hair are NOT mutually exclusive.
Rather than spout on and on about it, I’ll direct you to a few websites.
http://www.naturallycurly.com/
Does Afro/Natural Hair = Militant
http://peevesandrants.blogspot.com/2007/10/dont-touch-hair.html
http://www.experienceproject.com/groups/Have-Curly-Hair/21851
