I was watching Tyra a few days ago and she was talking about hair and its role in the Black community. Made me think a lot. Based on the fact that none of my followers are Black, I guess I'll summarize the issue.
So the main issue is natural hair vs relaxed hair. Basically, relaxed hair is straight hair (like mine is now). Weaves would fall under relaxed hair, even though it's technically a different process. And natural hair is unstraightened hair (afros, dreadlocks, braids, etc).
Pro-natural/anti-relaxed arguments:
relaxed hair is giving into white society's expectation of us, trying to make us look like white society
relaxed hair makes us ashamed of our heritage
natural hair is healthier
Pro-relaxed/anti-natural arguments:
relaxed hair is easier to deal with
more likely to get a job/be considered professional
Then there's the issue of what is considered attractive and why. Some men like long, straight hair on women. Other prefer natural. Some don't care, just once the woman is beautiful.
And there's issues regarding where the term "good hair" (meaning straight hair) really comes from. Turns out "good hair" came from slavery times. Those with straighter hair were more likely to be house slaves rather than field slaves, like how lighter slaves tended to work in the house while dark slaves were in the fields.
At the moment, my hair is relaxed. Lately, I've been considering going natural (which would mean cutting off most of my hair). I think I will do it sometime before I graduate from college, but not right now. I've never had short hair, so I have no idea how I will look with it. And my natural hair is pretty difficult to take care of. But change can be good.
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