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So on The View, Whoopi Goldberg calls herself setting Barbra Walters straight when she tells her that black women don’t relax their hair to look like white women but because it’s more “manageable”
Relaxed hair is more manageable?
Really?
Look, relaxed hair is more manageable only because black women are the only women on the planet who are CLUELESS on how to style their natural hair.
Clueless.
I remember my relaxed hair days: Hair so dry that it would break off. My hair was already super dry, and the relaxer just made it worse. If I didn’t oil my scalp minimum every 3 days my hair would be soooo dry, brittle and damaged. I HATED sleeping in a do-rag and I slept so wild that they rarely stayed on, so my hair was constantly breaking. The HOURS spent in a salon. The perm and a half it took to relax my hair ’cause it was so thick. The chemical, steam and hot-comb burns. The HOURS it would take to get my hair ‘back right’ after shampooing, or it getting wet (or encountering humidity) for ANY reason.
SMH.
There are many things about having relaxed hair that I remember, but manageable was never it.
I remediable on one blog when the topic of “Good Hair” came up one commenter noted that she’d always had relaxed hair and she would always have relaxed hair. Youc ould hear the pride leaping off of the computer screen.
All I could think was…really?
You’re a grown woman and you’re going to go your whole life never knowing what your real hair looks like let alone how ot style it?
That’s pathetic to me and illustrates why the conversation on black hair, good and bad hair, isn’t going to go away anytime soon. We can’t even be honest about why we relax our hair and why we ASSUME that relaxed hair is easier to manage.
And contrary to popular belief having relaxed hair isn’t a choice. As long as their is a real fear and very real consequences to black women wearing their natural hair in all it’s nappy, kinky, fluffy, wavy, curly glory, then the decision to chemically alter your locks is one being made under duress, and not from a place where there aren’t any real social, politically and financially consequences of such a decision.
I’d like to think Chris Rock’s “Good Hair” is going to, at the very least, have black women take a real hard look at why they continue to chemically alter their hair as well as look at the message they’ve internalized about their hair over the years. It’s high time we stop being slaves to our locks and revel in the freedom that only embracing our natural tresses can bring.
This article is Bull****. Relaxed hair is more manageable. No, I’m a black woman with relaxed hair and I’m not trying to look white. Why is it that the black woman is always under attack. Look back at slavery and see how black women were treated. And thanks to people like Chris (the jerk) Rock, black women are under the microscope. We as “women” as “black women” have the right to do and wear whatever we please….just like anybody else. It’s personal choice how you wear your hair.
I’m shocked that so many people think that the Chris Rock’s movie is an attack. It seems more informative then foul. I grew up with a black mother and didnt know half the shit the the movie promos has been highlighting. I didnt get a negative vibe towards black females from the movie. Why is it putting black women “under the microscope?” Why isnt it black women “in the spotlight?”
My hair is easier to manage when it is natural. I don’t have to worry about it breaking off, falling out, or having scabs from relaxer burns. I think that no one should be made to feel bad for relaxing. But relaxed hair is not necessarily more manageable than natural hair. It’s just managed in a different way. My hair has never been healthier or longer since being natural. But everyone does what works for them.
wow. is all i can say..