I don’t find most black women attractive. No, I’m not some brainwashed , self-hating black woman hater like what you see on YouTube ranting about black women choosing “thugs”. Nor am I particularly colourstruck – I’m sure there’s some woman out there for me. My problem, well one of my problems is this. 
No, not the surgically attached battyjaws. Nothing wrong with that. The dead animal hanging off of the top of her head is another matter completely. And yes, if you’ve gone and put chemicals in your head to straighten your hair, we still have problems.
No Straight Answer on Hair Straightening
The practice by black women of altering their has to make it look , ahem, more presentable, has always been something that bothered me , as well as the young men in my peer group. I remember growing out my afro while sitting for my A-Level exams. Me and my friends would ask the young ladies in our peer group why they did not grow their natural hair. We would get laugh at, dismissed, deflected, but never a straight answer. When I do get answers, they generally fall into the areas of function, or form.
The functional answer is usually based upon on how easy it is to maintain false hair , and more styles being available for straight hair. This obvious cop-out can be shown for what it is when you realize that there is now an entire sub-industry for black women with natural hair.
The same goes with the notion with regards to form. A black women with Caucasian hair is like a car with bicycle wheels for tires – they just don’t go together. The pink skin on a white woman’s face is usually quite well complimented by her long straight hair, as the colour of her skin does not reflect light and shadow the way the chocolate toned hue of a black woman does. Anyone who has had the pleasure of staring at a black woman’s face will understand what I mean. The way that shadow contours itself so smoothly against the hue of her cheeks, the softness of her eyelids as the light curves around her brow, is something that is unique to black women, and is not complimented by having tufts of straight hair hanging down the side of her face. The straight, striated, hair that grows naturally on white women perfectly compliments their angular cheeks, eyes, and noses. Black women, however, have hair that grows upwards, or, in the case of dreadlocks, in identifiably separate strands, that allow that perfectly compliment their rounded features.
Of course, you cannot say this face to face to a black woman. That is a no-no in most black communities, where you will either be laughed at, or called a “natural hair Nazi.”
There is no such thing as “Natural” Hair
The term natural hair Nazi has come to describe a person whose vigilance in espousing the benefits of wearing Afro textured hair is so intense that it comes across as proselytizing, condescending, patronizing, annoying, and rude. I don’t know about the patronizing behaviour, but the idea of a “natural hair Nazi” is ridiculous to me. Not the Nazi part, Godwin’s Law notwithstanding, but the “natural hair” part.
If you go to a white woman, and ask her if she wears her in its natural state, she is going to look at you funny. Ask a woman of East Indian descent she wears her hair “natural”, she looks at you funny. Same thing with an Asian. Same thing with a Native American. The idea of natural hair is a misnomer to them because hair either hair, or extended hair, or processed hair.The idea of “natural hair”, to them, would be something like “wet rain” or “hot fire” or “dishonest PNP politician” – it is so redundant as to be unthinkable.
So if white women don’t have “natural” hair
Asian women don’t have “natural” hair
And all other women don’t have “natural” hair,
Why do black women have “natural” hair?
But within the Black Jamaican community “natural hair” has come to represent the (small) subset of women that do not chemically alter their hair, or use weaves. That an entire subculture has had to created for women who keep their hair in its natural state, should be seen in the same light as black people who choose to keep their skin in its natural complexion – a choice so natural as to be non controversial. Just as black men escaped the spell of the relaxer and its direct descendant, the jheri curl, so too must black women.
Ironically, it is the adjective “natural” that makes anyone who wishes to espouse black women using their own hair so difficult. This is because using the word “natural” to encourage black women to wear their actual hair makes any argument seem like a naive’ appeal to nature.
The perception of natural hair is even worse in the United States, where it is seen as merely a social signifier. At best, it is a signifier of Black consciousness or upward mobility. At worst, it signifies that the person is exclusively interested in romance with other races, a hippie, a neo-soul fan or, worst of all, a vegetarian.
The best way to fix this would be to create new categories – hair, processed hair, and artificial hair.
Weaves are hyperfeminine
Take a look at the below picture.
now, compare it to this one:
The woman up top has a traditionally male haircut, a Caesar style (all-in-one). Would you consider her to look more feminine, or less feminine than the ones in the below picture?If you are a normal, properly functioning, mentally stable, sexually healthy, heterosexual male, you would definitely say no. The women at the bottom don’t look like women, they look like exaggerated versions of women. In other words, they are women that look like men that look like women. By taking on an exaggerated femininity, they look exactly like another group of people that are an exaggerated parody of femininity – drag queens.
Worse still, are the other effects of processing and weaving – the smell. If you have ever had to endure the chemical smell of the lye mix (or any other alkali that they put in their head) you will know what I am talking about. The weaves are even worse than that. If you ever had the displeasure of waking up beside one, you will know that it is an experience akin to the way the hot air flies out of a hot oven and just hits you. Just replace hot air with the stench of formaldehyde and raw sweat.
Yet these women wish to consider themselves as being some sort of royalty or Barbie. I find it hard to see how they can arrive at this. When we were in West Africa, black women would wrap their hair in cloth (sometimes rafia cloth), and decorate it with flowers. The hair would be styled upwards, as the head was usually the part of the body closest to the sky, and thus closest to God.
The effect was to make the hair look like an exquisite bouquet. Nowadays, black women buy hair cultivated from wildebeests, dead Russians, Chinese heroin junkies armpits and pubic areas, Indian temple goers and sofa cushions.Let me tell you, its hard to be black royalty when your crown is a Chinese junkie’s coochie hair.
They don’t call it a “yaki” for nothing.
Could it be that we all can just choose our blackness? That all our black is beautiful? The simple answer is no. If we can just choose our blackness, then we may just as well include the wiggers as black people. Saying that all black is beautiful while including features that are explicitly non-black ignores that blackness is not some belief system like Judaism, but has a specifically physically component that is inherently part of the black experience. Remember, there would be extreme consequences for any black who was caught with an afro pick, or any other implement that was related to their indigenous culture.
But am I being too harsh? After all, white women get weaves too1 And you don’t see their men complaining about them weaving? That argument is like when white people say that they shouldn’t be held accountable for slavery, because “Arabs sold slaves too!” That type of derailment fails specifically because
- White women are extending their hair – not replacing it with dreadlocks. In fact black people’s hair gets thrown into the garbage or burnt, instead of being resold back to us by Koreans
- The fact that it has to be pointed out that white women wear weaves means that it is unnoticeable, and is thus intended for their head.
- If the black women’s defense for wearing weaves is “black women wear weaves too!” then does it mean that they are trying to be white?
But the above delusional arguments did not just spring up out of nowhere. Black women rejecting their hair, to me, means a reject of blackness. Their rejection of blackness is a response to a metaphysical question that was asked by black people at the start of the 20th century -“Who am I?” and “What am I?” That question was answered in the middle in the of century by movements such as Rastafari and Black Power. But the way that they answered that question forced black women to make choice between being black, being a woman, or being a black woman. Those choices
Who killed natural hair?
That black women have, for the most part, disengaged themselves from issues of race is lamentable, but it was inevitable. You believe that black women still think of themselves as being a part of a community that is called Black People? Then go outside, and take a walk. Count how many Rastamen you see. Repeat that walk. Count how many Rastawomen you see. Maybe you live in another country, so repeat this exercise with Five-Percent Nation or Nation of Islam instead. I’m looking at something like a 6.2 to 1 ratio in favour (or rather, displeasure) of the men.
The reason why I chose those particular organizations is because in their respective societies, they represent the political vanguard of what is considered “Blackness” in each of their countries. Each of them eventually developed a culture of misogyny that was an exaggerated mirror of the the very societies that they claimed to be against. According to Barry Chevannes, Rastafari’s dominance by the House of Nyahbinghi in the 1940s, saw it take a fundamentalist turn, that embraced Old Testament biblical literalism. Specifically, the Book of Leviticus, complete with the cleanliness laws that have alienated black women from Rastafari – and by extension, most other black movements.
That’s just one example. Whether it be Stokely Carmichael telling black women that their only position in SNCC is “prone”, not to mention the treatment of women in the Black Panther Party, one cannot blame black women for being skeptical of any black movement. Here is Elaine Brown in th Black Panther Party.
“A woman in the Black Power movement was considered, at best, irrelevant. A woman asserting herself was a pariah. If a black woman assumed a role of leadership, she was said to be eroding black manhood, to be hindering the progress of the black race. She was an enemy of the black people…. I knew I had to muster something mighty to manage the Black Panther Party.”
The above statement epitomizes everything that would keep black women away from any movement that involved blackness or Black Power. And then we wonder why black women have aproblem with blackness.
I’ve realized that its going o be very hard to celebrate blackness, without celebrating black women (yes , warts and all). And the sooner that other black men realize this, we can start celebrating ourselves.
Beast of No Nation 
Good post Satan…I will explore this…one the black end and the white end in my posts next week. Some say that relaxed hair is a symptom of internalized racism…I couldn’t care less. Live and let live. My own tresses are a wavy corkscrew…with no additives.
I agree. Some say that bleaching your skin like Sammy Sosa is a symptom of internalized racism. I couldn’t care less. Live and let live
Mr. Sosa actually looks better with darker skin…the MJ look is not for him.
I have often wondered if the black men who discuss the harmful effects of perming and weaving are coming from a place of genuine concern for the health and well-being of black families or simply pitting black women against ww….
I despise T.J. Sotomayer because he does the same things he claims he dislikes in his black female counterparts and that is engage in hate speech of the opposite sex…
Although his dating preferences in the video were irrelevant, his points about black women and weaves was all too true…i just wish we could get to the point of discussing ourselves without bringing in other people’s paradigms.
This means black women should not be concerned with what white/Asian or Indian women do with their hair–that is their paradigm thus an issue for their families to wrestle with. When you have black women who are childbearing/and or pregnant using chemicals that is a public health crisis. For me, it is not about policing black women’s decisions but about health and well being.
Then again, given where we are in history, perms, weaving, wigs, confusion is to be expected.
Although I find the “satan force” moniker abhorrent( is it meant as an anti system?) I appreciate the article because it said what MANY black men truly want to say but are viciously denied from doing.
While it is true that some factions of the “black power movement” as opposed to the civil rights movement, alienated black women with subservient views, modern society is actually the opposite!
Black women are encouraged, supported and even promoted in many ways over black men( except sports and as targets of the “justice system”-black men seem to have an advantage in that case!)
Black women now literally consider themselves “apart” from black men. They are no longer considered providers, fathers, although they are sex partners be default-black women -unlike white women, seem to REFUSE to accept safe sex and birthcontrol practises, as they engage with black men in risky sex and black women respresent the majority of unwed mothers amd single family households in North America!
Sadly many feel this is a badge of honor( merely look at social media-black women proudly proclaim they “love their babies”, but never mention the fathers-it takes two to “tango”, but you can’t be an unwed mommy if you keep your legs closed!!) In the last 20 yrs I’ve been invited to “co-ed”baby showers, but I’ve noticed that the,majority of the unwed expectant “mommies” are the black women.
Having said this, I wonder WHY you’d even bother to think that commenting on the ugliness and IGNORANCE of the degradation of the multi million dollar fake hair,eerrr”weave and extensions” industry where it concerns black women. They don’t give DAMN what a black man thinks, and you (and I) are only relevant when they need a mate(not soul mate mind you) or a “male support figure”( not husband !)
Now if a white male or female tells them weaves are bad for them, or its out of “fashion” or just plain ugly, it might take awhile-as some will claim its then “black fashion”, but THEN they would abandon the sickening and ugly practice.
Ask a black women IF she has truly seena, white chick wearing smelly almost uncleanable DEAD human hair tied in their heads,for weeks and months???
Every black womem wearing that filth has receding hair lines( Serena and Venus Williams wear tons of it-by black womens,excuses, both ptofessional multi millionaire tennis stars should have ample amounts Of their own haoe now, but both are nearly BALD from excessive weave wearing!!!)
Add to it,the,perverse viewpoint that being grossly obese, overly tattooed, and lacking social manners is now the bench mark of beauty and social liberation, and black women no longer constrained by the notion of blackness that their grandmothers( left out their mothers as many are barely in their 40s but fare no better than their daughters) understood-i.e. Family, successful community, mutual support, respect for their husbands and,fathers, conservative behavior in society
Promoted ….. by who?
The very woman commenters that you are responding to on this blog, prove that you are wrong. The type of black women that you see are the types of black women you want to see. You are inly reinforcing youor own biases.
Yeah, Sotomayor is a childish turd/ I didn’t have the original ad and a YouTube account at the time, so I just used him as a stopgap.
Lol…it all came out in the washing when i listened to his show once–he is probably a product of a single mother home and hold other blacks responsible for this. He invites some of the most racist azz pricks on his show to “enlighten” black folks.
Anyway back to the post at hand. I have noticed online–clutch mag, mediatakeout (pukes), you know the usual suspects– that black women will defend weave and wig wearing to da DEATH! You can present them with factual information about it causing permanent hair loss, traction alopecia, and so forth, but our responses are “well ww do it to”, “as long as you don’t do it all the time”, or “its just hair”, wtf??????? Much akin two commentators over of Diaryofanegress’ blog.
Keep up the good work.
kenYou can rant on the ugliness of TJ Sotomayors Youtube prattle, which I believe stems from his own hurt by a blackwoman that he has now taken out on others, BUT how often is he wrong?
Many young black women are acting like god awful creatures these days! They idolize drunken whores like Rihanna and closeted lesbian former drug dealers like Niki Minaj(word,play on “threesome sex”)
I see the horrific scene play out from a professional standpoint in social services. Young black men and now,WOMEN involved in brutal crime, becoming substance abusers, ravaged by STDs and unplanned pregnancies, whike what passes as the black power structure ( politicians, entertainers, businessmen, civic leaders) either ignore it or give minimal,lip service to thw crisis! Real fact-asian americans make up less than 5 %of the nations populace yet represent 25% of the major college and university population in America-Black youth don’t even meet their numbers in the population( 11% as,opposed to 6% reoresented in this nations colleges and university)
Tommy Sotomayors drive is to garner recognition in the vein of odious shock jock ( And neo con bigot) rush limbaugh, which has not yet happened as the black community he,seeks to gain as,followers would rather hear false messages that they are “okay” in their own dysfunction.
When Bill Cosby said the same things as Tommy did more than a,decade ago( though with less vitriol) the “Cos” was also demonized for telling the sad truth.
Our black children , men and women are out of control, lack manners and self respect for themselves-no wonder other races feel okay with shooting Trayvon Martins out of “fear”, or the police kilk young men like Michael Brown
Tommy Sotomayor is not usually wrong because he does not use facts. Just like a shock jock. Besides, he’s already been shown to be a joker, a coon, and a loser
Being ill-mannered is reason for economic and social oppression sir. Just because someone is annoying doesn’t give others the right to harm that person
And all black Americans need do is start being well-mannered, because these social problems are all their fault – right?
Sorry man, but their is no way I can take you seriously.
Reblogged this on Morgan's Blog and commented:
This is a pretty interesting take on Black women and weave.
Reblogged this on tamoore92 and commented:
Great blog that goes with my theme
I’m all for natural hair, and with the invention of the Cathy Howse “Ultra Black hair care” system, there are no more excuses, the “Black hair doesn’t grow” argument has been disproven. And Cathy herself ended up having to regrow her own hair all over again after discovering the truth about perms. You strike me as a reading addict; you should check out her book “Ultra Black hair growth 2” and “Chemical relaxers,” if you ever get the chance. If not just for the sake of discovering the first ever truthful education in Black hair care and growth, then for your possible future daughters.
Just to play devil’s advocate here, would you feel the same way about the chemical smell from a “PAWG” with a Brazilian blow out (ww’s version of the relaxer)? What about the possible smell of a PAWG’s extensions? Or are many Black men coming with conditions for Black women that they would overlook for non Black women in a heartbeat? Or do these conditions apply to all women? I have a feeling that most of the time, these conditions are limited to Black women.
I’m alive again. On a “PAWG”, no. A white woman is simply trying to look more white when she uses that Blowout. So what does one say about a black woman that uses that blowout?
Correction: the books are called “Ultra Black hair growth 2” and “Thinning edges,” both by Cathy Howse. I’m not advertising and I’m not affiliated with her or her brand; it’s just that many brothas and sistas still don’t know and I thought you might like to.
God Bless.
Are you gonna answer my question, Stan?
My bad. I’ve been doing some repairs, which is why I haven’t been able to check in.
Hey Stan. Miss your writing.
You mean to tell me that if a White woman had an eighties frizzy curls perm, or a hair straightening perm with weave, I mean, “hair extensions,” all of a sudden the smell of it, and waking up to “a dead animal” as you call it, would suddenly cause the smell and it being near you to magically disappear? Like smells react and attach themselves to specific races? All because it’s on a White woman?
Bruh.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Really%3F&biw=960&bih=600&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMItpPxwbr2xwIVSecaCh0eWAMs#imgrc=IVejN_OHxMi0LM%3AA
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Really%3F&biw=960&bih=600&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMItpPxwbr2xwIVSecaCh0eWAMs#imgrc=CpEaMvtEpFpOvM%3AA
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Really%3F&biw=960&bih=600&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMItpPxwbr2xwIVSecaCh0eWAMs#imgrc=5_fQ_u_EQDWZ-M%3AA
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Really%3F&biw=960&bih=600&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMItpPxwbr2xwIVSecaCh0eWAMs#imgrc=n026YDRRbcd9uM%3AA
Any who . . .
I think the issues you’ve raised here are completely valid, and I hope the move away from relaxers continues and extends to wigs and weaves.
But I wanna add in a variable or two that don’t really get brought up when this issue is tackled.
Firstly, a lot of Black women don’t know of haircare lines such as “Ultra Black Hair.” I know “Peanut” from Abagond’s blog, mentioned she achieved long hair in its natural state by using it. But many Black women do not know how to achieve significant length with their hair. There’s so much misinformation about how to care for it, so a lot of Black women choose to go the route of weaves and wigs because as women, they want long hair to be able to meet a standard of feminity that is status quo. Most women do not want to walk around with baby afros and ceasar hair cuts.
Secondly, I think there is a lot of misconception about what inspires certain looks for Western Black women. When I was a kid, I wanted to have an afro like Pam Grier, I wanted a punk rock multicoloured afro like Kelis, I also wanted Brandy box braids, and big Janet Jackson “Poetic Justice” box braids. But I also wanted to try poker straight hair, not because I wanted to be White, but because of Aaliyah. I wanted to try blonde, gold and brass and bronze highlights, again, not because I wanted to be a White, it was because of that iconic image of Mary J Blige in the “Not gone cry” video, with the scarf, the sunglasses, the Black lipstick, and 1002 highlights. It was women like Faith Evans we wanted to emulate, with the fur coats, the Dr Martens, the dungarees, not White women and/or Barbie.
These conversations tend to slip into the very predicament you described. Extremism, absolutist, paranoid purist ideas on authentic Black womaness.
African American women are not only African women, they’re also American women, so to contextualize fashions, from dress, to shoes, to makeup and hair, in a completely African context of Afro’s and Dashikis, overlooks the distinctive cultures Africans have created for themselves in the West. People scoff at it, but from Kangol hats and sportswear, to ghetto fabulous Mary J and Puffy, all the way back to Gill Scott and Pam Grier, these are expressions that are unique to, and belong to Black Western culture.
I can even remember being a kid and searching everywhere for Black lipstick, not because of what was on some runway, but because of Foxy Brown, the rapper. Just to play in the mirror. These were our fashion inspirations. No one in my neighbourhood wanted to be or look White.
Thirdly, I have been natural for years, but despite having a floppy looser hair texture, because of the fact that Black hair dressers are pretty much trained to do nothing but damage Black hair, from misinformation about how it should be cared for, I cannot go to the hair salon as a Black woman, White women certainly cannot do my hair. My hair is past my breasts at this point. So I know that no matter how much advice is out there, it takes roughly four hours of my week to comb, wash, deep condition, hot oil treatment, and style my hair. It’s healthier, but it’s not easy. This is something that Black men cannot appreciate. To keep the ends of my hair from ripping out in the comb, it has to be moisturized and treated with protein treatments, and babied while being washed and combed. It’s not simply a random awakening, it’s a lifestyle choice. A friend of mine, who is not mixed race, and also has long natural hair, has to take an entire day once a week to wash her hair.
Lastly, I am a permanent “Dark n Lovely Mightnight blue girl.” I like being raven haired. But one day, as women do, I may want to experiment with auburn, or golden highlights, like Keyshia Cole, Mary and Faith, but I could never switch around with my own hair colour like that, while keeping it on my head. For that, I would have to experiment with pieces, or, dun, dun, dun! A weave. Of course such experimentation is considered very ghetto of Western Black women, for the Rihannas and all, until the Gwen Stefanis, Fergies, and Kylie Jenner’s of the world do it. Then, it’s high fashion.
One Last thing, I also must disagree that straight hair never suits Black women, I do not like straight hair, mostly because everyone has it, I like to braid and take out my hair and wear it curly, or pin curl it dry and wear it in 1940s waves, since I’m going through a 40s/50s stage, but there are some black women, like the late Aaliyah, who have more angular features, who just so happen to look great with straight hair. Not all Black women have those features, or a hair texture that will stay standing once detangled and moistured. We are a diaspora.
One more question, you don’t seriously believe that any complex Black women have had from skin tone to long, racially ambiguous looking hair textures, exists in a matrix of Black womanhood completely separate from Black men do you? Cause I can tell you they do not. No matter how much confirmation bias you can extract from “your own personal conscious band of friends.”
I know this was long, but I had to get these variables down, because I don’t see them being brought up in these conversations. Perhaps brothas and sistas are just not used to having productive, honest conversations about it enough to touch on all the angles. Either way, perms, the consistent use of glued on wigs and weaves, have to go. You will absolutely go bald perming, it’s the same chemical composition as drain cleaner, and you cannot keep your hair clean and cared for when it’s locked under a hair hat. It will keep breaking, then you will have to keep using wigs and weaves because of it, and the cycle will never end.
There is no such thing as good hair and bad hair people, it just has to be cared for according to its rexture and how its texture effects the ability of sebum from the scalp, to travel to the ends and moisturize the entire hair strand.
Love ya much
Sorry about the length.
God bless.
It is good to hear from you. I was wondering why I hadn’t seen anything from you on Abagond recently. I’ve at least seen something from Phoebeprunelle regarding that fake black woman, yet nothing from you recently.
I stand by my point that these hair chemicals give women a donkey odour. It is what it is .
But before answering your main point, one has to acknowledge that black woman’s hair is more than just aesthetics, but also a cultural and economic institution. Where I am, there are no real physical spaces like parks or community centres (poor urban planning), so often times it is the hairdresser that has to suffice as a public meeting space. There is also the amount of money that is tied up in the manufacture and importation of these products. Do the stores that hairdressers buy their products from (usually Chinese or Indian owned) carry products for normal hair? And does teh training that most hairdressers undertake, train them to deal with normal hairstyles? I’m not sure.
On to your first point, the knowledge gap when it comes to long normal hair. Thta has lot to do with your seccond point, the influence that popular cullture has on l of us. Yes, Rihanna and Beyonce do influence many black women when it comes to style, but who influences Rihanna and Beyonce? I believe that contemporary popular culture is too decadent and self-contradictory to provide stylistic, much less cultural guidance. The army of stylists, agents, and public relations people behind the Beyonces, Rihannas of today, and many of the pop artists of yesterday are mostly apathetic when it comes to the interests of blacks – even when they are black themselves. The best thing right now be to to create a subculture that can gain enough critical mass to have a large enough market for products , services, and training.
Sure , straight hair can look good on black people with angular features. I have seen some beautiful Australian aborigines recently.
The version of this article for black men is still in my notebook.
Hey Stan, I took a break from Abagond about a year ago and got busy. Abagond is a great blog with a lot of great people, but a lot of people use it for catharsis and the arguing back and forth got tiresome. I got into it with one of those liberal White guys who persisted in correcting and patronizing POC on the site while hiding under the fact his wife is Black to cover himself. A few of the Black female posters including yours truly were discussing the Black female Jezebel stereotype the Beyonces, Nicki’s and Rihannas promote and how problematic it is that there’s a lack of balance in the images of Black women in media and entertainment, and, as usual we were corrected and told the Black woman’s natural state is nudity, twerkin and voodoo, and to disagree is evidence of being Westernized. When Black, White, Yellow, male and female posters tried to step in, myself and Abagond were informed by this White poster that he’s Blacker than us because he wakes up first thing to play the drums.
As I said, Abagond’s blog is great, but it can attract some very extreme posters and it becomes tiring and unproductive. A few posters told me they too had to take breaks at times. So I bowed out for a minute, and, as I said, I got a little busy.
Yes, in many ways Black hair is more than aesthetic, but there is an angle to it that is just women adopting current fashion trends. I wouldn’t name Beyonce among them since I can only recall her rocking braids and an afro for a short period of time in her career, but when I touch on Black Western fashions and culture, which includes hair, although I agree that one should not look to Black entertainers as leaders of Black culture, I do think if you take it back to the 90s (since it doesn’t apply nowadays), from Mary J, to Erykah Badu, TLC, brothas with cornrows, baby afros, high tops, s curls, although some of those styles were achieved via chemicals, there was definitely a distinctive aesthetic that was coming out of African American/Black Western culture that was unique to its own identity, not an adoption of African nor an adoption of White Western culture, but a hodgepodge turned inside out and created a new as its own.
When I was a kid I wanted Black babydolls, but this was before the world wide web, so although my mum took me everywhere in search of one, it wasn’t gonna happen. Why did I view my ethnicity as desirable compared to many kids who fail that test today. There was TLC, SWV, En Vogue, Janet, it was the Spike Lee era, the Black film industry was thriving, aI saw actresses like Nia Long as the ideal. There was Sister Sister, Moesha, Keenan and Kel growing up. There was definitely a Renaissance going on that wasn’t completely Afrocentric enough to satisfy the ideals you’ve touched on here, but there was a distinctive culture unique to itself that I wouldn’t say was just a copycat of White people, including fashions and hair styles. That lyric in 2pac’s “Keep ya head up” comes to mind, “I remember Marvin Gaye used to sing to me, he had me feeling like Black was the thing to be.” That’s what it felt like being a baby and a child through the 90s, we were proud to be Black, and our culture was our own, unique, from both White Western society and African society.
In general, however, while Black women mimic Black female entertainers, who are Black female entertainers mimicking in order to crossover? Well, that’s a quagmire for the whole, but pretty obvious for the most commercially successful at this time. And, sadly, that’s why they’re so successful. Although, there are the Janelle Monaes trying to breakthrough.
Stores won’t stock Ultra Black Hair products, or they’ll tell customers it’s no good, because it’s Black owned. There’s a short documentary on it. Cathy Howse’s product is still the only proven Black hair growth system to this day, which is my point. Black hair care has been neglected in terms of research that I am sympathetic to Black women who wear wigs and weaves for the sake of length because it has always been a struggle otherwise.
Black hairdressers are trained with nothing but misinformation, so they will generally just charge you to destroy it. It’s a joke.
Most Black hair products are made with petroleum, which is Vaseline, which coats hair and blocks moisture for an already dry hair texture (afro textured hair), they’ve never tried to formulate for us, they just exploit the desperation.
II didn’t even know what my actual hair texture is supposed to look like until I started using the UBH system.
It’s ridiculous.
When are you going to start writing for your blog again?
It is unlikely that I will blog before December.
Kay.
I’ll check back around, then.
God bless.