- Share This Post
- submit
- 3
-
Sparkle (0)
Hair is one of my favorite topics of discussion. I've been in conversations where women get riled up like we're discussing Jesus Christ or John Boehner's views on health care. Understandable since hair is a woman's 'crowning glory' so we indeed take it seriously with the appointments and the coloring and the frustrated sighs in the mirror when looking at what we have to deal with come morning. Let's just say that at 6:30 AM I'm about ready to shave off my 'crowning glory' and start over again.
For black women hair isn't just hair it's our HAIR. We are passionate about hair and we vacillate between offense and defense when it comes to personal choices about our hair and whether or not we should discuss it. Since growing what is now shoulder length natural hair, I'm more than willing to dish about hair products. At the same time I've been known to take offense to and become irate over how magazines and popular culture portray black hair.
Quick story: Over the summer one fashion magazine showed a photo of Beyonce and under the photo the caption read that women should embrace their natural curls like Beyonce. Eye rolling ensued because black women can tell real from fake and Beyonce wasn't embracing her curls so much as she was embracing a good weave. Some women were offended; why not show a woman with natural hair who truly embraced her curls? Why is it that being 'natural' and seeing what our hair really looks like is some sort of faux pas? There was eye rolling, teeth gnashing and shaking of heads.
Chris Rock has made black women and our hair the center of his documentary Good Hair. I have been DYYYYYYING to see this movie since Karen sent me a link to the trailer and asked when we would be seeing it. Even at first glimpse there was laughing and shouts of YES! at the sight of Raven Symone pulling her weave, celebrities being honest and the addiction to relaxer. Chris Rock shows how deeply black women feel about our hair and how society and vanity have turned hair into HAIR.
It's a tricky topic that Rock is broaching here. He shows the lengths that black women go to for hair that is 'socially acceptable'. There are weaves that are thousands of dollars and the relaxer chemical process that leaves women with perfectly straight hair because otherwise they don't feel pretty. These little girls getting relaxers reminded me of my youth and wanting to be just as pretty as the girls I went to school with. I wanted hair that was shiny and I could shake all over the place. There is a scene where Rock is sitting with a group of high school girls, some with straight hair and one with a natural 'fro, and the girls say that the girl with the 'fro wouldn't be accepted in a professional environment because of her natural hair. It's almost like natural isn't all that natural because society might not like it.
(Meanwhile I'm sitting in the theater wanting to shout out that I have always been and remain (knocking on wood right now) gainfully employed and that members of congress actually compliment my hair. So there!)
I've heard some say that the movie didn't go far enough but others praise Chris Rock for even putting black women and their hair out there. I thought it was fantastic and it's 90 minutes of film that offers insight into the life of a black women and all that our hair means to us. Some think that we're too sensitive about hair and this movie gives a glimpse of the root of our sensitivity.
Thanks to The Root (and Donna Byrd who was sitting right in front of me and remembered me from my panel at BlogHer) (ZOMFG!!) for the tickets.
Heather B. also writes at No Pasa Nada. Yes, that is her hair. No, you probably shouldn't touch it.
