Is there a problem with black women's hair?
From tightly coiled to loosely coiled, every head of black hair has its own flow and personality. We should be celebrating our uniqueness, but instead we have been condition to believe that something is inherently wrong with our hair. It’s almost impossible to find “beautiful” and “black hair” in the same sentence. Instead, our hair is described as hard to manage, nappy, unkempt, too natural, and unprofessional.
Is there a problem with black women's hair?
Society conditioned our fathers to believe that the hair their daughters inherited from them wasn’t good enough. Our mothers were conditioned to believe that the hair that grew out of their heads wasn’t presentable.
We now have a generation of young black girls and boys watching their mothers bleach, process, prep, hide, and destroy their naturally beautiful black hair. Children are still learning that the black hair they inherited or will pass on to their children isn’t good enough.
The belief that wearing wigs, weaves, and perms is just a means of self-expression is a double-edged sword. This excuse sounds good, but it keeps us from examining the real reasons why we spend billions of dollars annually changing and rearranging our hair. We can no longer blame society or the media for the degradation of black hair. We are the ones who are actively participating in conditioning a new generation to hate their hair.
How can we raise a generation that only uses “beautiful” to describe black hair? Men must embrace the fact that the hair they pass onto their daughters is beautiful, and women have to wear their crown with love and admiration.
Is there a problem with our beautiful black hair? No. The problem is in the mind of the individual who believe that it is a problem. Black hair is beautiful.
And for those who spend too much time obsessing over their hair, keep this in mind...
Nadine Johnson
NadinejohnsonBooks.com
123mangotree.com nadine@123mangotree.com