There is a tremendous amount of dialogue going on right now about natural hair in the Black community. Chris Rock has a new movie called “Good Hair.” Oprah Winfrey and Tyra Banks have revealed their real hair. The media seems to delight in discussing First Lady Obama’s various hair styles. I recently went natural and have blogged and vlogged about my own experience (check out my youtube channel) but I would be remiss to not point out exactly what is really going on behind all this discussion of Black women and our hair. While the media continues talking about hair and watching movies about our hair and buying new products–we’re distracted.
Don’t get it twisted, all this talk about hair ain’t just about hair. There are many political, social and economic implications to be considered when discussing Black women’s hair care. Still, while we sit for two hours in a movie theater watching Chris Rock’s new movie, our Sudanese sisters across the world are being ignored. While we contest the media’s interpretations of why we wear our hair in certain ways, crucial funding and programs are being cut across the country. Read more »
Say what you will about Black women and their hair. The fact is that Black hair care products amount to a multi-billion dollar industry (in the last year alone) and no matter what you feel about the topic of Black hair, that much money translates into politics– on every level. Given the numbers involved, economists might not be so surprised by that fact. First Lady Obama’s hair is talked about almost as much as the President’s health Care reform policy. Little Malia (or Radiance as she’s known to the secret service) wore her hair in twists and was subjected to very insensitive discussions about her natural hair style. A very controversial cover of The New Yorker depicted an armed First Lady wearing an afro. Oprah Winfrey went national to set the record straight about her natural hair and comedian Chris Rock will premier his much anticipated documentary Good Hair, this fall. Hair is big these days (pun intended).
A google search for “Black hair products” will return tens of millions of hits. Learning the basics of Black hair care alone are enough to keep a person occupied for hours on end and that’s just “basic” hair care, which doesn’t include weaves, locs, wigs, braids, lace fronts, sew-ins, texturizers and relaxers. Major cities usually have thousands of beauty supply stores stocked with shelves upon shelves of products that promise to “grow hair fast,” “add sheen,” “straighten those kinks.” These stores, which are very often owned by immigrants who are not of African descent, are filled with products owned by whites, labeled “natural,” and ”organic.” The good news is that Black hair care products have never had such variety. The bad news is that we (Black people) spend billions of dollars, outside of our community, for…wait for it…Vaseline? Or petroleum jelly. Of course, Vaseline is a brand name but in many communities (mine for example), all forms of petroleum jelly are simply called Vaseline. Read more »
As many of you know, I’ve recently gone natural. That is to say, I decided to stop chemically relaxing my hair and I also cut of all of the hair that had been previously relaxed. I’ve been rocking a TWA (teeny weeny afro) for about 3 months now and the journey has included lots of trial and error. I had help from the youtube natural hair community as well as various blogs devoted to natural hair care. A few sistas around me have recently gone natural and like myself, they have questions. I’ve decided to answer some of those questions in depth. Feel free to add more questions or add to the answers below.
Q: What type of oil should I use to moisturize my hair? Read more »
General, Napptural 101 | Erica | 
October 14, 2009 11:37 am | 
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