Hair Care

Lately, I've been obsessed with watching hair and makeup tutorials on youtube. I'm not really a beauty type girl, I usually just stick to clothes, but Gertie made me want to try victory rolls.

My mom thinks they're hideous, but I like it. Maybe not on me, but I haven't tried it. YET.

Anyway, I found this video about Black men's opinions on natural vs. relaxed hair. And basically, it comes down to preference, which I totally get. I don't think most men care what a girl's hair looks like as long as she keeps it clean and healthy, (but there is a biological/psychological basis for guys liking long hair. See, in prehistoric times, a woman with long, shiny hair was considered a better mate since her hair was a good indicator of health. Technology may have advanced, but people haven't.) I prefer blue eyed men. It doesn't mean I won't talk to a guy with another colored eyes, I'm just initially slightly more attracted to that particular color. Now apply it to hair! Anthony likes long hair on girls, but my hair's not long. Yay personal preference! At any rate, I made the mistake of reading the comments.

Sidenote: This is why I hate sites like youtube, facebook, and the like. People feel like they can say anything they want because they're sitting at home at their computer and not face to face. I'm willing to bet money if any Black women were around or even just the woman whoever this is insulted was present, he/she (I couldn't tell if it was a man or woman, but I think it's a boy) would have NEVER said any of these things. Cyberbullying sucks.

Just to check that someone hadn't attacked this person first, I went back a couple of pages and no one really said anything insulting to whoever this is. Some girl made a comment that she likes her relaxers, he or she called that girl a bitch and said that men don't like fake relaxed hair and that Black people are the only people who gets weaves and relaxers, then someone else said that Black people are most definitely not the only people who get weaves/relaxers and that her hair was healthy, and he/she posted this.

Aside from the fact that I hate cyberbullying and bad grammar and this post had both, this person is obviously racist. "Your hair wasn't made straight for a reason." Do you even know what that reason is? Exactly. Black people don't even know why their hair has kinky curls. I heard or read somewhere that it's to protect our heads from the sun in the desert, and when I googled it, something about the distribution of lipids popped up. "A black women's hair was never ment to be straight." Obviously not, but since we do have the technology/equipment to do it, who are you to declare it disgraceful? People's skin wasn't made permanently marked or full of decorative holes, doesn't mean people aren't going to get tatoos or piercings.

The part that mega pisses me off is the whole white girls were raised to love their hair schtick because it's complete bullshit. I know a white blonde girl who straightens her hair before she goes to bed and then again in the morning before she goes to school. Another white girl I know has beautiful, dark, curly hair, it's the perfect spiral curly, and she straightens her hair every morning despite her mom telling her not to and people like me fawning all over the curly version when she wears it that way. Women, white, black, around and in-between dye their hair. There's a technique called "Japanese hair straightening" that uses heat and chemicals to make hair straight (and Japanese people have straight hair for the most part. This makes it damn straight.) And black women are not the only people getting weaves. White girls just call them "extensions."

Women of all races are taught to manage and manipulate their hair to achieve the most attractive style possible. While attractive isn't universally level, we learn to shampoo, condition, and style whatever we've got whatever type it is. While the relaxer is a super super bad way to "manage" hair, it's still a method of straightening the really kinky roots that a flat iron just can't reach. And while I firmly hold the belief that relaxers started as a method to try and cure Black self-loathing, (another, longer blog post entirely) most Black women get them now because their mothers took them to get one. Like me. I don't necessarily hate my nappy hair. I just get relaxers because my mom made me and now it's the only way I know how to do my hair. It's just passed down now.

The point is, if men didn't find relaxers somewhat attractive and actively tried not to procreate with women who got relaxers like this same youtube user said in another comment, women wouldn't get them. Or maybe they would because they want to feel attractive and they don't give a damn if a man likes it or not.

Either way, dear WizardPrinceBreon, stop being a jerk about something you obviously know nothing about. If you want to comment that you personally don't like the relaxed look, fine. I'll even accept your racist ideology for the purpose of blog posts, but don't speak for everyone, your race or otherwise, and try to keep the name calling/cursing to a minimum. It's unattractive.