good hair

[Original Syn]

funnily enough i wrote  a paper on the politcs of black hair when i was at university... long time ago... anyway. to drop my 2 cents...

The war-zone that is black hair is one as old as race relations and is deeply entrenched within the racial discourse anywhere black people have been taken or went by choice...
Contrary to popular opinion, the afro is NOT an "authentic" natural do... any person who has one will attest to how much work it needs to keep it poppin.. it is a product of the black conciousness movement in the 60s and 70s in the US, black folk were becoming enamoured by the prospect of reclaiming black identity from the white man and were striving to define themselves with some sort of relation to Africa (just like always) thing is info on what is/was authentically african was thin on the ground and the result was a sort of artists interpretation of what an authentic african style might be.
So the question must be raised, what is an authentic style? Is their any culturally specific hairdo? whats the norm?
We all have hair and while black folk might have nappy/curly hair across the majority, you get caucasoids with kroes too.. what defines the styling are the products available at the time and the societal structure of the individual... some of us dress our plumage to be iconic and some to blend in with our herd,.... we wear "mating" plumage when we go out and we have "battle" plumage (often similar to the mating plumage).
On a personal tip as a mixed race brother.. the hair lottery gave me the straight variety.. now i can say right now that its a case of wanting what you cant have, cos some members of my fam are heavy on the nappy side and some got the soft curls and others got straight... and they all want the others hair... having had dead straight hair all my life, its kinda boring... its either long or short, its either up or down... and thats it.... i always wanted curly hair, i tried braids and cornrows but shit fell otu in a matetr of hours  (annoyingly, fewer hours than it took to put them in, f*** them cornrows hurt at first, that tightness is no joke) I always toyed with the idea of havin a 'fro... but that is never going to happen, i've made peace with it now, i wear it short cos that works for me... chicks and guys who are ashamed of they hair game.. them i pity... and there is NO debate... Wigs and Bad Weaves are f***in terrible.
Remember, the exact same debates surrounding racial heritage and identity are to do with hair, its part of us and is a mine-field all its own, the media says alot and most of it bad but we make the choices around our representation, including our hair... our influences are deep and can speak volume about how we think and how MUCH we think, so ya if you choose relaxed then ok, if you allow the media to make your decisions for you, then you're a sad sad non-individual who deserves no more than my pity cos you always choose your bed, everything is a choice, even living.

[blak boy]

the hair ish is funny and interesting for many reasons. Personally I find that i Dig natural (nappy) hair on chicks, all that tangled messy afro is dope to me, that's my ish, similarly shaven hair kicks my a**, gives a chick that certain look which i know she doesn't possess but she look fly anyway, short hair is the mistake look for me and i fall for it all the time.

On my person been rockung the same messed up uncombed afro for like 5 years, too dope, jus wake up, f*** up my hair and i'm out the door.

I agree with some of the posts, those stating that people do what they think is good for them, and those that acknowledge that hair and fashion is a fad and it comes and goes and at one point or another we all dug someone's hairstyle, even when it is not possible for us to rock that hairstyle.
hair is hair its dope, do what you want with it before it falls out

[motho]

I like the scene where they show him relaxer in a container at a factory and he goes "this will last Prince for about a month" 

[motho]

tyra without the weave

[Tuboy]

10 inches and more just like prono 

[TATEguru v.2K9]

If hair is fashion then why is it we have always had to embrace the 'fashion' that resembles the other (wo)man's?
With the exception of a few weed heads & hippies hardly ever see naturally straight-haired women rocking fro's/ corn-rows/ dreads. Certainly not in the mainstream media.

[Mrs Jones]

Personally I'd love to have soft hair so that I can rock an afro but it's not. When I was growing up, my mother used a stretch comb on our hair because she hated chemicals saying "aningobelungu" kodwa every Christmas we'd wear Barbie dresses LOL. Every night we had to wash our hair with sunlight (which was also used for laundry and as body soap) then the next morning we had to wake up 30minutes earlier to a red hot comb fresh out of gas flames, sometimes, when she didn't feel like doing that, she would plat it. Anyway after my mother pa**ed, my sister decided eff that, she's gonna use Sheen, then came the relaxer. When I look back, the women in my family believed that hair was what defined a woman's beauty and that's what I believed as well. Even when I would get lice, my mother refused to cut my hair, she would go to great length to get rid of them. Nowadays, I'm lazy to care LOL I relax it for two reasons only, 1. because it's impossible to comb my virgin hair, the comb would probably break not mention the fact that it would be like someone is skinning my alive and 2. so that my hair can be soft enough to braid, 3 months later, repeat procedure

I've never understood why African American women who are so blesses with beautiful soft natural hair wanna ruin it with hair relaxers or hate on dark skinned woman, fact it we're all black retards.

[msdeane]

Still no word fromthe ladies huh?...

sorry babes. loss of focus. the intention was there. it was just interesting to listen to the fellas for a while.

you now what. ive done it all. ive seriously just done it all. its been relaxed. coloured. s curl. no hair completly. relax and bob cut. braids. weave. curly weave. straight weave. and a great deal of experience its gained me. for myself. in my own little life on this particular topic.

and my thoughts. its just not good enough to base judgements of people based on thier hair. it can infact be a big mistake. where ive been. no hair has been the best and true reflection of ones character. take me for instance. i know that there was a time when i was not good enough for the scene coz i was the girl who at some point did not fit the bill. that the changes i was going through as person would determine who and what i am intrinsically. i look back using myself as the yardstick and say that now. ill tell you its nonsensical.

it may be about conditioning but not completely. yes some people may be drawn to long hair because its all they see. all they are fed through media. and thus what they a**ume to be the acceptable codes of beauty in society. so yes the pressure is there. with the a**umption that men like us light and thin and with long manageable hair. and not just beauty seemingly we are also conditioned into believing that certain hairstyles immediately allude to certain personality traits.

but in some cases people have choices. and people want to experience different aspects of themselves at different points in their lives. that to me is the bottom line. some choose may choose consistency and some may choose change. its only what people choose for themselves. and the motivations themselves differ. i do not believe it ALWAYS necessarily makes one girl better than the next. i think thats silly. and its limited. and thats the only angle i view it from in terms of how brothers relate to us in that regard. but then again people have preferences and they have a right to that. a beautiful girl is cool. with some kind of a hairstyle. she may be thin. she may not be. the mind. there is a mind aswell there. and i also feel that it would do a great deal towards women unfolding if our men encouraged that aspect of us. so that it could be a relevant part of who we are. to actually engage with the spirit and the mind. the most important question for me. is what are you dealing with. who is that person. i belive that is the challenge our times brings to us. to start choosing for ourselves over and above what we know. what our friends thinks is cool. what our clique thinks. what the magazines think (hey look. its nice to page through glossies and see pretty thing. and choose which ones appeal to me most and why actually). if we are to trully transcend then its in the little things. everyday. every single day. make your choice. just know why athst all. we are here to live and experience ourselves through our own eyes. as we wish.

my hair is natural now. and i love and appreciate it most deeply. i adore it. and im proud of it. nurture it. but i got here because it is what i wanted for myself at a particular moment in my life. and it enriches me. is a part of me. and it teaches me too. grounds me. i have found a spiritual wholeness now.
i definetly think a lot more could be done to encourage a love of natural hair. as a lifestyle choice. just so people see it as a choice thats okay and beautiful and worth making. but it is not the be all end all.


...i am not my hair. i am not your expectations. no...

AMEN!!!! Because I co-sign you on toooooooooooooooooooo many levels.  I stopped weaving my hair over 4-5 years back because I believed it immediately placed me in the superficial box which I have always tried to not not a**ociate myself with.  but you know what thats bull dust!  but a question thrown back at you, should this not also apply also with the style of clothes we choose to wear, like Evisu jeans vs brown's & greens earth colours?



 

[Mad]

honestly i thought someone would call this thread gay, im glad no one didnt, i hate gay comments


hair? ummmmmm....had a long hair a couple of times, tried this, tried that, looked great, f***ed up and decided to cut the shit outta my head for good and went for a brush cut at all times. it suit me well for sometime then i started developing hate for trimming, it looked whack and it sucked, so i went baldy all the way,. f*** it once i had cornrows, some dope cornrows, my sis di them to me. i would look myself in the mirror for almost an hour to an extenet that i would argue with the house women oftenly.


i hate artificial women, these broads is too artificial nowadays, a chick spends weeks with a weave on and you barely see her natural her with her natural hair. im not into chicks with weave, they smell like crap and they leave a nigger's pillow sticky with all that sof'n free and dark n lovely shit. shit iused to have chick who sprayed her weave every hour, decided to let her go coz i hate artificially looking chicks

n wtf is up with them zimbabwean broads, they rock the ugliest weaves, spray the most smelling hair sprays and wear the most oily and sticky make up, shit man!

[motho]

If hair is fashion then why is it we have always had to embrace the 'fashion' that resembles the other (wo)man's?

Thanks for merging the topics, really interesting comments from the vets, most are still relevent to this day.

If I look at my own hair, I keep it short because its cost effective, it looks neat and suits the shape of my head. but i have been thru the relax, braids, dreads phase but settled on short hair because of the above reasons. it has never really been about not embracing 'africaness', it is a matter of what works for u.

I think the problem comes in when you have little kids even udults (as Chris Rock says about his daughter) start thinking that their hair is 'ugly' because it is not straight..
 

[Lord Deacon Of Frost]

not enough examples of good hair in this bitch

[Talentless]

I don't really give a f*** how anyone does their hair. If a girl looks good with whatever style she has...then goddamit she looks good.

[the panic!]

i like a lady with 'natural' hair as in untreated and un-weaved - with a fair amount of texture. it's all to do with practical reasons i won't go into here, lest i give away too much about myself.

but i don't discriminate. i have mixed-race friends and white friends, with curly and straight hair alike. like, one of my friends, when i touch her head, my fingers go right through to the skull and it's this eerie feeling of like, a skull encased in silk.

that's cool, too.

[Lord Deacon Of Frost]

i like a lady with 'natural' hair as in untreated and un-weaved - with a fair amount of texture. it's all to do with practical reasons i won't go into here, lest i give away too much about myself.

but i don't discriminate. i have mixed-race friends and white friends, with curly and straight hair alike. like, one of my friends, when i touch her head, my fingers go right through to the skull and it's this eerie feeling of like, a skull encased in silk.

that's cool, too.

I already figured it out

[The Mighty Loks]

i like a lady with 'natural' hair as in untreated and un-weaved - with a fair amount of texture. it's all to do with practical reasons i won't go into here, lest i give away too much about myself.

but i don't discriminate. i have mixed-race friends and white friends, with curly and straight hair alike. like, one of my friends, when i touch her head, my fingers go right through to the skull and it's this eerie feeling of like, a skull encased in silk.

that's cool, too.

Nigger please. You was tapping white a**. Aint nothin wrong with that.