People of African ancestry have the most unique hair in the world... possibly the universe. What we refer to as a perm is actually what most would call a straightener. Even with that commonality there's a vast difference. A straightener only last about 6 to 8 weeks. Then you're right back to your mildly to super curly hair. With women of color, the hair is altered forever. It has to either grow out or be cut off.
I imagine conformity and a limited knowledge about caring for our hair is what turned so many people on to chemically relaxing kinky, coily, nappy hair. When one's identity and way of life is stripped away from them even the simplest practices (combing and caring for this type hair) are removed, forgotten, forbidden.
400 Years Without A Comb is a book I've not yet read. The author is Willie Morrow, a barber from San Diego. Morrow calls attention to the fact that black people were on this continent for 400 years and not one artifact representative of the type comb needed for our hair could be found.
That's a long damn time. I would have been jumping fences, hoops and draw bridges to get to a product that would alter 400 years worth of matted mess into flowing, easy to manage tresses like little Miss Abigail had.(Tickled at myself)
Times have changed and people are realizing that nappy and kinky aren't bad words... they're hair types. Choosing to wear your hair this way makes you no more Afrocentric than those who don't.
It's just a choice.
I don't love me any more than I did prior to this change. I don't have a problem with women who choose to continue to chemically relax their hair. And Lord, help me.... I'm working on the impulse to swat, smother, shoot or attempt to capture some of these awful lacefronts some of my sisters have been rocking....
I'm just doing me.
....and it feels good.
