The ‘good hair’ bandwagon keeps on going! Who would have thought this would be such a big topic? (And who would have thought I’d post three articles before 9:30 am?)
Anyhow, read Ashante Infantry’s take on hair in today’s Toronto Star article Good hair starts at the roots. Here’s a clip:
I have great hair.
What’s not to love? It’s weatherproof, takes two minutes to style and is maintained by a $30, 30-minute haircut every six or so weeks.
Can’t say I’ve always appreciated it, though.
In Grade 6, I pestered my mother to get my hair chemically straightened like most other black girls my age. It wasn’t quite the Farrah Fawcett tresses I’d coveted, but for 14 years I stuck with the “creamy crack” habit that Chris Rock explores in the documentary Good Hair, which opens Friday.
You can find the entire article here.
The Accidental Natural 
In Grade 6 I asked the same thing, mom said “no”. I figured that I could trick her into saying “yes”, so I asked if I could cut my hair thinking if it was short she would THEN say “YES!”.
No luck.
I had a very short natural cut in a sea of blond and brown pony tails.
I was sad and embarrassed, because I felt that I was so far from the beauty ideals of popular cultural all around me. I had TWA in Grade 7 and kept it for awhile. I have had natural hair for most of my life, incorporating braids and twists, all because Moms kept saying that I was a natural black beauty, and I should be proud of my natural hair. I did not believe her at first, but now I’m grateful that she did not cower to the pandering of a pre-teen, friends, family etc…. I only surrendered to the creamy crack for about 2yrs of my 30 something life. Mom is an awesome model she has been rocking TWA forever!
That must have been hard when you were little. Even with relaxed hair, I still didn’t fit in to the beauty ideals. My ponytail didn’t move. It was stumpy and it was either slicked down in some grease or a dried up little tuft. I just didn’t know what I was doing. My mom would make sure that we washed and greased our hair, but once I was a teenager, I was not interested in too much help. I was interested in Stiff Stuff and Dax to lay that sucker down. Ugh. I wonder what my hair would like like today if I never permed it.
It is only in the last couple of years that I am learning that HEALTHY hair requires much investigation, work and a trail and error path to discovering what works for each individual hair type. In the past, I always thought that healthy hair was natural hair….
I always thought that healthy hair was long hair. I know that’s not true. Some people’s goal is to have long hair — nothing’s wrong with that. My goal is to have healthy hair and, by virtue of it being healthy, it will grow.