We Are Not Our Hair

Admittedly, I am a bit obsessive when it comes to my hair maintenance and products. I am sure that plenty of my sistahs know that we have a little  extra step in our walk when our hair looks great. Blame it on our mothers and on their mothers before them. Black women and the issue of our hair has been a decades long argument that can often get pretty heated. The part that I want to address is why?

I Am Not My Hair                 

If you are familiar with India Arie's single, I Am Not My Hair, you would know that the lyrics are about her personality and inner self outshining her physical appearance. Ideally this would be great but most of us know that it's just not the case today, especially when a photo can be taken, posted, and critiqued all within thirty seconds. So the bigger question that I want to ask is why does the way that someone else choose to wear their hair such a big deal?

Women of color have come so far as a whole yet the criticisms that we place on one another's appearance seems to have become worse. The current debate of natural hair versus relaxed hair has personally become hard to bear. Walk across any current college campus and it seems that we are living in a real life version of Spike Lee's School Daze.  Instead of jigaboos against wannabes, we have natural hair against relaxed hair. And I must agree with the theme that movie tried to get across which is that no matter what your appearance or what your preferred style is, we all share the same struggles,joys, and triumphs.

I for one love the various styles that we can create from having such versatile hair textures. It is one of the physical attributes that separates us and allows for us to showcase our creativity everyday we walk outside. Curly fros, tight coils, or bone straight styles can all be beautiful

Now when someone figures out how to keep our styles in place after a gym visit definitely send me the memo. 

What are your thoughts?