05\20\09 I Am Not My Hair

yesterday i was watching the tyra show. the topic was about black women not embracing their natural beauty as far as their hair was concerned. some women believed they werent beautiful because they didnt have "the white girl flow" of hair. this means that if your hair isnt soft, long and flexible like a white woman then you arent beautiful. most black women have the definition of "good hair" all wrong and they believe that in order to have "good hair" you must be mixed with another race and your hair must be feathery, soft, long, flexible. one woman on the show admitted that she intentionally had sex with a latino man so her daughter could have good hair. another women admitted that because her daughter had kinki hair she wasnt beautiful and she never introduced her daughter to anyone because of it. one woman also talked about why she gives her daughter relaxers at age 3 to make her more beautiful. i thought this was absolutley sad but can someone tell me what is "good hair?" to me, good hair is hair that is well treated and taken care of on a regular basis. regardless if your hair is natural, if you have dreads, if you get a weave or relaxers as long as you love and take good care of your hair, thats "good hair." i believe black women need to stop being insecure and artificial hiding behind tons of weave and make up because they arent satisfied with their image. black women should also stop putting their children through torturous procedures such as giving them relaxers and hair weaves at age 3 to make them "more beautiful." thats truly pathetic and unloving. whether you have kinki hair, naturally curly hair, dreads, brown skin... its all apart of the black culture and we as black women should love and embrace who we are. -"it doesnt matter if you have one drop of black blood in your body, you are black. its beautiful. love it. cherish it" --malcolm x