From Tyra Banks letting Larry King run his fingers through her "real hair" to Chris Rock promoting his "Good Hair" movie on the Oprah show... my hair has never been a mystery to me, but when it appears to have grown three inches overnight, I realize that its probably the 8th Wonder of the World to some. Our VP says he's never met anyone who does as many things with their hair as I do. Will Rock's movie shed light on the kinky hair/straight hair, real hair/fake hair questions? http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2009/10/good_hair_movie_review_chris_r.html
I haven't seen the movie yet, so I can't judge. All I can say is all the talk about Black hair has sparked a few questions from listeners.
Karoline in Hickory, NC asks... I've heard you talk about how long you spend at the hairdresser before and it always kind of amazed me at the amount of time you spend at the salon. Today's (Oprah) show Chris was back on because a lot of African-American women were upset that Chris exposed their secrets. Were you upset? There was 1 woman who worked in corporate America and she didn't want people asking her if that was her real hair or a weave.
Karoline, I don't think Chris is exposing any secret you can't learn by picking up a Black hair style magazine in the grocery store (http://www.sophisticatesblackhairstyles.com/sbh/) or watching a Youtube video on hair weaving techniques (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F30Ni8jENos). Am I upset? Absolutely not. The subject only becomes polarizing when people use hair texture to discriminate.
Cathy in Charlotte asks... I hope I don't offend you by asking why so many African American women wear fake hair?
Cathy, I can't speak for all Black women. I can just speak for me. I enjoy the versatility. Any good hair day gets ruined by my clunky headphones. At least one night a week I have about five minutes to go from the studio to an event. I'd have to come to work in curlers to look decent. My own hair takes me about 20 minutes to style on any given day. Add about three hours to the process if I've washed it. Fake hair takes about 5 minutes and I'm out the door.
April in Monroe, NC asks... I love seeing the different things you do with your hair and after watching Tyra reveal her real hair, I was wondering when/if you would do the same thing.
April, I don't think it'll be as exciting as you think, but then again I did tune in just to see Tyra's real hair
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pisyysp24rw&feature=related). The next time I go to the salon I'll take some before and after pictures.
"Can I touch your hair?" is a question I've been asked more times than I can count. I've also recieved hair questions from women with bi-racial children and from a White couple adopting an African child. Learning about other people brings us together. And let's face it, hair is important to most girls, no matter what color we are.
1 comment:
When I was in cosmetology school I learned so much about African American hair and was shocked at how different it was than my own. African American women do the opposite of what we do. They cut their hair dry and put tons of oil into their hair and I saw so many women with bald spots from where they had worn weaves for so many years and it had caused damage to the scalp. I now advise my clients, mostly white, not to use hair extentions because of what I saw.
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