TheLoop21.com

By: Crystal P. Smith (Add to your loop)
Wed, 07/29/2009 - 07:32

Black women's hair is both a blessing and a curse.

Certain aspects of the black female aesthetic have become coveted parts of American culture. Our naturally tanned hues, our typically thick legs, and full bottom and full lips are becoming mainstream obsessions with the advent of collagen, squats, booty-enhancing underwear and pigment-enhancing lotion.

The only thing that women of other races aren't rushing to obtain is our hair.

Our hair separates us from all other women across the world and, as a result, has become our obsession in the quest for self-worth. Does it curl when it's wet? How often do you get a perm? How long will it grow? Your answers indicate how your hair measures on the "goodness" scale. The straighter the hair, the better your hair.

The black hair industry benefits from the varying degrees of manageability and texture, which it uses to its advantage to keep you in search of this good hair — or at least hair that will cooperate. Chris Rock's new documentary, Good Hair, premiering in August takes a look at black hair culture, and the multimillion-dollar industry that "doesn’t always benefit the black community."

As a black woman, there's no way around the hair issue. While having good hair might mean you'll spend less time and money burning it with a hot comb or flat iron and sewing a weave into it, it also guarantees friction with other black women and the perpetual annoyance that even when it's straight, you have to be careful about sweating it out.

Recently, pop tarts have been shaving one side of their hair and leaving the other side long like a punk rocker. But Solange' Knowles, the other Knowles girl, just cut hers off entirely, opting for a bald look to free herself of the hair struggles all black women deal with. Many people, black women and men especially, made mean comments which only signified our level of

"this. phase. of. my. life. i. want to spend. the time. the energy. and the money. on something else. not in the hair salon. i. just. wanted. to. be. free. from. the. bondage. that. black. women sometimes. put. on. themselves. with. hair," Solange wrote on her Twitter page.

Honestly, I feel her. But I wouldn't do it. I'll take my curls and my need for a perm every three months before I cut it all off and relinquish my lifetime kudos for having long hair. Hey, we're all a victim, and I don't profess to be above it.

But she isn't either. She swapped her new do for long wig a couple days later. Maybe she felt empowered knowing that underneath the expensive, imported hair was a short, cropped cut and an inner attitude to match. Maybe the short cut underneath the wig prevented an attachment to the silky hair perched on her head.

Even though she didn't get it right the first time, she made an effort to free herself from the dependency for straight hair. And her actions taught us a lot, too. As much as she showed courage by cutting her hair off, covering it up on the red carpet was honest and indicative of the pressures and complexities black women face in trying to fit an ideal constructed without us in mind.

I'm sure her hair will grow back eventually, and in the meantime, at least she's saving a ton of money by skipping the hair dresser. And hey, if the pressure gets to be too much for Solange, there's always a beauty supply store with a full stock of foreign hair awaiting her.

Crystal P. Smith is TheLoop21.com's editor. She writes the Inside the Loop blog.

Photo by Hansvandenberg30.

Are sexually explicit images liberating or exploitative of black women?

Liberating; it's a women's right

Exploitative; they aren't in control

Depends on the compensation

I don't know