After watching the "What Is Good Hair" episode on the Tyra Show... I was so upset (shaking my head)! I know what those women were going through and what they were putting their children through, because I've been there and I've done that. I was born with my natural nappy hair. It was always considered good hair though because it was still soft, easy to manage, it was long (in comparison to those closest to me), and I just loved it. My dad has always been against perms (a straight perm/relaxer) and I remember growing up thinking "I'm never EVER gonna perm my hair!" And of course, at the age of 15, what did i get for Christmas? A perm. And of course when my mom offered to perm our hair, I had second thoughts, but because my sisters were going through with it, I decided to do it also. I was so proud - but only for a short period of time. When I left my house that day to go show off to the world my new and "improved" hair, everyone gave me bittersweet comments such as "Oh yeah, it's cute... but your natural hair was better" -- comments I already knew were true myself. I made a mistake, and I regretted it immediately, but on the upside, my hair WAS now easier to manage. During the perm phase, my hair did get longer, and I must admit, it was beautiful, but it wasn't Sophie. I missed my hair, and I always talked about going back to natural. After 2 years, I finally did just that. It took about a year and a half of not relaxing my hair for it to go back to natural, and when it did... boy was I happy! There's a lot you can do with nappy hair, and you can still be BEAUTIFUL! I love my hair even more than I did when it was relaxed. My definition of good hair is your hair in its original chemical state, free of split ends. Good hair is hair that you just LOVE.
The things that these women were saying on this show were ridiculous! Talking about, "I have good hair because I have that white girl flow" or "If your hair is course, it's not good". And to raise your children to think the same thing?! How do you relax a 3 year old's hair????? The damage that will be done to her brain by the time she graduates high school is ridiculous... Talking about "...if they make it for kids this young then it must be okay..." Ummm, no. They don't make it for 3 year olds and even the relaxers for adults have chemicals that is wreaking havoc on their brains! Black women need to stop following the trends of the media and they need to educate themselves about what they're doing to their hair. Stop downplaying African American beauty and learn to appreciate God's greatest gift to a woman: her NATURAL HAIR!
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