Is the natural hair movement a distraction from the goal of healthy hair?
I have to admit that some of it is. A young lady made a point on Facebook that I found quite interesting, she said after your hair leaves your scalp its dead anyway so why are we arguing about what is natural from what is not natural.
Who cares if she has a relaxer or texturizer, who cares if she is half natural or relaxed, what does this have to do with retaining length if that is your goal?
Some of us pride ourselves in saying “it’s just hair”, and we all know that it has become more than that for many of us. Hair is business, its friendship, its history, its our pride, it is who we are at the core. But on the other hand, it really is just hair.
As content creators we have a couple of goals, we want to educate our readers as much as we can on the original intent which is healthy growing hair, and we want to also add to the popular conversation and culture that surrounds it.
That is not an easy balance because nobody wants to be left out of what’s poppin’ and at the same time nobody wants to be accused of always perpetuating drama.
What drives this movement is the need to educate on what we want to know more about and also the other additives that can cause high emotion and distraction. We cannot get away from it but what we can do individually is get centered and get back to work on what we wanted originally which is hair health.
Debates are fun sometimes but if we are so focused on the mission that you personally have nothing to show for it, then you might need to look at your own regimen and get back to basics.
Candra says
Wow, excellent post! I think many of us are well over the natural vs. relaxed vs. wigs debates. My email has been flooded with blog posts dealing with those issues. Don’t get me wrong. The discussion is enlightening and brings necessary awareness, but I would love to see more innovative articles and videos focusing on how to keep hair healthy. Learning the science and history of black hair care may possibly interest most readers.
Tara says
I really appreciate your article. A little over a year ago, I heat damaged my hair using an over the counter keratin product. Even though I went to a salon and had to get it cut, I continued my destructive hair behavior of flat ironing and blowing drying until even touching or washing my hair made it break. Nine months ago I found this site and I have grown my hair from neck length to the top of my back currently by using the information found on this site. I have relaxed hair, but I read all of the articles and sucked in all of the knowledge. I also became aware of this debate over relaxed vs. natural. I had no idea it even existed to be quite honest. I don’t consider myself trying to fit any kind of image, I just like my hair relatively straight. When I see black women wearing whatever style of hair, relaxed, natural, weave, braids, I just think of it as choice in style and nothing else. I wanted healthy hair and I have managed to achieve that in a relatively short amount of time. Now I am focusing on length retention. This site gave me the knowledge to be able to do that.
Pamela Smith says
I really didn’t understand all the fuss in the first place. Hair is hair….period. If a caucasian woman thinks she can learn something by going on a black hair care site then more power to her. This reminds me of when an actor does something really bad and everyone has to blow it up by talking about it. If we don’t give it wings, it can’t fly. If white women want to ‘infiltrate’ our hair sites, don’t pay them any mind. Don’t read what they say, don’t go on their blogs and don’t view their videos. Eventually, they will go away when they realize that they don’t matter. Some of them NEED our hair care sites because of their hair types but if we stop the nonsense, they will see that they won’t get under our skin and maybe, just maybe, they will start other hair care sites for themselves and just leave is alone. I truly believe that we need to just take a chill pill and calm down. They will NEVER understand our struggles…period, plain and simple. But we can’t teach them if they don’t want to learn. Let’s stop making it about them and go back to making it about us.
Synamon says
You know I have seen too many heated conversations about black women’s hair and how to wear it. I also noticed that most comments posted come from level headed people who can care less about how other black woman choose to wear their hair. Makes me wonder… Where are these negative ideas about black women’s hair really coming from?
niqua says
The answer is plain and simple Extremist its the people who have a negative
attitude. Instead of standing on common ground they feel that their way is the only way forgetting that there is always anotherway to get where u wanna go.
Adeola Ogunsanya says
My thing is this, though im natural but why does everyone feel that they have to go natural and do the same style as everyone else? I personally believe in more versatile looks such as straight hair, wavy or etc…instead of always doing the same thing like curly hair and afros….just saying
Ni-Ni Henderson says
Of course! This is one of the many irrelevant things we “go so hard for” that will keep us divided, and yield NOTHING in the form of progress in the end.
NubianPrize says
I, for one, am well & truly TIRED of all this hair drams about what’s natural & what isn’t. In my daily life I don’t hear this mess ! Women just wear their hair the way they want to & that’s that. No arguments,no hassles, no drama. But on the internet it’s a whole different matter. All these “much ado about nothing” & “sweating the small stuff” type arguments, much of which are childish & show the insecurity & latent self hate still stuck in some folks’ minds. I first went natural in the late 60s thru 1981 , before getting curly perms. Back then there was definite hair pride in wearing our huge afros. In fact some girls with loose curls were trying to get kinks to get that look. Even white kids with curly hair grew them. Some folks criticized others for not growing or wearing an afro but by & large the afro days were very upbeat & prideful with no petty arguments even tho we had few products besides grease & water. Here I am natural again, doing the BC in 2009 & there’s all this hassle about hair. IT NEEDS TO STOP !!!
Asha Lewis says
Yes like this one^^ Smh. Let’s just all be happy about rocking our natural hair. Hey be happy if you are relaxed to. I mean hey We are not our hair #IndiaArie. Let’s just be glad we got some. We are blessed for that already.