Black Female Hair… Comedy or Complex?

Part I: The thoughts of a NNS…

Yesterday I was hanging out at the pool and was thinking… man it sucks to have “nappy” black hair as a female…not that I am ungrateful …. I just started thinking… I wouldn’t mind going swimming, washing my hair daily, or learning how to swim if I had “good hair” or if I was wealthy enough to get my hair done daily (i.e. Oprah…or the stories of Oprah).

Then I began to think how many black swimmers …FEMALE swimmers do you see… haven’t researched it yet but I suspect not a large number. Then I began to think about water rides at amusement parks how the little “black” girl that got wet hair starts to get poofy while her friend of other ethnicities may dry wavy but is still manageable.

As I began to write my last two reports for the day I was going through my mail and saw an invitation had been returned… I went to that friends website and there it was again… another reminder about black hair… it was a trailer for the movie “good hair” … a comedy or at least set up as one but my question is .. is it a comedy… or complex…

I know I myself try to laugh it off… joking I look like a cotton ball or a dirty q-tip with wet hair. Then I watched the trailer that made me think… wow we spend so much money on our hair that other people do not have to (kind of a life expense if we choose or is it a choice)… trying to look our best… we spend money and if you have been to a typical hairdresser in the south… TIME… which in many cases is just as valuable… Not all black women have “nappy” hair and those that don’t are often the envy of her naturally nappy haired sisters (NNS)….

As I watched the trailer I also noticed how much we NNS spend on relaxers, extensions, wigs, etc… and it just made me begin to type this blog… not that this is going any farther than my computer screen to yours…
I am the kind of female that tries to solve problems… but I don’t have a solution for this one… there are many NNS that say you are trying to be another ethnicity by straightening your hair… or say you aren’t keeping it real… but truth is … I personally like the straight look…it is my and many others preference … and another fact is that society looks at our “natural” look as unprofessional… not to say that it is or isn’t but it brings me to recall a recent conversation with a very close friend… I said… “what do you think about me getting braids” .. their response… “you are too conservative”… they may be right …

The more I think of my nappy hair it frustrates me… there is nothing I can really do about it without drawing attention to myself…

(to be continued)