I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!!! I know I ate A LOT :) and spent a lot of well-needed time with my fam!
Over the holiday weekend, I volunteered to entertain/watch some kids who were in a Cotillion/Beautillion that my little bro is in. I watched the 1st - 3rd graders who were lil' debs and lil' beaus. In my observations...I noticed something VERY VERY interesting about the little girls. Out of the 8 girls in the show, only 1 of them wore their natural hair the day of the event and HALF - that means 4 - of the girls had relaxers*.
*I didn't actually ask the girls if they had relaxers, but I'm pretty sure about this as I'm pretty good at deciphering "pressed/straightened" hair from relaxed hair...Gosh, I truly digressed, so back to my point!
One little girl, had her hair in the cutest spiral curls. One of the beaus said that he didn't like her hair. She then was upset and did not like her hair for the REST of the evening. Another little girl came to rehearsal in the morning with box braids. She would not remove her hoody - she was holding the hood to be SURE her hair wouldn't show. I asked her why, and she explained to me that her hair "wasn't done." NOOOOOW...her braids were a little fuzzy, but who's aren't when you're a 6-8 year old. And even still, I'm a fan of fuzzy braids/twists at times ;). I explained to her that her hair looked fine, I said, "It's just like mine, I wear my hair like that all the time! And I'm FIERCE!" She acquiesed and removed the hoody.
This really bothered me. I thought, if THIS is how little girls feel at the ages of 6, 7 & 8. What are we teaching our young children!?!?! I truly think that black folks have yet to sincerely accept our natural kinks/coils for their true beauty. I know some people prefer straightened over natural hair - it's a personal preference. However, I have a problem with people THINKING/FEELING that straight hair is more acceptable or appropriate or even more beautiful than natural coils/kinks.
This situation suggests that we unknowingly ingrain these beliefs into our young daughters' minds at young ages.
Just my two cents, and FYI - I wore my hair in a half-pinned, half twist-out style that night. Ya'll...I looked GOOD! :*)
Girls' (and women's) opinions of their hair in its natural state is just an illustration of how (still in 2009) black women feel about the way they look naturally. Girls tend to carry the opinions of their mothers. I make sure my kinky, fuzzy haired, dreadlocked girls know that they are beautiful the way nature intended. Hopefully they carry that for life.
ReplyDelete