BGLH reader Myss Kay notified me of an article on Racialicious.com about the ‘mainstreaming’ of curly hair even though kinky/coily hair remains firmly OUTSIDE the mainstream.
ARE CURLS THE NEW STRAIGHT HAIR? [THE GERMANY FILES]
by Carolina Asuquo-Brown
Just a few weeks ago I was flipping through the pages of a fashion mag with a friend.
An editorial featuring an obviously biracial black/white model sporting a huge curly ‘fro caught our eye and that I have to say – I just loved the style.
I have been natural most of my life (not necessarily out of conviction but due to the chronic and persisting shortage of German hairstylists who can deal with wild biracial hair more on the afro side-or with any kind of biracial or black hair) save a few relaxed spells every few years after which I desperately longed for my kinks and curls to come back.
Anyway, my style of the moment is natural and the model’s medium-length curls were something I really considered desirable. The hairstyle did strike a chord with me, but my friend Jen, who has two African parents, is many a shade darker than I am and has shiny and fantastically healthy-looking relaxed tresses (which I have never managed to obtain) was a lot less enthusiastic about the model’s look.
“That’s something mixed girls get away with” she said, “They can get their hair to look like that – I couldn’t. I feel that curls are something like the latest fetish – it’s like there are black girls with great curls all around, advertisement, movies, magazines. And lately it has become a bit like what straight hair used to be-you’ve got to have it.”
It had never occurred to me, but speaking to Jen, I realised that she might be right. Over the next weeks everywhere I looked, be it the streets of my city or most of he few female black German TV-presenters – it really seemed that nowadays the fly mixed or black girl hast to have curls. Generous, semi-loose curls that is, tight enough to give you the volume but loose enough to be considered beautiful in a more mainstream way.
[Click here for the rest...]
***Okay — rant! I was thinking about this article last night and got more and more frustrated. SistaOpinion’s comment just set me off. Here’s my response from the comment box. ***
“SistaOpinion you are SO right. I am beginning to question the motivation or need for articles that highlight a ‘crisis’ regarding natural hair.
Is it going to be something we haven’t heard already? Probably not.
The reality is that natural hair is NOT mainstream. it’s NOT the norm… and what?!?!? Is that supposed to make me sad/insecure/dismayed?!
I think we should all be PROUD that we’re apart of something that has nothing to do with what ‘mainstream society’ deems acceptable. And I think being accepted into ‘mainstream society’ (which is consumerist, hegemonic and tries to boil out any sign of individuality) is overrated.
at the same time i do understand that a mainstream presence plays a role in shaping what people consider ‘normal’. but honestly, i don’t think ‘mainstream natural hair acceptance’ is going to be a top down thing. i firmly believe it’s going to be bottom up. but until that day happens, i’m not going to waste tears on what some morally equivocal system isn’t doing for me.
and on a side note, is mainstream media really critical in shaping our views of what is normal? consider this: the cosby show was a phenomenon. it portrayed a high-income black couple (doctor and lawyer) leading a stable home life.
um… i don’t think that really helped the case of black people in america. at least not according to the stats which say we still have disproportionate amounts of incarceration, heart disease and non-nuclear families.
now consider this… barack obama — a real flesh and blood man, not a TV character — wins the presidency.
who do you think is more critical in shaping what people think of black/bi-racial people?
TV Character huxtable or Real Man obama?”
