Do You Wear a Weave or Extensions?
Last night I had one of those magical first chats with a perfect stranger. We covered a lot of ground, but as is often the case with me: All roads lead to hair. Hers was a very lovely, curly weave. Which I would have never guessed had she not told me, and had we not been touching each other’s curls to compare textures.
Of course this lead us into a brief conversation about the cultural politics of hair, and how those politics play out for little girls and their afros—a subject covered with great skill and humor by Chris Rock in his documentary Good Hair. All that to say, I was pretty thrilled to see the above video posted on Treehugger by Emma Grady this morning. I love that Sesame Street is encouraging young black girls to wear their hair naturally! But the fact remains that many black women do not… And I understand why. I am, after all, a girl who formaldehyded her own curls into submission with the Brazilian blowout, and earlier tried adding length to it with extensions.
So, what about you: Do you wear a weave or extensions?
I heard an interview on NPR with the person who wrote this song. He and his wife are white; they have a young African-American daughter who decided she wanted blond, straight hair. He was surprised that she was beginning to develop a negative body image at such a young age and wrote the song for her. He was stunned to find out how common this feeling was among African-American women. He has received much positive feedback for this song, including tears of gratefulness.
This song is long overdue! I’m Hispanic with naturally curly hair. I used to get ample compliments on it, but I suppose the culture has changed since middle school when the compliments stopped. Now on the rare occasion when I wear my hair straight (blow dried at the salon when I trim my hair) my co-workers, friends, and even some of my oldest and closest friends exclaim things like:
“Oh, you FIXED your hair. It looks so good!”
or
“WOW- you hair looks SOOOOOOOOOO much better”
or
“You need to wear you hair like this all the time!”
(Hell, even my own mother says shit like this). I take it all as insults. I’m tired of a society that rejects everything but pin-straight hair and a conventional look. GRRR…