It’s another edition of Black Women Speak! Join KC and the ladies as they discuss why Black women must live by our own beauty standard, and our relationship with out hair . Podcast guests include Stacee Brewer, Tiffany Lanoix, Rayna Lott, Nikeita Crichlow, Joy May-Harris, Jamila Farwell, Toria Williams, and Sister T.
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I got a perm in 7th grade in order to do all finger waves and sets of the 90s, after those styles went out, I noticed that I was only walking around with straight hair and thought it was pointless to spend money on plain straight hair. By 10th grade I started to let the perm grow out, b/c I guess the straight hair didnt impress me, I was impressed with the styles you could achieve with a perm prior to this point in my life.
Lately I’ve been attempting to try natural styles,but I’ve mostly pulled my hair back in a ponytails over the years, because I do not enjoy styling my hair, just as I did not style it with a perm for the 2 years I had one (thats after the crimps and finger waves etc went out).
I straddle fence when it comes to perms. I do believe that everybody should wear a style that makes them feel pretty. However, Blacks are the only group in the universe with coiled hair. Why not show the world our unique hair? Why fall in line with the 6.3 billion other groups when we have something special and exceptional? And someone said cause it takes 5 hours less to straighten her hair. And I understand that- sometimes natural hair is more work. And there is nothing wrong with embracing other non-black cultures.
If you look at things from a evolutionary perspective and think about adaptation- I think if Black people keep straightening their hair (decades and decades from now) that DNA strand is going to be less inheritable. Like I’m saying, even if Blacks reproduce within the race, like somebody was say there hair was trained to be straight after pressing for awhile. After decades of straightening, the body will take note that the coiled hair genetic strand is being used less and less- therefore that trait will show itself less and less throughout the generations. But this is just science, not trying to scare anybody into NOT straightening hair HA HA, its adaptation and has been happening since the beginning of time. Just a little sidebar thought.
Man that was a long comment above (whops), what song were you playing?
We love comments, long and short.
The song playing is I Might Do Something Wrong by Tortured Soul.