GOOD HAIR

October 30, 2009



This docu was incredible. I didn't see the trailer beforehand so I had no idea what to expect, but it was absolutely amazing. Every single person of every sex, gender, and race should watch it.

Chris Rock somehow managed to get an interview with Maya Angelou and I quote her when she says, "Hair is a woman's glory." A-freaking-men. I had absolutely no idea that black women were getting their hair "relaxed" at such an early age and that working class women were spending at LEAST $1000/month on a weave. It's like paying for a second home.. that sits on top of your head.

The most interesting thing, to me, was when Chris Rock's daughter came home and asked her father why she didn't have "good hair" meaning white hair or asian hair--hair that flows and bounces and hair that you can run your fingers through. This whole process of painfully putting ammonium thioglycolate in your hair (to look like a white girls hair), or even spending $3500 for a nice weave (to look like a white girls hair) is mind-blowing.

It's interesting, this whole "looking like a white girl" issue. And I guess it is an issue. My "Learning Asia Through Post-colonialism" professor makes work addressing her youthful admiration of Western women. When she was little living in Korea she played with a beautiful paper doll with a Western woman's face and she'd dress her up in extravagant clothing. To her, at such a young age, THAT was beauty.

In the early 1990's, relaxer is developed which helps get the nappines out of black women's hair because straight and "relaxed" hair is more "beautiful". I'm sure well over 75% of black women get their hair did so they can have white hair.

In Korea, today, girls get their eyelids cut to have an eyelid and now, girls are getting the outside and inside corners of their eyes CUT so they can have wider eyes. Why? To look more Western.

It's weird because I have never wanted to do that. I grew up being the only asian girl in my whole school and was always seen as smart and beautiful. Always. I was never "the other" in a negative sense because my "otherness" was embraced. I think I grew up confident in this skin and have only recently realized what being in this skin means. I've ranted before about certain situations that I'm not going to get into right now, but my mentality is still the same. I don't want to look white or have this desire to be "Western", but perhaps that is due to the fact that I AM a Western girl and KNOW that I am. I love this skin and I love what this skin holds.

"Hair is a woman's glory." I, like many many girls, love my hair. I will admit, to all of you, that I have cried after getting a bad haircut, and have since learned that I will only let one person touch my hair. Getting my hair done is sometimes a factor in whether or not I'm going to fly home for a period of time, especially when I was carrying that giant mane. It's completely narcissistic, but it is what it is. Our hair is what holds our ego's. Yes, in the end it is just hair, and it is just decoration, but come on. Good hair is SO good.