I hear alot of African and Afrocentric women tak about being proud about their features, color and looks. Yet even the most pro-Afro women relax their hair and straighten them.

I don't get it. You never see women with naturally straight hair trying to curl it up or make it look like those with African hair. Even us men used to do it back in the day but we grew wiser.

Perming your hair so it looks straight is the number one self hatred actions still going on by Black people today. It needs to stop. If you are going to relax your hair you might as well get a nosejob, slim down your thick lips and bleach your skin and get the full effect of trying to look or have Caucasian and/or Asian features.

Have you seen Lauryn Hill

One of the most beautiful women on the planet. And she doesnt need a perm to look fly.

I was gonna say a whole lot, but im just gonna keep it short and say:

It's not an easy task to keep a natural hair. It consumes time, and i don't think women/ladies of these days have time to waste every morning just to untangle their 'natural hair'.
Natural hair is beauftiful if you can keep it, but it's alot of hard work to keep.

You girls have answered the question very well. What else can i add?

I don't think keeping hair natural is a hard task.
i think perming it is the hard task. i used to perm my hair but to maintain it, you have to treat it every week, trim every month or so, and go to your hairdresser often if you don't want it to break off.
well, i don't like doing all that so i leave my hair in braids/ natural most of the time.

if you know how to do it, leaving your hair natural is pretty easy.

naijacutee:

Also it is less painful. Have you ever seen those little kids in the village wince in pain when their hair is being plaited?

don't braid your kinky hair when it's dry. it'll hurt and break off.
use lots of moisturizer or braid it just after you wash it and it feels good. lol (just from personal experience).

i have always allowed my hair to grow naturally
when you perm your hair regularly it breaks . .
fact is natural hair is hard to deal with
it requires lots of patience
i prefer cutting my hair than perming it, .
natural hair with all kinds of braids
even ones with your own hair without extensions . . look really nice


most girls perm their hair because they are tired of combing and don't have patience and would hate to go out in tangles

its up 2 u what u want to do wif ur hair init
if u staraighten it curl it or whatever people r diffrenent

choongtin:

its up 2 u what u want to do with your hair init
if u staraighten it curl it or whatever people r diffrenent

WORD!

african hair is different, and someone above there said, it's hard work keepin that kinda hair for long.
atleast let it make you comfortable during combing it.

WesleyanA:

WORD!

what do u mean by word lol

^^^ As in she is in agreement with the quote that she put up.

oh kool

Because some believe it's difficult to maintain/style but I totally disagree,

Natural hair is the best!!! Once you decide to keep it, all you need do is thing of imaginative ways of taking care of it. I've had natural hair for the past 3years now and I'm so glad. It's easy to maintain; you can treat it yourself with the right products and you can style it yourself.

I've learnt to twist my hair for myself, I've also discovered natural products that aid the growth and maintenance of my hair. I don't have to visit the salon regularly or worry over how to maintain my hair or fix false hair on etc,

_{However, to each her own}

Lol. Im ashamed of you girls

Defending yourself to some lunatic. "oh I have natural hair sir, will you like me now!"

"but it's not our fault sah, it's just hard to maintain, please forgive us sah"


I beg, let me hear word.

To the guy who started the thread. How about you let your hair grow out, never comb it and go around. After all, what's natural about getting a hair cut? You and Mcshaka can go around looking like people who just escaped the asylum together.

What the hell does hairstyles have to do with self hatred? You do know white people get perms too, however their perms make their hair curly. It's our hair, we were born with it. We can do whatever the hell we wish with the hair. No one bothers you on whether you leave yours out or get it cut so why are bombarding these females with stupid questions? Yea comparing perming the head to getting a nose job makes alot of sense. Btw Lauryn wears wigs/weaves more often than not.

LMAO GOOD ONE THERE.

Women of African descent perm their hair to make it look more European.

There is a difference between perming your hair and washing and shampooing your hair (cleanliness) than using industrial chemicals to straighten ones hair. To equate perming ones hair to being well kept just shows the prejudice you have against black hair. Getting a haircut IS different from relaxing your hair. White people can grow out their hair and make it just as unkept as any black person, that is very different from relaxing ones hair so it has the texture of a white person.

ThiefOfHearts I'm ashamed ou would say what you said. And I find wearing wigs just as bad. Especially when they are blonde and brown etc. Its not your natural hair.

You and Mcshaka can go around looking like people who just escaped the asylum together.

I know, afterall our hair is just like monkeys until we perm them.

Thank you for reconfirming what white people have been saying for half a millenia.

oh so getting a haircut is different from perming the hair

yet perming the hair isnt different from getting a nose job and collagen injections?

You are obviously high on something.

I'll wait til you come down before I take anything else you have to say on this topic seriously.

I personally don't have qualms w/ perm.
I think it's harder to maintain though + it damages hair if you don't maintain it right. everyone to his/her own
people most def. don't perm their hair to look white although it'll be nice to see more people sporting afros.

ThiefOfHearts:

Lol. I'm ashamed of you girls

Defending yourself to some lunatic. "oh I have natural hair sir, will you like me now!"

"but it's not our fault sah, it's just hard to maintain, please forgive us sah"


I beg, let me hear word.

To the guy who started the thread. How about you let your hair grow out, never comb it and go around. After all, what's natural about getting a hair cut? You and Mcshaka can go around looking like people who just escaped the asylum together.

What the hell does hairstyles have to do with self hatred? You do know white people get perms too, however their perms make their hair curly. It's our hair, we were born with it. We can do whatever the hell we wish with the hair. No one bothers you on whether you leave yours out or get it cut so why are bombarding these females with stupid questions? Yea comparing perming the head to getting a nose job makes alot of sense. Btw Lauryn wears wigs/weaves more often than not.

Oh God! *dies*

the "lauryn wears wigs/weave" hit me on the nerve though. Just like when i was little and realized santa wasn't real.
i want my hair just like hers.

It is amazing how we as black people take the easy way out with everything-
We don't demand reparations for slavery because it has been so LOOONG AGO, yet till today the German government has special grants and scholarships for people of Jewish decent.

Oprah Winfrey built the first all girls’ high school in an impoverished neighborhood (aka black) in South Africa. Noticed I said FIRST, because you see after the apartheid was abolished, the black people did not demand that the White people build up their communities.

Now the same foolish excuse is chimed by black people everywhere, “Our natural hair is too difficult to maintain that’s why we perm it." How many black people stop to ask themselves what can we do to make our hair better? How many black people ask themselves what can we do with reparations? How many ask ourselves what can WE do to build up our communities? Because white people and companies haven't volunteered to do so; we roll with it.
We black people avoid investing time in things that better the quality of life for our people. While white people are investing millions into skin and hair care research, amongst other things; we just fold our arms, and hope they throw a bone our way, because research takes a lot of time and money, and unfortunately, a lot of black people think of "Now" and not long-term.
Research is being and HAS been done for hair and skin care, but it is not for us. They figure out what works for white people, and cross their fingers in hope that it works for us. But guess what, it doesn't!! So what do we do? We try and make our hair more like theirs to make up for it!!!

Why am I venting? I was tired of my perming my hair. Moving to yankee, for some reason my relaxed hair failed to adjust. It always grows, and sheds back up to shoulder length. I decided to go "natural", Something other women from other cultures take for granted (white people have their own perm), and I realized how anti-black hair the world truly is. The products don't work for your hair, lots of hairdressers only know how to take a hot comb to it, braid is practically your fail-safe option, and interestingly enough, turns out that white people are more interested in natural black hair than blacks.
Hopefully one of those white people will become dermatologists in future and do some research and invest some money into it, because I don't see too many people black out there that give a dam%.

divadarlin:

Why am I venting? I was tired of my perming my hair.

Good for you. Keep the rants to things that correlate with the damn topic. What the hell does reparations have to do with anything?

People just be yaning unnecessary dust sha

so shango let me get this right, are you saying women who relax their hair are not happy about being African or black? is this the point? before i proceed,

@Topic

[b]Black African descent hair, kinky or what have you, is not hard to maintain, that is an excuse. God would have never given you anything that is hard to maintain. Black women just want to have their hair swinging in their face like early white women models. To this day, that image is projected as the most beautiful. That is why even in this day, black models are always modeling white featured hair. You might see and Afro wig from time to time when they model but that is when they call their self trying to project what they call a funkier image. The funky image is as you can see, mostly seasonal and not all year around. What a shame.

Interesting that I have seen a lot of the African men as well as the women in nairaland making references to the fact that mixed black and white baby's are so damned pretty/beautiful and their hair is so much manageable and good. I ask this question, are not full African baby's pretty/beautiful. Are not full African baby's with kinky hair posessing a head of beautiful hair?[/b]

Are not full African baby's with kinky hair posessing a head of beautiful hair?

African babies don't have a full head of kinky hair , it just thesame texture as any mixed race child, and all babies are beautiful. twisting what people say again for your own RACIST AGENDA  even if they had kinky hair like you say (truly laughable) then  what some say about many blacks not loving themselves would manifest in parents perming their baby's hair don't you think?

Many Africans love their children and themselves with all their Africanness, we don't need someone who knows all she knows about Africa from books to tell us.

Omo, I dey think of perming my hair, so you're telling me not to go ahead with it?, I want to be like Al Sharpton, the reverend.

;d

In fact, many Africans have permed their little 3 year old baby's heads. In fact many African women have talked about their own child's head in disgust, as it was time to comb that child's head. Didn't read about that in a book, saw it with my own eyes one to may times. AA people do this as well, not all of them of course just like not C/A's of course. This is not a generalization it is a fact about many but now all African descendant people.

Don't be mad because your hair is processed to resemble your oppressors woman. This is not about you, it is about African beauty being disrespected by it's own people as well as outsiders.

@Donzman

Al Sharpton, the reverend.

Now that was funny. I agree, Al Sharpton looks like a fool. Then again, even if he didn't have his hair processed, he still wouldn't look any better.

you mean African American women. Tell me how many African women you know who do this to their children

I love my processed hair lol now what? you not going to sleep right tonite? mad racist

@ Divadarlin I think u struck a cord with me there! I don't know how but it seems that is what we have always been doing,,,, taking the easy way out,,,following laid out formulations that might have not been developed with us in mind. Anyways, unlike TOH, I like your correlation! _{reparation and all}

divadarlin:

It is amazing how we as black people take the easy way out with everything-
We don't demand reparations for slavery because it has been so LOOONG AGO, yet till today the German government has special grants and scholarships for people of Jewish decent.

Oprah Winfrey built the first all girls’ high school in an impoverished neighborhood (aka black) in South Africa. Noticed I said FIRST, because you see after the apartheid was abolished, the black people did not demand that the White people build up their communities.

Now the same foolish excuse is chimed by black people everywhere, “Our natural hair is too difficult to maintain that’s why we perm it." How many black people stop to ask themselves what can we do to make our hair better? How many black people ask themselves what can we do with reparations? How many ask ourselves what can WE do to build up our communities? Because white people and companies haven't volunteered to do so; we roll with it.
We black people avoid investing time in things that better the quality of life for our people. While white people are investing millions into skin and hair care research, amongst other things; we just fold our arms, and hope they throw a bone our way, because research takes a lot of time and money, and unfortunately, a lot of black people think of "Now" and not long-term.
Research is being and HAS been done for hair and skin care, but it is not for us. They figure out what works for white people, and cross their fingers in hope that it works for us. But guess what, it doesn't!! So what do we do? We try and make our hair more like theirs to make up for it!!!

Why am I venting? I was tired of my perming my hair. Moving to yankee, for some reason my relaxed hair failed to adjust. It always grows, and sheds back up to shoulder length. I decided to go "natural", Something other women from other cultures take for granted (white people have their own perm), and I realized how anti-black hair the world truly is. The products don't work for your hair, lots of hairdressers only know how to take a hot comb to it, braid is practically your fail-safe option, and interestingly enough, turns out that white people are more interested in natural black hair than blacks.
Hopefully one of those white people will become dermatologists in future and do some research and invest some money into it, because I don't see too many people black out there that give a dam%.

WORD!!
I've been thinking the same thing too!
everytime i go to the store to get hair products, black or "ethnic" hair care is always buried in a hard to reach corner with only a few products.
I've stopped relaxing my hair not because i think perm is bad but it doesn't work for my hair (it works for some others though).

nappy hair is hard to manage because we don't know how to/ have the resourses to take care of it. instead of creating it for ourselves, we go the easy (but not best) way. Most of the products we use on our hair is not made for our hair type
pantene pro-v for people of color (that's the only popular brand that's targeted at people w/ our type of hair but still for somereason it takes me long to find it).