Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? - Fashion (3) - Nairaland
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| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by ruthkufe: 5:10pm On Dec 06, 2011 |
its just inferiority, |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by owobokiri(m): 8:19pm On Dec 06, 2011 |
i have always asked this same question. When i grew my hair high in years past, all my friends started complaining and i protested by leaving the thing like that for years. I dont know why many black men shave their heads to gorimanpa levels and they dont stop thre, The actually go out of their ways to make sure that others cut their hairs same way. It is sick , considering that black men look much better with more curly hairs 2 Likes |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by sevule(m): 6:00pm On Dec 07, 2011 |
Thought I was the only one asking this question. I have never understood the herd mentality of keeping it short myself. Even when you even keep an African style like dreadlocks people look at you funny. When I had my dreads on, chics and colleagues kept gaving me this funny looks and asked me to cut it. Funny enough all my friends and cousins who are not based in Nigeria absolutely loved it. Had to cut it sha when the wahala became too much. But I remain a non conformist and proudly rock my kinky hair in an afro!!!!! 1 Like |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by LordReed(m): 6:23pm On Dec 07, 2011 |
@BABE! You must be high on tacos! Inferiority complex? I think you must be on some weird Alice in Wonderland shiit. All sorts of reasons abound for keeping the "black" man's hair short. 1st and foremost is our hair type does not do well long; it is too curly, too dense and much too tough to lend itself to elaborate grooming. How many people want the hassle of everyday hair products just to keep long hair that will pack dust and dirt just because you've greased you hair, then you'll need to wash and all that stress? Glamouros male hairdos is the province of showbiz personalities because they live in a make believe world where preparation for a show can take several hours. Personally I have discovered that above a certain length me hair looks a mess therefore the goal is to keep it below that level. |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by BABE3: 6:37pm On Dec 07, 2011 |
Lord_Reed:  You must be high on cheap panadol. Y'all are just lazy! Excuses upon excuses--they all fall under inferiority complex. Btw, the OP was talking about black men keeping "short Afros", not Long ones. What is so hard in washing and combing your hair? It's not time-consuming. You don't even need effizy hair products to maintain a "short Afro". But no, y'all will rather go hairless. It's inferiority complex passed on from our black fore-fathers. Y'all are made to conform to "hairlessness" without even knowing it. You look for excuses because you don't want to believe your "hairlessness" is due to inferiority. I understand. It's allowed.  1 Like |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by InkedNerd(f): 9:02pm On Dec 07, 2011 |
@OP: Wonderful question. I appreciate the thought put into creating this thread! Honestly, all I can say is that it is an inferiority complex. It's no different from black women/"women of color" perm and/or alter their hair or tie it down as opposed to leaving it. In the US, during the slavery era, there were actually law that required African Americans to cover their hair in public or in the presence of white people. As Africans, we did cut our hair low before the coming of the white to Africa but what some people fail to realize is that in that same process, their arrival brought about an inferiority complex that was not naturally within us hence the nonchalant manner that we regard our hair--its become such an engrained part of us that we no longer take into consideration the historical and cultural aspect it has on us. |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by Katyetye: 5:21pm On Dec 08, 2011 |
I'm not in the mood to reply to all of the comments but I appreciate them. Its funny you mention the issue of conformity in your post and then you go ahead to compare us white men who dont cut their hair so low. Should we keep our hair the way they do? If Black men want to, they should. If they don't want to, they shouldn't. If they want to wear dreadlocks, jherri curls, pink wigs etc., they should be free to. I'm against inhibiting freedom of expression and individuality in general but discouraging Blacks from wearing their hair 'naturally' has a distinct racial aspect to it and it amazes me that people cannot see this.
No, he can, he'd just be discouraged from doing so.
I agree with you (people should be allowed to wear their hair however they like, dress however they like, listen to whatever music they like etc. and I won't think any less of them because of it) but for those who claim that only low cut straight hair is 'neat' 'smart', 'presentable' etc., what does it say about you that you think your natural hair texture is gross, messy etc? I'm not necessarily even talking about 'afros', mind you, but any hair that's long enough for you to see it's natural texture. I don't think that a preference for short hair because it's low maintenance or more sexually appealing is necessarily self-hating or a sign of an inferiority complex but don't you see the irony in claiming that you're proud, or at least not ashamed, of being African and Black but finding the natural hair texture of most Black people to be unattractive? I mean you really and honestly don't think that how you feel about your natural features says anything about your self-esteem? A woman can say that she finds body hair to be unappealing despite the fact that almost all women naturally have body hair (and I'd also agree that women shouldn't be pressured into shaving their natural body hair) but when you say that tightly curled hair is necessarily unkempt, messy etc., you're singling out Black people since tightly curled hair is a 'Black' feature, you're flat out admitting that, in at least one respect, Black people are less attractive than non-Black people are. Like someone else said, Black people don't just straighten their hair or wear it super-short, they pressure other Black people into doing so and then turn around and act indignant when some psychologist claims that Black women are 'objectively' less attractive or some radio show host starts talking about 'nappy headed hos', yet they also think that Black people with natural, long hair are less attractive than White people with natural, long hair, clearly this is a double standard. Do you know how many White people I've heard claim that 'nappy' hair in Black women is disgusting and gross and Black people actually agree with them yet are outraged when non-Blacks say it. I can understand the argument of short hair being low maintenance but to say that any length of tightly curled hair, even if it's well combed, cannot be 'neat', 'smart', 'presentable' etc., I can't see that as non-racial, it's fundamentally no different than saying that light skin is more appealing or acceptable than dark skin is. You're saying that a feature that distinguishes most Black people from other groups is unappealing. For the record, I like the way that afros and dreadlocks look on women. I don't just mean 'curly' or frizzy-ish afros either, but tightly curled hair like this : http://gorgeousblackwomen.files./2008/01/nbushe_wright.jpg?w=197 1 Like |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by obowunmi(m): 9:48pm On Dec 08, 2011 |
This is ridiculous, since we are on the topic: Is it "anti-black" to be thin and skinny, I mean, white people are known to promote thinness, I don't understand all of this comparison. People should have a choice to who they want to be. Just like thin or fat: is not neccessary black or white, Keeping your hair the way you want it is not necessarily black or white either. Jerry curls, perms, locks, braid, Its choice. 1 Like |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by Katyetye: 10:01pm On Dec 08, 2011 |
Obowunmi, I don't understand the comparison since people have a limited control over how thin they are and thinness is not a racial characteristic. It isn't 'anti-Black' to simply not wear your hair naturally, I see nothing wrong with that, what is 'anti-Black' is actively ostracizing Black men and women who wear their hair naturally and pressuring them not to do so because of your own negative attitudes about your own natural hair texture. I mean it's one thing to just date White women but to go on about the stereotypical shortcomings of Black women (ie. Black women are loud, rude, controlling blah blah blah) as a justification for your dating White women is something else. That might have been a bad analogy, the point is that if there's nothing wrong with being Black, then there's nothing wrong with Black men and women who naturally have tightly curled hair not relaxing their hair or going out of their way to keep it super short, since men and women from other groups aren't expected to alter or hide their natural hair texture Black people shouldn't be held to a different standard, even though there's nothing wrong with straightening or keeping it low cut either. 1 Like |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by LordReed(m): 11:31am On Dec 10, 2011 |
@BABE! I guess all your fore-bears were infested by the inferiority complex you persist in sprouting. Well now we know where you get the stoopid idea from. |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by BABE3: 9:59pm On Dec 10, 2011 |
^^ I don't know why you're getting so emotional. I just don't know. It's not a st[i]up[/i]id idea. It's the truth. 1 Like |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by LordReed(m): 9:59am On Dec 11, 2011 |
@BABE! What amazes me is when people I know to be well educated start pushing fallacy as truth. Obama has short hair yet he is the president of the US so where is his inferiority complex? Lots of African American entertainers and showbiz personalities keep short hair where is their inferiority complex? You say our forebears had inferiority complex, are you telling me that before we encountered Western civilisation everyone kept afros? Please put your education to good use, fallacy is not good on you. |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by BABE3: 2:56pm On Dec 11, 2011 |
^^ Remove the log from your own eye------------. You're telling me to put my education to good use, when it's quite obvious that you can't read. You can't even comprehend basic sentences. Hair-issue aside; so you think because Obama and the AA entertainers are public figures, they don't have inferiority complex in any sort of way? Nawa. I never said everyone kept afros before western civilization. But at least then, it was a matter of choice. They chose to keep afros, they chose to shave their hair. Nowadays, most black men don't even get to choose. Their head is constantly shaved. Why? Someone said it's because of the heat in the "tropical areas". I laugh in Boko haram. Another person said it's time-consuming to maintain Afros. I SMH. Lord_Reed, it's inferiority complex. Like I said, you were made to conform to "hairlessness" without even knowing it. Inferiority complex on both parties: Men and Women. Na the women own worse pass. I don't even want to talk about our hair issues. 1 Like |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by LordReed(m): 8:22pm On Dec 11, 2011 |
@BABE! First off you obviously don't know the meaning of inferiority complex. So let's review the meaning. An inferiority complex, in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis, is a feeling that one is inferior to others in some way. Such feelings can arise from an imagined or actual inferiority in the afflicted person. So in what has this got to do with how we treat our hair? We generally don't give a hoot about foreign guys hair because we generally are not gay so I don't see where you get off labeling us with inferiority complex. If indeed we felt inferior we would be seeing lots of guys trying to keep it long or even an afro. Girl you need to watch how you construct sentences because you don't even know what you are talking about. We talk of hair here and you go off talking about whether those guys I mentioned have other insecurities. About choice; who says we don't have choice? On this topic you spring up some funny ideas. No time in history has presented us with as much liberty as now. To say that we have been excluded from making any choice concerning our hair is plain myopia. You can't see beyond your nose yet you want to point the way out for a whole generation of men, pitiable and pathetically funny. |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by Nobody: 12:52am On Sep 23, 2012 |
long hair, don't care!  his hair a lil too long but it's enough for me to play in and braid. I wouldn't mind a guy like this. and he's chocolate!
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| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by Nobody: 5:55am On Sep 23, 2012 |
had to look @ him again. 1 Like |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by switdick(m): 11:49am On Sep 23, 2012 |
I choose to disagree on the inferiority reasons,.....basic aspect of inferiority' is comparison,in other words,seeing your self less than that you compare your self with.....so what will you say about people that actually like the texture of theirs,but still prefer it low....due to geographical reasons? Like the weather and all(and to be candid,its more presentable being low)....yeah,if you choose to blame it on the ancestral conformity of hairlessness"induced in us? I'd say your wrong again! Why?....it doesn't apply to me and you(educated minds) of this day modernization,because we know the difference in the texture of that of a black and white man's hair...... However,stipulating which is better or more palatable is where the "inferiority complex" come into play,a mistake made by many,even our ancestral fathers(due to ignorance,and lack of articulation in stating their desired reasons of choices)......... Many people make the mistake of saying theirs is better off.....what will you say about me' that like the brittleness of ours but choose not to let it grow beyond what I consider as unattractive,as it is more appealing to me when low and clear?...because its my choice,so as many too,do we have to leave it like theirs? Why can't it be different,yes as it is now? Look,let's face it,its a matter of choice,a choice I deem in regards to our tropical weather here in africa as a reason,theirs is a temperate region,so its understandable to grow hair..........we dnt wana feel uneasy with the heat and all that......should I say y'all are inferior for following their steps in growing hair and defiling your choices? My thought exactly! So what's all the fuss about inferiority complex?? The only thing I deem inferior here, is comparing your selves to others and not standing on your own ground on what you want and like......or do y'all think they don't av some whites on low cut??.....abegi! |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by TokinDaily: 7:23am On Jan 27, 2016 |
Did anyone mention that in the USA you will find it extremely hard in most areas to find a job with hair longer than about an inch as a black male. If unemployment is the objective than growing your hair is the step you need to take as a black male in america. The only places this isnt true is places like Atlanta Ga where the whole city is pretty much run by black people. |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by Bluffly: 8:25pm On Apr 22, 2017 |
I keep my hair and in most cases people take low cuts be responsible which appears dunce to me. God gave me my hair so why won't I be glad to keep it as long as it is neatly kept. 1 Like |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by Nobody: 6:06pm On Jun 01, 2019 |
Fuschia. Whoa.  |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by Nobody: 10:27pm On Jun 01, 2019 |
The human body was designed by a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?  |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by scoundrel(f): 4:37pm On May 24, 2020 |
When the herder leaves the sheep they govern themselves in the only way he taught. Pre-colonization saw African hair take many shapes and forms. The white man came and cut off our beautiful locks to ensure conformity in addition to enforcing the jealousy he felt watching the only hair type in the world which grows upwards as opposed to down. When he packed his bags to remotely rule us from home our grandfathers and great grandfathers had no other choice but to continue his teachings. Now many males under the age of forty cut their hair short without knowing why to begin with. Back in the day even bald people grew the salvageable parts of their locks to enviable lengths. Lice were never an African problem because many of our hair care routines suffocate the filthy creatures to non-existence. |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by Kennyking1234: 11:06pm On Jul 02, 2021 |
spot on Godmann: |
| Re: Why Are Black Men Expected To Keep Their Hair Short? by Gcool2(m): 7:52am On Jul 03, 2021 |
buzugee: |
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