"Good Hair" - Enraging & Irrational Beauty Standards

Look what I found at the GW library this week!



Once upon a time (about 1 year ago), I was gun-ho on applying to a Ph.D. program in American Studies or African American Studies in order to be a professor. My dream class to teach is African American music within mainstream American culture. Yup.

Anyhow, Ph.D. programs require a 15-20 page writing sample. The longest paper I wrote at BYU did not exceed 12 pages so I was planning to start a research paper on my own after graduation - not easy. After much consultation and deliberation, I decided there was enough research and I had enough passion to write about Black Women and Body Image, especially in regards to colorism. Good Hair was one of the top resources I wanted to use. My education/career goals have changed (that's a whole other story), but watching this re-sparks my scholarly ambitions :)

Here's the synopsis: Chris Rock's 2 little daughters asked him why they didn't have "good hair", which sent him on a quest to understand black women's issues and relationship with their hair. It was fascinating and shocking. This is what I learned...

Black women are extremely pressured by media and celebrities to have straight shiny hair to look like white people's hair. They will do almost anything to have it. There is a huge annual hair show organized by a major black hair company to show people how to use their new products. Applying relaxer (aka sodium hydroxide, a very erosive chemical that can disintegrate metal and cause baldness) in order to help straighten hair is like a rite of passage for black girls (who start doing it as young as 3) and relaxer is the most important hair product for black people, including men. But the biggest moneymaker in the black hair industry - which happens to be a multimillion industry owned largely by whites and Asians - is weaves.

Weaves are extremely expensive (starting at $1,000 for a headful) hair extensions that are braided/tied/glued to the real hair on their head. Almost all of this hair comes from India (its biggest export. WOW.), where a majority of the women grow out their hair and shave it off to donate it ("god likes hair") as part of a solemn religious ceremony. Hair business men come pick it up, clean/process it, and sell it to hair dealers in America, who then sell it to other vendors. Some black women are willing to go to extremes to get weaves (they call it "creamy crack", because once you have one, you won't go back) - pay it through layaway, pay it before paying rent, get their men to pay it, etc.

As one black man in the documentary said, "When our hair is relaxed, white people are relaxed. When our hair is nappy, they ain't happy."

What's up with that?! What's wrong with cornrows, braids, and afros? I think they're beautiful.

I have never watched any of Chris Rock's material but he is absolutely great in this documentary - respectful, intelligent, inquisitive, nonjudgmental, and of course, hilarious. He is shocked at the kind of effort and money black women are willing to put into having "good hair", i.e. hair that looks more white. So was I. My jaw was down to my lap much of the time.

I have taken my hair for granted most of my life. I've always been low-maintenance with my hair, both because I am not good with hair (I didn't learn how to curl my own hair til the middle of college, and ballroom hair still trips me up) and because I don't want to be high maintenance with my hair. People would tell me they're jealous of my hair because it's so naturally straight (I would complain that it doesn't stay curled) and shiny (I would complain about my "frizzies", aka flyaways). But my gratitude for the ease of my hair care was quickly replaced by frustration and outrage...

WHY are women always wanting something they don't have and that isn't natural?

*White women want to be tan (like Latinas??)
*Asian women want to be white (porcelain skin) and have big eyes (some use eyelid tape to get the effect)
*Black women want straight "white hair" (although their weaves are made of Southeast Asian hair...)

Who came up with these beauty standards anyway?! Our eyes (men's too) have been trained to expect and desire certain looks.

There's a difference between changing your appearance to try out a different look for fun, and changing your looks because you feel ugly and unaccepted if you don't.

Girls are jealous of my tan skin and straight black hair because I'm in America. If I were in China, my darker skin would be seen as less desirable (my Mom was called the "black rose" when she was younger because people thought she had nice features but was too dark). And have you seen Asian girls trying to bleach their hair blonde but most of them can only get it to a bronze/caramel color?

White girls - girls in Asia spend hundreds of dollars on skin bleaching concoctions (including bird poop) to get skin that you call "pasty", while girls in America spend hours and hours tanning (in the sun or spraying it on). I know skin bleaching cream for blacks have also been marketed for decades. All of these methods are financially costly and/or damaging to our health (melanoma! self-induced vitiligo!). Why have we allowed our beauty standards to run amuk?! Can't we all just try to be beautiful healthily and naturally?

What also shocked and disheartened me was the weave industry, mostly on the India side. Millions of Indian women devotedly shave off 14" or more of their beautiful hair as a religious sacrifice because they truly believe it pleases god and having long hair is seen as vain. Ha! If they only knew what was being done with their hair in America!

I don't really blame black women because there are some major pressures to have straight hair. How "good" their hair is can affect not only their self-image, but also their professional image and love lives. From the little research I was able to do on colorism (featured in this heartbreaking documentary I need to watch: "Dark Girls"), I know that black girls also get judged harshly by each other based on how white they look. It is being rubbed into their faces in magazines, movies, TV shows, music videos, and on the street.

What is the redeeming aspect of this documentary? Chris Rock. He concludes with the response he decides to give to his daughters' question - (inspired by MLK?) "What's on top of your head is not as important as what's in your head." What a great answer! He seems like a great father, plus he's been married to his wife since 1996. Go Chris! It seems his girls might have a fighting chance in this vicious world of irrational beauty standards.