Black Women & Our Hair!

Hey Everyone. I hope all is well. I’ve been a bit quiet with the posts for the past couple of weeks. That is for a few reasons. First, I had to solve a money shortage problem, so I was a bit stressed. I spent too much damn time playing and not enough focus on handling my business and it was not pretty. I’m happy to report that I am in the beautiful flow of cash once again. Just got 4 figures deposited into the Paypal account the other day and many more deposits where that came from. Dayum, I’ll never let my situation get like that again. Mama don’t do stress! Second, I’ve been very busy with my internet marketing business. I’ve come up with an amazing product idea and I’ve been working on it. I was targeting an October launch, but I’ve decided to wait until after my birthday as I focus on finding the right JV partners to help with my launch. I also have a new amazing consulting gig in the Marketing area that has my client flying me all over the country. Ton’s of travel coming up. Also, other entrepreneurial stuff as I work toward my uber-huge financial goal to be reached by early November. A Sistah is on the Grind for the first time in over a year & a half and it feels kind of good. I had truly forgotten what working felt like. Too funny! Third, I have a new “friend” that has been keeping my attention hostage. We have been having a ball getting to know each other on a personal and professional level & I look forward to our friendship growing. Enough on that.

So, what is this talk about Black Women and our hair & what does it have to do with my travel exploits? Well, it has everything and nothing to do with my exploits. I’ll explain. As you all know, as I do not make it a secret, I wear a weave. I have done so since I was 15 years old and a Sophmore in high school. I never stopped wearing a weave until my 40th birthday 2 years ago, when I finally mustered up the courage to wear my own hair in public. It was a 3 year struggle to gain the courage to release the weave as I had become brainwashed as to what is the beauty ideal in our society, especially in the Black Community. I love the versality and the look that wearing 18-24 inches of Indian hair gives me, but as I was turning 40, it was time for a change. To be clear, I do not, nor have I ever worn a weave because I do not have hair. This is a very common misconception – that Black Women wear weaves because we are bald-headed. This is total bullshit for many of us. My own hair is super thick and past shoulder length when it is relaxed. The issue for me is that I do not have the “Barbie fullness” /Diva look that a weave gives me. Also, styling my own hair is a time consuming, expensive biyotch!! I have to go to the beauty shop weekly to look sharp. With my current weave, I have not been to the beauty shop in 6 months and I still look fierce!! Honey, I just wash and wear and watch the bouncy, curly curls appear. Yay expensive Indian Hair from Extensions Plus!!! With my own hair, it is a 3 hour ordeal of wash, dry, flat iron or curl. If I do it myself, it looks homemade and funky. Only a stylist can do it justice and that is $50.00 damn dollars and 3 hours a week in the salon chair. Dayum!!! Also, as it pertains to my worldwide travels, I cannot expect to be in some damn foreign country looking for a Black hairstylist. The only place that worked for me was during my 2 months in Paris, Summer 06, when I had the pleasure of being styled by Mr. Marc Clement. He was expensive as hell, but he hooked my custom made, Italian Silky weave up while I was there. LOL Me deciding to have 22 inches of Indian Hair installed before my Australia adventures was a huge blessing. No hair issues at all in the land of “no Black hairstylists or black hair products”. I did eventually find some, but it was after 2 damn months of searching.

As I approach 42 in the next few weeks, I am feeling the need for a major change again, so the weave is coming out again. Don’t know for how long. I’ve been inspired by Tyra Banks, who this season on her show,has decided to wear her natural hair most of the time. She has very nice natural hair, but as with me, it is no where near as thick and “Barbie like” as with her $5k lacefront wigs and weaves. There is also the hairline issue. As a longtime wearer of weaves, one of the extremely unfortunate byproducts is the thinning of or total loss of the hairline. The pulling of the sewn in or glued in hair weaves/lacefronts on the very delicate hairline causes it to disappear. I am very self-conscious about my own forehead, so you will continue to see lots of styles with bangs. Like Tyra, I’ll work to wear my own hair most of the time and the rest of the time, I’ll rock the wigs. I’m hoping to stay out of the weave until I leave the country again in late January. We’ll see. I’ll make sure to document this entire process on video and pictures so that you can experience this with me. Ya’ll will crack up when you see my HUGE, old school Michael Jackson afro when my weave is out. Total Hilarity!

Until then, enjoy the trailer for Chris Rock’s new film, ‘Good Hair’. It truly explains what we as Black
Women go thru for the sake of our hair.

Tyra Banks takes out her weave!!

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