Black Women and Weaves – Why?

I wonder why  black women are running towards, weaves and extensions instead of their natural hair.  Are black women ashamed of our God given beauty?

Source: Shophairwigs.com

I remember when I moved here from the states and how shocked I was at the number of people with extensions that I noticed. Whether it was weaves or braids it seemed as if it was everywhere.  The worst for me was children with extensions in their hair, I saw many children being backed on their mothers backs who had extensions in their hair.  I would go to a function and I would see a sea of weaves.

I said to myself  Wow!!! whoever is supplying the hair for the weaves is making a killing. Initially I used to think to myself and say these women are quite stylish.  But as time passed I noticed it was an everyday thing and not occasional. Being a stylist it was confusing to me the lack of care that went into taking care of our own hair.  As time passed I started to feel it was not about being stylish but almost an underline insecurity or better said “identity crisis”.

The truth is that the hair stores across America and the rest of the world are feeding off millions of women’s diseases, but the media also feeds off. We are constantly being reminded that white skin and long blond hair is beautiful, I am not trying to say that it isn’t, but rather I believe that every type of woman has their own unique beauty. Women of African descent have a rich unique beauty that no other type of woman possesses.

Flipping it I am not saying that in the States women do not wear weaves or braids.  But you would see versatility with women who would rock their loc’s, fro’s or relaxed hair.  More importantly is that I  am actually  concerned with the loss of hair due to the amount of traction, loss of hair, that comes from wearing weaves and extensions constantly.

What about our children? I am also afraid of what we are imprinting in the minds of our daughters and sons.  It is the image that being black is not beautiful but we must teach them that we come in many shades with different features and textures of hair.  We are definitely individuals with flavour.  We need to embrace our culture and who we are and how God made us.  Start to imprint iin our childrens minds and in other cultures and parts of the world that we are gorgeous individuals with lovely natural coils on our head

Let’s start taking care of our God given hair.  It is the one we were born with. If you do not take care of your hair, your hair will not take care of you.

Words from The HairWhisperer

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