What Do You Think of This Meme?: Why Black Women Think Natural Hair Is Not For Them

First off,  I feel sorry that someone made a meme of this young lady. I'm not sure if she gave her permission for this picture or not. However, I'd like to discuss the contents.

Ive heard from many black women that they could never go natural. One of my friends who is relaxed, doesn't take care of her hair. While it looks healthy and can take a beating, it hasn't grown that much longer as I've known her. Also, she doesn't wash it as often as she should, which results in large flakes that are in her scalp and fall on her clothing. She better not EVER do a robbery or another crime. She would leave those flakes all over the Crime scene.

I digress.

She echoes a sentiment that many black women have. Going back to their natural hair means returning to those days of sitting in between your mothers thighs, while she pulled and tugged on your hair. She may even have thrown some nasty names your way, calling you nappy headed and everything else. Yes, our mother's were mostly the first people that taught us that there was something very different about the way our hair grew and the way our white or hispanic friends hair grew.

Toni Morrison in, "The Bluest Eye", sums it up pretty well as she looks at the blonde girl's locks and compared them with her own. She was taught, along with the rest of us, what beauty truly looks like and it's not us. We prefer blonde to our own dark brown hair. We prefer green, blue, or light brown eyes, to our dark brown eyes. We prefer white skin compared to our different shades, thanks to colorism, which exists all over the world in different societies.

If someone taught this young lady something about hair care, it wouldn't look like this. But most of our parents know nothing about hair. Throw that in the mix with hundreds and thousands of wanna be stylists on YouTube, and you have a disaster waiting. There are some good gurus that know what they are doing, but like I told my daughter the other day. Just because you see someone doing something and got the desired result, don't mean it was done right!"

Aint' that the truth.

So, yes you can grow your hair. You can learn to tolerate and even love your natural hair as I did. I thought that it was something to be covered up. Something to be ashamed of. But no longer. I love my natural hair and natural curls. My daughter really has gorgeous curls that pop!! She has learned to love them and have convinced her friends to go natural as well. I would love to see more young ladies that love their hair so that meme's like this disappear from the internet.