I made mention in a post not too long ago about how I felt about my cosmetology school textbooks referring to our hair as "overly curly." I just don't like that because to me, it makes it seem like something is wrong with our hair; Like it's too curly. I just don't get what that's suppossed to mean. I needed to study for an exam and remembered I had the disc that came with the curriculum. When I found this clip, I had to show you what I mean! In the whole clip they're describing curls and curl patterns, why does our hair have to be mentioned with a negative tone? No one reffers to Asian hair as 'overly straight.'
Is it just me? What do you think? I'm really interested in hearing how other people feel about this.
I feel the same way! I was reading an old scienytific artilce that used the same terminology. It is a way of pathologizing highly textured hair--a charecteristic of people of African descent. It's quite sad.
ReplyDeleteHumph. I don't think it's a mentality geared towards Black hair. It sounds like the ideal is a nice, defined, obvious curl whatever texture you hair is. I've seen lots of whites with hair textures similar to what I associate with Black hair and they never got any slack for it because it was defined. If their hair was puffy or frizzy,it was still o.k. because all they needed to do was throw in a product and Wahla! The perception with Black hair is that it is naturally unmanageable. A genetic mistake, too many curly genes ya know? But I've noticed our hair doesn't "keep still." If we feed it the right things it is so manageable and beautiful and accepted as long as the style it is in is "defined."
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting point KJ. I agree with you that "black" hair is just seen that way, and that also extends to views on "blacks" or people of color as it whole.
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