How come black women won't wear their hair natural?

Question

How come black women won't wear their hair natural? Are you ashamed of the natural hair that God gave you?

Answer 1

There are tens of thousands of Black women who will and do wear their hair naturally.

For those who won't (or don't), the reasons are many, shame being only one of them. In my experience, other reasons include:

- Lack of information on how to care for natural hair

Women who like and admire natural hair, but simply don't know how to achieve the natural styles they see.

- Lack of role models / peers with natural hair

Women and girls who wear a perm because everyone else they know does. Other options are presented rarely if at all.

- Misconceptions about natural hair

Women who believe natural hair is extremely difficult to care for, doesn't grow, etc. A wide spectrum of information may not readily available or visible.

- Negative conditioning with regard to natural hair

Women and girls who think they won't be perceived as professional, feminine, attractive, etc with natural hair. This conditioning often comes not from the media or "Europeans" but from our own families.

- Personal preference

Women who don't either don't like the look of natural hair, or like the look of straight hair better than the look of natural hair. Also, women who believe that perms offer more variety in the styles they can wear.

These are just a few of the reasons *some* Black women won't (or don't) wear their hair naturally, but these days the numbers who do are growing by leaps and bounds.

Kaya
http://www.naturallyyoumagazine.com

Answer 2

Perms because from a young age my hair has been relaxed not because my mother didn't love me or my natural hair but, because it was easier to style and manage like everyone has been saying detangling natural hair is painful it requires a lot of upkeep and it's much easier to alter and change styles for other races you can do alot more with straight/kinkystraight hair and a lot of black women grow their hair out only to relax or silk wrap it instead of wearing their natural hair and bash other women for wearing weave over their afros they are just experimenting! That's what women do of all races but, everyone tends to put emphasis on black women because on the surface they are so different it's always "hair" though but, what about tans and lip collagen? Nope its always about hair! What a cover up...

Answer 3

I'm a black women and it has nothing to do with some of us being ashamed of our hair. It boils down to being able to manage our hair a little better and easier. My hair is naturally curly, and I just don't like messing around with my curly hair all the time. I like different styles that I can do when it's straighter. I like to switch up here and there with my hair. Sometimes I like it straight and easy to manage, and then sometimes I like to wear it naturally curly.

Answer 4

I personally think that some black women tend to find an easier way out to manage their hair. It does get very hectic sometimes when a black woman with natural hair, especially long hair tries to keep their hair neat and in tact all the time.

Answer 5

I can't speak for black women, as I am white but I just wanted to say that I like my hair permed because it is easier to do, but I still like the option to straighten it for a different look. My thought is that you get tired of the same thing day after day so I think they wear it straight to be different, and on some women I do believe it looks real good.

Answer 6

Do you wear your hair natural? A lot of black women don't go natural because it is very hard. My hard is so thick. If i don't comb it or brush it throught the day, it gets all tangled up and i hate that. I don't like my hair to be bushy or sticking up. I like it to be straight and laying down.

Answer 7

It's a lot of things.

Some people have outright hatred of the napps. I've read about black women and experienced the nappy hatred first hand. You can easily be laughed at, taunted, called picanninny for wearing your afro hair-from other black people. I wouldn't expect someone with that mentality to go natural, and I could understand someone not wanting to wear their hair in fear of being outcasted or taunted.

We prize straight hair-it's supposed to be so much easier to manage and much more attractive to men esp. black men. It's supposed to be more versatile, although that is debatable. There are many, many styles you can do with nappy hair the only limitation is you imagination. Maybe when people envision nappy hair they only see locs and afros not the styles inbetween.


Part of the problem is that some people to try or want to be natural, but want to treat nappy hair like straight hair, which result in a lot of PAIN!!!

We say that nappy hair is so hard to manage, but we have never really tried to manage it except for with chemicals and hot combs. When we did try to deal with our texture, we tried to treat it like silky straight hair. Ignorance about nappy hair care is part of the problem. We just don't know how to take care of natural texture.

Soon after trying to go natural and doing all the wrong things they proclaim that nappy hair oh so hard to deal with.

Some black women won't go natural cuz you gotta 'play the white man's game' if you wanna get a job. I've heard that first hand. One word-ASSIMILATION.


Some people think nappy hair is masculine and not feminine like wavy or straight hair.

There is the myth that nappy hair can't grow. That's not true at all. I've seen black women with their nappy natural hair down to their butts.

Answer 8

some black women choose not to wearhair natural is because they like differents styles, and easy to maintain,i choose braids casue its easy and grows your hair.

Answer 9

Girl stop, i love being a black woman and i know all about our long love hate history with our hair and its relation to our views about being black BUT.............. Im not going to lie i like being able to change my hair style at a whim, also its a whole lot easier, i tried the natural style it was too much damn work lol. but to each his own

ps i dont do weave, that i think is self hatered.

Answer 10

Cuz unlike u, not everyone likes and AFRO (so 70's) Its our hair cuz WE BOUGHT IT naturally. are u black? then u'd know why..........who said we cant have curly, short, long, straight, black, red, spiral, flipped, braided, cascading, bouncy hair like everyone else. Come on girl!!!!