No it's not just hair!

[Nope]

There's no such thing as "healthy hair" - only the hair follicle itself is alive (the part which is embedded in the part of your skin that's alive), the rest of the strand is dead.

In the 80's I desperately wanted curly hair so I spent money on spiral perms. My hair will not hold curl even with chemical help and I ended up with very frizzy, fragile hair that broke easily.  That is what people mean by unhealthy hair.

Very curly hair runs in my husband's family and I go in circles with my younger son begging him to stop cutting off his curls. I think that they are gorgeous. His hair is a lot like the character, Nathan in The Misfits. There is a huge difference between how my son's hair feels to the touch and how mine felt when I used to try to force it to curl. His hair is healthy, mine was not.

The photo in the spoiler is not pornagraphic, I promise. It is just really big. LOL This is what my son's hair looks like.

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[Regina]

Mine is slightly less curly than that but still pretty coarse and hard to style. It's a nightmare trying to style it properly, I think that's why so many curly guys just keep it cut short. I tend to comb mine back quite tight and/or put a headband in immediately after washing, so it'll dry straighter and be more manageable when I take it down and style it. If I let it just dry curly I get loads of frizz and rogue curls that never fall in a nice way.

[Nope]

Whoaa! I thought this post wast going to be about her love of Donald Trump's hair! I guess it's close.

Personally I think BQ's being a bit racist here. It's ok for a black girl to have a particular hairstyle that a white girl gets questioned about?

I think it stems from BQ's feelings of being in a club that sees outsiders as insincere interactors that copy the club's uniform.

As a white man, i don't feel that way about the black ladies that happen to pick popular hairstyles of white women because I'm not in a club or "Brotherhood" among other whites. I would never have such a feeling that my race "owns' a particular hairstyle.  I would go as far as to say Donald Trump's hair is alien to the human race though..


The club's not all that exclusive you know..

The first video that BQ posted made some excellent points that I, as a white woman, would have not known. I had no idea that black women were sometimes required by their employers to straighten their hair. That is crazy. No, BQ isn't being racist. It sounds like white women get praised as edgy and cool for wearing the same hairstyle that black women will be criticized for wearing even though it is the natural hair type for people of African descent.

[Regina]

I don't understand what this is showing? No key, no information.

She's not being racist, I understand her frustration. Btw my comment earlier wasn't to suggest I thought you in particular were saying white people couldn't wear black hairstyles BQ, which clearly you didn't say. My issue is how some people (and yes I've heard it myself) literally do want to take body autonomy away from people. It does come off hypocritical and self-righteous considering they're fighting for their own body autonomy themselves. If we're talking about making white people aware that they can just put on these "fashions" and be praised for it while a black person can't though, I AGREE 100%, there is a conversation to be had about that.

[BrokenQuill92]

I just get tired of Eurocentric beauty standards sometimes. And knowing they're totally pointless for me as a WoC. Then on top of it feels like people get to play dress up with my life "cuz edgy man"! Sigh. Some days my patience wears thin. But as I say, people can do what they like.

[Brakeman]

Whoaa! I thought this post wast going to be about her love of Donald Trump's hair! I guess it's close.

Personally I think BQ's being a bit racist here. It's ok for a black girl to have a particular hairstyle that a white girl gets questioned about?

I think it stems from BQ's feelings of being in a club that sees outsiders as insincere interactors that copy the club's uniform.

As a white man, i don't feel that way about the black ladies that happen to pick popular hairstyles of white women because I'm not in a club or "Brotherhood" among other whites. I would never have such a feeling that my race "owns' a particular hairstyle. ..

The first video that BQ posted made some excellent points that I, as a white woman, would have not known. I had no idea that black women were sometimes required by their employers to straighten their hair. That is crazy.

Yes, that is crazy. Crazy enough to be unbelievable. I'd seriously like to see the citations for that claim. Of course during slave days black women were forced to do anything and everything, and pre-sixties racism was so prevalent that nothing like that would raise an eyebrow, so sticking to the more modern turn of the century, I would find that extremely hard to believe. Aren't you skeptical about this claim? Why not?

No, BQ isn't being racist. It sounds like white women get praised as edgy and cool for wearing the same hairstyle that black women will be criticized for wearing even though it is the natural hair type for people of African descent.

Just saying it's not racist when it's a feeling of "possession" based solely on race is disingenuous. You do know that "people of color" are just simply humans that can be just a racist as any white man. There is absolutely no meaningful difference between you and her. If she says that there is something wrong with you wearing any particular hairstyle her "race based club" has laid claim to she is making a racist statement.

Look at the converse. If you had written that there is something wrong with BQ for trying to take a white girl's hairdo and that she is trying to "steal" some of your "culture", you would definitely be a racist. You would be claiming that the white race "owns' certain hairstyles and that black girls have to be making a statement or participating in mockery just by choosing the style.

Hairdo's are not owned by any race. Races don't own anything. Spending inordinate time trying to "classify" people with a particular style or physical attribute is definitely racism in my book.
While it is racist to go to the mall in black-face because it is blatant mockery, a hairdo is not mockery.

[BrokenQuill92]

The first video that BQ posted made some excellent points that I, as a white woman, would have not known. I had no idea that black women were sometimes required by their employers to straighten their hair. That is crazy.

Yes, that is crazy. Crazy enough to be unbelievable. I'd seriously like to see the citations for that claim. Of course during slave days black women were forced to do anything and everything, and pre-sixties racism was so prevalent that nothing like that would raise an eyebrow, so sticking to the more modern turn of the century, I would find that extremely hard to believe. Aren't you skeptical about this claim? Why not?

No, BQ isn't being racist. It sounds like white women get praised as edgy and cool for wearing the same hairstyle that black women will be criticized for wearing even though it is the natural hair type for people of African descent.

Just saying it's not racist when it's a feeling of "possession" based solely on race is disingenuous. You do know that "people of color" are just simply humans that can be just a racist as any white man. There is absolutely no meaningful difference between you and her. If she says that there is something wrong with you wearing any particular hairstyle her "race based club" has laid claim to she is making a racist statement.

Look at the converse. If you had written that there is something wrong with BQ for trying to take a white girl's hairdo and that she is trying to "steal" some of your "culture", you would definitely be a racist. You would be claiming that the white race "owns' certain hairstyles and that black girls have to be making a statement or participating in mockery just by choosing the style.

Hairdo's are not owned by any race. Races don't own anything. Spending inordinate time trying to "classify" people with a particular style or physical attribute is definitely racism in my book.
While it is racist to go to the mall in black-face because it is blatant mockery, a hairdo is not mockery.

First and foremost, I do not, did not claim anything of the sort. And the last time I checked braids, fros, locs, and twists are associated with black female beauty. To say otherwise is totally disingenuous. And I'm not classifying anything! These styles can only be done with coarse curly hair, which 99.9% of the time with black people you nitwit.
And I also see you didn't bother to read that a black woman using "white girl" hairstyles isn't about style. It's about survival! Or did you miss that part too?

[Athene]

I think most chicks just like fucking with their hair. I  wouldn't read too much into it.

[Dystopia]

Yes, that is crazy. Crazy enough to be unbelievable. I'd seriously like to see the citations for that claim. Of course during slave days black women were forced to do anything and everything, and pre-sixties racism was so prevalent that nothing like that would raise an eyebrow, so sticking to the more modern turn of the century, I would find that extremely hard to believe. Aren't you skeptical about this claim? Why not?

Are you kidding? It happens as much as employers requiring me to shave daily or as often as to maintain a clean shave look, or prohibiting long hair on males because it looks unprofessional. Beauty standards matter and those are white centered. It's not just forcing people, but not hiring, firing or harassing them, etc.

[Regina]

I do worry about being a man with long hair when moving into the professional world, because I know some employers will look at me and make assumptions based on it. I think this is part of a bigger conversation about how shallow the professional world is. I get wanting you to wear smart clothes, that I can comply with, but going back to what said earlier I hate people being told what to do with their hair and/or their own bodies. I think it's ridiculous that people are expected to have certain hairstyles when all they are doing is sitting at a desk and talking over the phone. If someone's hair "distracts you", that's your problem, not theirs, maybe you just have a very short attention span.