what am i supposed to do with all of this hair?!

a couple of months ago i saw a blog entry that completely summarized the evolution of my relationship to my hair:

there was a point in my life where i made the simplistic assertions that if you straightened your hair as a black woman than you hate yourself and by extension your blackness…. while i sincerely believe there is immense meaning in the way we as black people approach our hair, i find greater meaning in the hierarchies of blackness erected by self-righteous folks who in whatever covert/overt way make the assertion that folks who sport dreads or fros are in some way more enlightened

I have had long straight hair, fire-engine red hair, fire-engine red locs (can u tell i like the color red? ooo-oop! *smile*), sisterlocs, traditional locs, big afro’s, little afro’s, twists, plats, braids, and a fade.

yet and still… most folks continue to make completely generalized assumptions about the type of person i am, my politics, the music i listen to and even the food i eat (apparently i am a militant, erykah badu listening, radical liberal who doesn’t eat meat…. whether those things are true or not, is so not the point! *smile*)

… of course all of the bangles, the birkenstocks and big hoop earrings i rock probably don’t help…

but the point is…. india was right! i am not my freakin hair!

so that leads me to the point of this post…. now that i have [temporarily] taken out my locs… i am completely at a loss about what to do with my hair and am seriously considering taking a hot comb to all this hair!!!

because regardless of what anybody thinks… i did not get a fade or locs out of some radical rejection of black cultural values of beauty… i did it because i 1. thought it would be attractive, 2. was tired of spending money on getting my hair done and 3. i am probably the laziest person you will ever meet when it comes to expending energy on things like hair/makeup/clothing.

this isn’t to say i don’t have an opinion about what black people do and do not consider beautiful… it just means that my hair isn’t the way i choose to articulate those opinions…

so the question of the day is…

what do i do now?!

peace.

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