BMP...and not beats per minute

NOT BEAUTIFUL

NOT MANAGEABLE

NOT PROFESSIONAL




Natural Hair is so on and it’s on with a bang. Designers have followed suit and incorporated the trend on the runway; why I believe that real fashion is more often on the streets rather than on the runway.
That said and done natural hair still draws negative reactions from all walks of society. A woman will be bombarded with such messages starting from her family, friends, media and colleagues at work…but more insidious are the messages she will be sending to herself for unlike the rest whom she can block ‘ she is ever with herself. We all have bad hair days or so we claim but it’s actually interesting how hair determines how we feel about ourselves. Below are quotes from different women:

“When I first went natural to be honest I was not too fond of it. Although my relaxed hair was thinned out and breaking I didn’t want to let go of my brittle strands. As my Aunt chopped away my scrawny strands I cried even though this is what I had requested. For whatever reason, in my younger years I always equated my hair with my femininity and with each strand that fell away from my head I felt as though it were escaping me.”
“Our sense of attractiveness is strongly connected to confidence and positive self-esteem. Many men and women associate confidence with feeling in control, and hair is one way most of us can be in charge.”
In 2007, a Glamour editor later identified as Ashley Baker told a room full of lawyers that an Afro was an office Don't. "'No offense,' she sniffed, but those 'political' hairstyles really have to go," wrote American Lawyer.
Try and get the three messages that the above quotations give you. If you cut your hair or go natural you may not feel beautiful as if your femininity is lost. The second has a ring of truth on it. The more you are able to manage your day to day styling of your hair i.e manageable the more you will like that hairstyle and the general perception is that Natural hair is unmanageable. My ‘favourite’ and a pet peeve is how natural hair is often deemed unprofessional…to me I would equate this to one of our local banks in Kenya that has a wide network of branches in the whole country and as part of their policy the women are not allowed to wear trousers at work. It is discrimination and sexist.
All that said and done I believe the whole natural hair movement also has some down side more so those with a superiority complex feeling that anyone else with relaxed hair or a weave is of a lower rank and should either be converted or demeaned in such a manner to let the person know their place in the hair hierarchy. These are the natural hair Nazis’ or extremist. But that is a discussion for another day.

I have used a few of my own photos....so comment away