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Explain this to me: Is just curly or kinky hair versatile....?

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Lilmama1011

Lilmama1011

Well-Known Member
Or is all hair versatile? I always hear BW say that our hair is versatile and I can't help but wonder isn't all hair versatile? I feel like one person said it and everyone just went along with it and keeps repeating it and never thought to question why is our hair the only hair to be versatile. Like I know our hair can be worn in a Afro, some of our hair with the right products can define our curls(going from kinky to defined curls), some of our hair is so kinky in order to have that defined look we have to use flexi rods and etc, and we can straighten our hair to be pin straight. But can't a WW or any other race do the same thing? They can go from pin straight hair, to curly hair, and also wavy hair which we can do as well. For the ones that think our hair is the only versatile hair, please explain to me, maybe it's something I'm missing....
 
Your mind is a very interesting place.

But a lot of ww I know with super straight hair find it very difficult to wear it another way. Curl don't stay for very long without tons of product
 
nadaa16 said:
Your mind is a very interesting place.

But a lot of ww I know with super straight hair find it very difficult to wear it another way. Curl don't stay for very long without tons of product
Click to expand...

It's a lot of BW as well that have problems with keeping their hair straight without it reverting quickly
 
i don't think kinky hair is the ONLY versatile hair, but i do think its the MOST versatile. Whatever a straight haired chick can do we can do it too plus more. The reverse isnt possible. of course all hair is versatile, but kinky hair has wider array of style options. just my opinion...
 
Most WW do not have bone straight hair. Curly/wavy hair is more common, but some people are very good at hiding their natural hair texture.
 
Aside from the styles we can achieve with our natural textures, we can wear dreads, cornrows/braids, wet-sets, and straight hair (via heating tools, or a relaxer), plus more.

I've seen very few white people wear cornrows/braids that looked as good as ours do, and I've never seen a white person have nice looking dreads. Even when they wear their hair curly/wavy they're limited to the the type of curl/wave they can achieve.
 
I know exactly where you're coming from, and I don't understand it either. Like you said, someone started saying it and a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon (not necessarily saying it's a bad one). I think it mainly comes from all the different hairstyles black women tend to go through, while other people don't. If you look at pictures of straight-haired white women from back in the day, you'll see a ton of different styles with braids and curls and the whole shabang. Straight-haired people don't do all that junk now because they don't want to, not because their hair can only do one style. I know non-curly headed people who can get their hair curly faster than a curly, and especially kinky, haired person can get it straight. Also curly hair is notorious for being unable to stay straight without frizzing and poofing up, and a lot of kinky haired ladies have to spend a lot of time and a lot of product to make their hair even curly, let alone straight. Any hair type can be as versatile as you want it to be, if your willing to put enough work and time into it. Curly and kinky black hair is definitely not the exception to that :spinning:.

I think it's the black hair paradox :lol:. I don't think I've ever heard curly haired, non-black people go on and on about how their hair's more versatile than everyone else's. It's just weird because this whole site, for example, is full of threads of curly and kinky haired ladies who have to twist their hair everynight to maintain their style, who's hair fros when they don't want it to, who can't get their hair straight, who have to keep it in PS because it'll break if they wear it down, etc. Being able to spend 5 hours twisting your hair maybe a sign of versatility, but I only put up with it if I feel like I have to. A lot of curly/kinky haired ladies aren't honestly thrilled that they have to prepoo, fingerdetangle, braid and unbraid their hair in sections, re-detangle and use the LOC method just to wash their hair even before styling it! My hair's lucky I can do wash n'gos because if it took all that, I would have returned to straight hair awhile ago :nono:. And a lot of women relax their hair, ie. make it un/less curly, for the sake of versatility and manageability.

I really would like to hear someone explain this, because the "black/kinky (even moreso than curly) hair is the most versatile" has confused me for most of my life :lachen:.
 
I kinda believe it...it helps that our hair is able to stay up easily. It can be manipulated into styles that use "rise" as an advantage, and it can also be manipulated to be loose/afro/kinky/wavy/curly and locs fairly easily too.

Type 1 hair can have a hard time with updo's, some type 1 is so lanky that it can only be worn down, not even a pony looks right. It's of course not every kind of type 1, my fiance has about a type 1C (straight but with a lot of body) and his hair holds styles fairly well but for no more than a day...braids do tend to undo though. And yes he lets me play in his SL hair :lol:
 
I also thing people get unique mixed up with versatile. Versatile is able to be changed, hair itself is able to be changed. I believe black hair is unique because no other nationality has hair like it and we are the minority so we make up a small population and we have this type of hair
 
I think it's definitely the most versatile. Who else can wear an afro one day and wear it straight the next! And we don't all have the same type of hair. There's a lot of Jews with kinky hair. Jewfro, anyone?
 
I hear people say our hair is versatile all the time. However, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say our hair is the ONLY versatile type. Taking the meaning of versatile in the literal sense then of course all hair is versatile.

But like others have said our hair the MOST versatile. We can achieve styles others just can't no matter how hard they try. Yeah some kinky hair reverts quickly but at least we can get it that way. How many non-blacks do you know can achieve an afro? Teasing their hair into a tangled mess doesn't count.

The afro alone sets us apart from all other hair types. I imagine you know this. I think you are hung up on ONLY curly/kinky hair being versatile which again, I've never heard anyone say.
 
When people say kinky and curly hair is versatile usually it's because we have the ability to have alter our hair in ways that can emulate other hair types people with say type 1 or even type 2 cannot. Our hair can transform from Ear length to Shoulder length or longer in a matter of hours (depending on how much hair you have). Our hair can hold elaborate styles longer example braids, twists, etc
 
I don't think our hair is versatile. Most of us have to do HOURS of work just to get it to any style. Hours of detangling, twisting, braiding, etc. And most of us can't even SAFELY flat iron our hair without fear of heat damage. If we are successful even getting the flat ironed hair straight, it reverts back very quickly. That's a lot of work to be spending on just doing our hair.

This is why I just texlaxed. I am having so much more fun with my hair now.


...and then all the products we have to use....:sad:
 
I agree that kinky curly hair is more versatile than straight hair. Only because straight hair cannot become kinky or curly. Straight hair can become curly, in a sense, with curling irons, or rollers, but it can never become kinky without chemicals. Where as curly/kinky hair can become bone straight, and everything in between.
 
Well it is white women who tell me that my hair is so versatile. Ours is the most versatile because we can achieve the furthest extremes. A good majority of us have the tightest curls possible. With a flat iron, we can achieve bone straight hair. We can also achieve different sized curls along the spectrum. Those with straight straight hair cannot readily and achieve long lasting curls without a perm. Even then their curls are not going to get as small as the tightest curl of a black person. Curly haired non blacks can achieve straight hair with a flat iron but can only go so far when it comes to small curls.

I jokingly and proudly refer to our hair as "magic". We have the most extreme shrinkage because we have the most extreme in hair types in our race. Since I have become natural, I have certainly expanded my style options without usinG extreme products.
 
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^^I consider out hair the most versatile as well for all the reasons mentioned above. Like reeko43, I also think it is absolutely magical.
 
^ A non-curly haired person probably could do tiny coils . . . if they were bored out of their mind :lol: and wanted to spend days doing their hair. Though that's the time people spend putting in minitwists, so I guess it wouldn't be that bad. I don't think teeny coils is a "style" anyone's trying to achieve. Most of 4a & 4b ladies are putting work in to make their curls bigger or non-existent via braids, twists, flatirons, and relaxers. And counting someone's hair (whether type 1 or type 4) in it's unaltered state is cheating! LOL! Not done hair is not styled hair it's just hair :lol:.
Also, I didn't think of versatility as being measured by how exactly you could get your hair to copy another group's :look:. I think of it as more to do with how much time and effort does it take to execute an actual style (straight hair, an afro, french braid, etc). And bone straight type 1 hair and "bone straight" natural hair are not on the same level of straightness. Hence why there are type 1 ladies who still flatiron their hair, because to them it can get even straighter :spinning:.

ETA:
There's a lot of beautiful, elaborate braided updos the I've seen done by straight haired youtubers and bloggers, posted on here, that would not look right on curly or kinky hair unless you straighten it. Kinks and curls (especially small ones) tend to make these styles (like french braids and fishtail braids) look like one mass because they obstruct detail. Naptural85 mentioned that about her fishtail braid. She did it right, but you can't see any of the detail that's suppose to make the style. A lot of naturals can't just jump into doing a style right out of the shower. They have to pre-stretch their hair to style it vs being able to just go for it immediately.
 
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Lilmama1011 said:
How so??????
Click to expand...

It seems like a pretty innocuous question and people's response will follow how they feel about THEIR own hair. I don't understand why some are getting weird and petty and mocking with their answers. Are black people that upset that kinky curly hair could be the most versatile?

Some of the responses are just weird to me.
 
:lol::lol:
I don't believe in hair hierarchy.

Your hair is as versatile as you make it. There are ways to make fake afros and ways to make your hair straight. Which is why you see white women on runways with big poofy hair or afros for fashion.
 
Ogoma said:
It seems like a pretty innocuous question and people's response will follow how they feel about THEIR own hair. I don't understand why some are getting weird and petty and mocking with their answers. Are black people that upset that kinky curly hair could be the most versatile?

Some of the responses are just weird to me.
Click to expand...

I know that's not my reason for asking the question. And to me it's the same as any question on here. Based on your hair and how it responds to certain products as well as how a certain situation had a impact on your life. A person can only answer based on their experiences with everything or other people's experienced they choose to side with. I have learned from some on here that do think the opposite of me as well as the ones that agree as well and go even farther to explain certain situations. I do agree with you that i hate the fact when people start bashing because someone thinks otherwise
 
Mahsiah said:
:lol::lol:
I don't believe in hair hierarchy.

Your hair is as versatile as you make it. There are ways to make fake afros and ways to make your hair straight. Which is why you see white women on runways with big poofy hair or afros for fashion.
Click to expand...

Yes yes yes! Didn't you put up a video about white people making their hair into Afros or that was someone else Mahsiah
 
Ogoma said:
It seems like a pretty innocuous question and people's response will follow how they feel about THEIR own hair. I don't understand why some are getting weird and petty and mocking with their answers. Are black people that upset that kinky curly hair could be the most versatile?

Some of the responses are just weird to me.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. It sounds like a black hair bashing thread. Like, "Woe is me for being stricken w/kinky hair". :perplexed:. Going out of your way to describe just how awful it is and how it couldn't possibly be versatile.
 
Ogoma said:
It seems like a pretty innocuous question and people's response will follow how they feel about THEIR own hair. I don't understand why some are getting weird and petty and mocking with their answers. Are black people that upset that kinky curly hair could be the most versatile?

Some of the responses are just weird to me.
Click to expand...

I am in total agreement with this entire post.
 
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