If you could go back and choose any hair type, what would it be?

[StrawberryQueen]

As far as i can see, and as far as im concerned we (including us that "wish for a different hair type", simple want what they don't have, i know many type 2 and 3 heads (if not most of them) wish they had my type 4 hair. No lie. Even my stylist she always says ive have thick beautiful hair, and how she wished she had hair like that. And she have some beautiful type 3 curlsand waved that will lay flat frizz free. And most indians iknow always say they wish they had my hair. Yet people with type 4 hair may want type 3 and people with type 2 want type 4 etc.

By the way, i don't say this to offend by any means but i think we should stop wishing, and just get over it. lol we'vebeenborn with it.. unless amedical condition changes or something, it ain't going no where. I use to want type 3 hair (i have type 4), but damn it mana black girl with long thick big ol type 4 hair is so sexy to me...

This is how I feel. You can change a lot of things (with the right about of $$$) but aside from a relaxer you can't change the hair that grows out of your head. So why go there? I don't understand. Anyway, I like my hair the way it is, don't wish/want a change.

 

[jenteel]

It's sort of funny. In almost every other aspect of physical beauty, rarity is prized. Blonde hair trumps most hair colors because it's relatively rare. Blue eye color trump most eye colors because it's so rare. Light/white skin trumps darker skin (and I'm talking globally, not just with black folk) because it's relatively rare, compared to dark skin.

But one of the few things we have that could be consider rare, the one thing that bascially only people closely descended from Africa (and it's geographical environs) have: our kinky-curly-wooly-hair--it seems to be the only rare beauty trait few people prize. Even worse, it's sometimes reviled.

so so true!:notworthy

 

[Enchantmt]

Koala Boof, who is IMHO certifiably insane, but sometimes on point said something similar to this and it really changed my perspective on how I regard my hair.

OK naturally I had to search for a reference. You cant leave us hanging like that. Is this what you meant:

PROOF, of course...is the term that many Africans use to describe the “one true hair” that is the unique Crown of the black man and the black woman. Black Americans (who, to me, are Africans) refer to it as “Nappy Hair”.


And as the Cush*itic-Hebrew folktale goes...”God put “the Proof” on the black man’s head as a marker that he is God’s son, the first man made in the image of God, and that the only way to defeat, conquer and destroy the black man...is to remove the Crown (the Proof) from his head. I was taught as a little girl in Sudan that no other race of humans were given this hair but blacks; and that anytime you find our hair growing from the scalps of non-blacks, it is because those people have the blood of our bloodberry and are a bastardized extraction of us...we being the first race; the blacks, the Africans. Taghut (Satan), I was taught, is in a never-ending quest to destroy and conquer Africa by killing the black man...which can only truly be done by removing “the Proof” from his head. For without it, the Cush*itic-Hebrew folktale goes, he is not really a black man.

And it wasn’t until I finally analyzed the self-destruction and the erasure of blackness in Black Americans and in Black British, and the ways that their legendary self-hate is now imported to Africa itself, that I began to take this folktale from my childhood seriously.


Truly, in America, you begin to understand it.


As Alice Walker wrote...“It only takes one lie to unravel the whole world”. And in America, that lie manifests itself in the racist admonition that...”one drop” of African blood defiles everything else in a body’s universe and marks any and everyone possessing that “one drop” as a black person.


Tragically, Black Americans were forced through hundreds of years of conditioning to accept, believe and demand their slave master’s rule, to be ignorant of any African standards or rules, and as a result, they have been put on Automatic Self-Destruct by striving to produce children who look more like their slave master than like their ancestors, but at the same time, continuing to call themselves “black” by virtue of this insidious and ridiculous “one drop” bull****.

If so thats an intersting perspective, and tho I dont claim any type of superiority, it goes in line with a theory I have regarding things that are despised and condoned in the word, but thats another subject for another section. The above was an excerpt from here http://poetwomen.50megs.com/about.html And you're right, I think she might be more than a tad off.

 

[Crackers Phinn]

If so thats an intersting perspective, and tho I dont claim any type of superiority, it goes in line with a theory I have regarding things that are despised and condoned in the word, but thats another subject for another section. The above was an excerpt from here http://poetwomen.50megs.com/about.html And you're right, I think she might be more than a tad off.

Yeah, that's the quote that I was referring to and ole girl is more than a tad off. But even a broke clock is right 2 times a day.

There is superiority implied by K.B. But even before I went natural it always struck me that there has to be a distinct reason whether biological or divine that those of us that have a higher ratio of African blood have the type of hair that we do. There isn't another group that comes close to our hair type. I've heard the 'heat of the African sun' theory, (it was hot/African hair adapted) but then why do the indigenous peoples of other hot enviorns not have a similar hairtype?

 

[FlowerHair]

I don't want any other hair type than my own. Even as a child I liked my hair.

My hair has looked very differently over the years, mainly because my mother didn't know anything about caring for afro hair. My hair has literally gone from looking like 4a/b as a child and teenager to 3b/c only through hair routines and products. I love that about my hair, that I can acheive any look and hair type with so little effort.

Since I grew up with my sister, who is white, I can honestly say I don't want 1 or 2 hair - it's definately not easier to care for. And as we grow older, her hair will thin out and look sparse while my hair will continue to look thick (even though it's thinning) just because of the frizz and curls.

And 3c hair is not really wash and go - it's all in the products and handling of the hair if it's going to be nice curls or nice frizz or nice and bushy

 

[LocksOfLuV]

Yeah that would be the big ole White elephant in the room that folk don't wanna talk about. I don't subscribe to the philosophy that errrbody with relaxed hair is self hating, not at all, but it's pretty OBVIOUS that they prefer a different hair type to their own.

That's the part I don't get, IMHO it's kind of hypocritical that you loathe over your hair and your hair is the best and you love it oh so much, then turn around and relax it. Yeah some people say for 'convience' but most of the times when you 'love' something you find a way to conviently work with it right? Ie men, work/salaries, food, everything. Why would you change something that you love (maybe the wrong choice of word to use...)? But yeah, JCoily, I see that big arse white elephant in the room, that thing ain't hiding from me!

 

[Enchantmt]

But even a broke clock is right 2 times a day.

My mom used to say that ALL the time.

 

[Ms_Twana]

There shouldn't be any drama in this thread. If people don't like the subject matter, they should just move on to another thread and let those who want to participate do so in peace. This kind of topic is going to keep coming around and around. People should be used to it by now.

Thank you!!!!!

 

[Galleta]

I'd choose 3b. I hate having to relax my hair just so I can manage it.

 

[divya]

The hair type I have now! But just without ever putting any chemicals in it...

 

[MissMarie]

I felt the need to clarify my statement about why we were given "this" hair. It was not meant to be offensive at all.

Being the history lover that I am, I often wonder what type of adaptation causes the kinky hair texture. For instance, we are naturally blessed with darker skin tones as a result of more melanin in the skin. This was an adaptation of the skin as protection to the sun. Other races (Egyptians for instance) have skin of color and are in equally hot temperatures yet tend to have more 3 textured hair.

I read an article that talked about this (sorry I haven't found it or a link yet).
Some scientists think that original man had curly hair (and brown skin) but not kinky/nappy hair. The adaptation was due to people moving out of East Africa into other parts of the continent with different environments and also the changes in the environment, it was getting hotter and drier, Sahara was expanding, grasslands were drying up. (results of receding glaciers)
Nappy hair acts kinda like an umbrella to protect the scalp without holding in heat, an adaptation to extreme sun and heat in mainly dry areas. Our hair does not hug the scalp, it lifts upwards and spreads out densely so air gets to the scalp and heat isn't held down but most of the suns rays are blocked. This type of hair clusters differently than hair found in Europe and Asia, the actual hairs cluster in groups of 2 and 3, and tends to be much finer than other hair.

Many modern Egyptians are the result of many centuries of intermarrying between indigenous northern and eastern African, Mediterranean (a lot of Greek), and western Asian populations (Persian, 'Arab'). The original people of that region are thought to look very different from people now.
There are still some communities where the people are darker and with kinkier hair than what we normally associate with Egyptians.

But even before I went natural it always struck me that there has to be a distinct reason whether biological or divine that those of us that have a higher ratio of African blood have the type of hair that we do. There isn't another group that comes close to our hair type. I've heard the 'heat of the African sun' theory, (it was hot/African hair adapted) but then why do the indigenous peoples of other hot enviorns not have a similar hairtype?

I think 1) because it needs to be hot and dry and 2) none of those populations are any where near as old or established in their environments as sub-Saharan Africans and therefore have not gone through as much adaptation and variance as indigenous Africans.

 

[Lovelylocs]

As long as my hair is long, thick, and full and I keep getting compliments, I don't care what texture I have. I love my hair now that I know how to properly take care of it! If I want to wash and go, I wash and go. If I want waves, I make waves. If I want natural looking ringlets, I make ringlets. If I want it bouncy and straight, I'll do it. I can do whatever I want with my hair.

To the people who are not content with their hair texture, you need to learn how to do your hair.

 

[Miss*Tress]

I've never wished for another hair type, just styles that can't easily be achieved with my own type: long, luscious locks that only Indian women seem to have and the BAA.

 

[*Frisky*]

I am not too familiar with hair types except for mine which is 4a/b I think...if I had to choose one I would choose for my hair to be the way it is when I have a relaxer with out having a relaxer what ever that would be.

To the OP...no need to feel bad about starting this thread. I just wish that people would stop condeming certain topics and posting the somewhat "pro black" comments in certain threads. The OP asked a question..which only an answer is required..not all these comments about this and that. It is so annoying...