As a frustrated fashion designer (in my own mind), I believe stylishness to be next to godliness, and pour pity those who fall short. That includes myself on occasion. But the one area that really gets me going is people who inflict their bad taste on their children. Note to mothers: matching your outfit to your 2-year old kids' is not cool. More like fool. Especially if it's head to toe pink and involves fake fur.
Today I saw a woman and her young child, about 6 yrs old wearing hair extensions. Both with several rows of a reddy/plum colour. At Clarke's primary school, girls as young as five, were wearing weave. Yes you read me right. WEAVE. One of her classmates turned up with a head of RED and BLUE weave. Do their parents have rocks in their heads? What is going on in your mind when you put weave, not even their natural hair colour, but RED, BLONDE or BLUE WEAVE, in a young black child's head? *Cue Public Enemy* "And some of us by the way that we act, we even lost our minds".
Then you got the kid's who can't count, but are weighed down by gold medallions, and bracelets. Head to toe in namebrand and can't spell Timberland. And the kids dressed like hoochie mama's by their parents. In my day, it was cute when little girls wore shorts. But when the girl is wearing a crop top, and the shorts are coochie skimming Christina Aguilera style, it looks slutty. How you gonna have your five year old looking slutty? What with all the paedophiles out there, surely you don't wanna be dressing your kid up to look like the most tempting morsel on the fucking table. Hey Mr. Paedophile, PICK HER!!!
But I really despair at what has happened to black children. Other cultures have hung onto to their ways and traditions. Not us. We so quick to disregard the old ways. Unnatural hair, bad ass kids with no respect or fear of their parents, home training gone out the window, and the children have more expensive mobiles and clothes than working people.
Too many women take the weave/extension option. They grow up not knowing how to manage their own hair. "Oh, I can't go natural, it's not me, it doesn't suit my glamorous style" one woman said to me. The cheek of the over-permed, heifer. If 'greyhound' miniskirts (so short you can see the hair), and breast out of door tops are glamorous I'm a 'locks sporting bag lady.
How is using hair extensions encouraging your child's hair to grow, or encouraging a respect for their natural hair? When are we gonna get over the fact that we didn't get the hair that can 'Wash and Go'! One of Clarke's classmates came to school without her extensions and her hair was short and picky like a boys'. She was ridiculed all day, and must have felt ashamed of her natural hair which has been ruined by extensions. Surely doing this only encourages a black girl to think of her hair as a problem, something to be covered up, and hidden under wefts of European style hair.
I cornrow my daughter's hair every week. I only learnt after I had her (thanks to encouragement from my girl Suzie Wong), and although it's a pain in the arse sometimes, mostly I enjoy making her hair look nice, myself. I do it on a Sunday, while we watch a cheesy family movie on Channel 5. My mum couldn't cornrow, so me and my sis used to have some big 'do-do' plaits, or I would persuade my mum (if she wasn't tired) to do it really small, which looked nice. Doing Clarke's hair is a ritual that we share as mother and daughter. Which I think is more important than sharing a head of harvested, dyed and chemically treated human hair.
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4 comments:
This reminds me of my mom. She grew up in London (she went to Hammersmith school for girls) Her mother would take her to the barber shop and have them cut it low and she'd wear a wig to school. SHE WAS 11 YEARS OLD!!!
She has long locks now. Because of her ordeal as a child, she jherri curled my hair when I was 9 years old. I had a HORRIBLE experience at the shop! When I turned 11, I became in charge of my hair. It's been natural ever since.
It's quite long now, so I get women who come up to me and ask, "Where did you buy your hair from?" When I tell them it's my hair,they think I'm lying. I just tell them, if you cut the chemicals out, YOU TOO can have hair like this!
I see the same young girls with the extension braids down to the ass and curly weaves. It's so sad, because you know they are being reared to dislike what they were born with....OK, I've just completely blogged in your comment section...My apologies!
No problem. That is some story. A wig?!? My mouth is literally open. My grandma put engine oil in my mum's hair. Talk about issues. We both have locks now. I encouraged my mum to do hers as she was walking around with four big plaits in her head for too long.
My locks are long too, why don't people understand that the perm ting does not grow your hair. People should feel free to do what they want, but I just think it's a shame that a lot of our people still don't see natural hair as an option for themselves.
I went to Hammersmith School, but it was Hammersmith County, a girls school until we merged with Christopher Wren in the '80s. Is it one and the same? How old's your mum???
your insight of people of color is right on point. We have lost of since of history and we need to find our own way.
an aunt of mine "permed" her 5 year old daughters hair for a wedding we went to. that the family was mortified is an understatement.
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