Nappy is “In” - hiding is out

My daughter came home yesterday from school and told me a “ Sad Bad Hair Story” – A black girl, friend of hers, wears her hair natural. Their friends asked her to come to school that day with her natural hair out, for she always wears it in braids, I guess!! To everyone’s surprise and my daughters absolute rage, their teacher, also a black woman but with totally relaxed hair and wearing a fake piece of flowing fake curls sliding down to her back, told the girl to do something about her messy nappy hair. She said to relax it and tie it back. Why? Everyone asked. Because we black woman can’t go around looking all messy and crazy looking. Now, this is a Catholic school, all girls must wear their hair proper and neat, meaning nothing fancy. For any white girl this means a simple pony, pig or bunny tails or just loose, but away from the face. Now a black girl with natural nappy hair this means usually relax it to look like the white girl hair and tie it back!!! I don’t think so!

The right thing to do is just as she had done it - tie a wide band in the front to keep it away from her eyes to show her pretty face and than let it’s natural kinkiness stay quiet in back. Nothing messy! Why oh why are black woman so stubbornly and sadly offended by their own natural hair, preferring plastic long hair or relaxed hair, full of chemicals over their vast, kinky natural head of hair. My hat off to this new generation of young “tico” ( Costa Rican) black girls that can stand up and say no more hiding behind what I’m not and embracing the natural Me! – See the new black woman of this century is passing all of that! She stand up and runs for first lady of USA, she stand up and runs for president of Costa Rica, she stands up and sing, model and study with her natural beauty showing freely as saying - I don’t need to pretend to be in order to fit in. I no longer need to hide and be quiet in order to receive acceptance. I am who I am and when you look at me you’ll see generations and generations of black women that needed to hide so I could shine!