# Newsweek takes on the real issues: Angelina Jolie's kid's hair. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 13, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713 "2009-10-13T22:49:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/1 "2009-10-13T22:49:12Z")
[This Newsweek article](http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2009/10/09/Zahara-Jolie-Pitt-and-the-Politics-of-Uncombed-Hair.aspx) really grinds my gears for a few reasons. First of all, and it needs to be said: [that child](http://www.pittwatch.com/files/2009/01/zahara-jolie-pitt-turns-four-3spl53534_010.jpg) is [_adorable_](http://images.teamsugar.com/files/upl0/1/19509/02_2008/zee2_0.jpg). [Her hair](http://img2.timeinc.net/instyle/images/2008/GALLERY/11/110408_zahara_300x400.jpg) looks [fine](http://cdn.buzznet.com/media-cdn/jj1/headlines/2008/08/brad-pitt-zahara-beautiful-day.jpg), she looks [happy](http://cdn.buzznet.com/media-cdn/jj1/headlines/2008/01/happy-birthday-zahara-jolie-pitt.jpg), she looks [healthy](http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/20090923/293.joliepitt.zahara.shiloh.lc.092309.jpg), [life is good](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2542/3774897676_e294a4e072_o.png). But more importantly, just the very tone of this article pisses me off. Newsweek quite seriously referred to a _four year old child_ as a “hot mess” because she- at _four years old_ -isn’t adhering to their strict standard of acceptable beauty. _At four years old!_ > [@](#): > > Photos of Zahara show the 4-year-old girl sporting hair that is wild and unstyled, uncombed and dry. Basically: a “hot mess.’’ Are you kidding me? Look, I get it- what is traditionally referred to as “black hair” does sometimes require special regimens to stay healthy, but can you really tell from a few paparazzi photos that this child is not receiving that? _Her hair looks fine!_ What disgusts me even more about this article is the way the author seems to take on the matter of interracial adoption: > [@](#): > > A few years ago when actress Angelina Jolie announced she’d be adopting a 6-month-old girl from Africa, I had mixed emotions. I’ve always thought Jolie was one of the flyest chicks in the Hollywood game, but interracial adoptions can be a tricky thing no matter how fly you are. Erm, I’d say her ability to give love, affection, and a happy home to this child, in addition to education, health care, and whatever else she needs comes far ahead of “can you straighten her hair pretty?” in adoption proceedings. The idea that Angelina- who I couldn’t care less about in general- somehow would be an unfit mother for a baby of a different race - on the sole basis of that child’s hair- is astonishing to me. > [@](#): > > There are those who say there is nothing wrong with Zahara’s hair at all, that her hair is in its natural state and that’s just fine. I say natural hair—afro, dreads, etc. is fine, if it’s maintained regularly or when the child is old enough to make that decision for herself. Until then, the child’s parents are responsible for their general care and upkeep. Zahara is not even old enough to know that her hair looks dry and damaged as it stands straight up on her head. So. . . it’s ok for her to wear her hair as it _naturally grows upon her head_, so long as she’s old enough to decide to wear it like that? Isn’t that counter to basic logic? Shouldn’t all the chemicals and oils and primping come only when the child is old enough to decide _that_ is what she wants? And who is to say that little Zahara doesn’t love her hair as it is now? Maybe she’s a smart girl and realizes how gorgeous she looks, not worrying about what anyone else thinks. Isn’t _that_ the mindset we say we want to instill in our little girls? Instead, we have a news magazine calling a small child a “hot mess”. > [@](#): > > “Why adopt her if you’re not going to do your best to raise her to be confident and fulfilled. Other cultures might think this is petty, but trust me it isn’t for a young black girl.’’ I just. . . I don’t even know what to say to this idiocy. How could Newsweek print this garbage? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/2 "2009-10-13T23:08:15Z")
The central complaint in the article appears to be that Angela Jolie is being insufficiently superficial. For a Hollywood celebrity, that may be an actual crime. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/3 "2009-10-13T23:13:07Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > The central complaint in the article appears to be that Angela Jolie is being insufficiently superficial. For a Hollywood celebrity, that may be an actual crime. There was also a huge brouhaha when Brad Pitt mentioned in a magazine that Shiloh likes to be called “John” and dress up in boy clothes to be like her brothers. Now, that certainly didn’t receive the press that little Z’s hair is getting, but it was still a big deal. Another stupid big deal, if ya ask me. I’m no fan of Jolie, but she seems to be doing right by her kids and I’m astonished at the things people are choosing to attack her for. And Brad, too now, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/4 "2009-10-13T23:18:19Z")
I’m with you. I’m not a celebrity/Brangelina fan at all. But she seems like a good parent, she seems to love her kids, she takes care of them–what else is there? And I agree. Why does she have to be old enough to decide natural is best, but it’s okay for mom or whoever to decide to oil/comb it each night? How do we know Angelina isn’t combing it each night? Maybe Zahara’s hair just is what it is. Lamest article ever. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/5 "2009-10-13T23:28:47Z")
The article even pointed out that she DOES use special hair-care products for black hair. Geeze, she’s four. When I was that age, I HATED having my hair messed with, and I have super-baby-fine, poker straight white girl hair. So she’s going to resent her mother, and she should have adopted the child, based on a few pictures? Jesus wept. (After reading this article while waiting at the barber shop) ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/6 "2009-10-13T23:31:51Z")
A comment I read on a blog summed up my thoughts better than I did in the OP, actually: > [@](#): > > But to suggest that Angelina would have been off NOT ADOPTING Zahara because she didn’t fully consider how to style her hair? To suggest that any mother (birth or adoptive) who does not conform to the author’s beliefs about “proper hair care” is condemning her daughter to a lifetime of insecurity? > > FUCK OFF. This is really just unbelievably stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/7 "2009-10-14T00:11:26Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > The article even pointed out that she DOES use special hair-care products for black hair. Not only that, it says they’ve had Hollywood stylist Kim Kimble (herself a black woman who’s styled the hair of a number of African-American stars) take care of Zahara’s hair in the past! The author says the “problem” appears to have appeared only in the past year, when the family has been traveling a lot, so it seems a little premature to worry that the poor girl is going to be condemned to a lifetime of unstyled hair. > [@](#): > > \*So she’s going to resent her mother, and she should have adopted the child, based on a few pictures? Jesus wept. (After reading this article while waiting at the barber shop) _I thought that business about Zahara feeling ashamed of her childhood photos or being mortified to realize that other little black girls have different hair styles was especially silly. My hair doesn’t look great in my childhood photos and yet somehow I manage to carry on_. And it’s not as if hairstyles cannot be changed. In a year or two (or even tomorrow) if Zahara says she wants a different hairstyle then there’s no reason she couldn’t have one. Her parents have already demonstrated willingness to hire one of the top stylists in Hollywood to do their little girl’s hair. Now, if Jolie or Pitt had publicly said something like “Oh, we treat Zahara’s hair just the same as Shiloh’s, we don’t believe in racial hair differences” or “Zahara is going to remain uncombed and natural as long as she’s under our roof, we don’t care what’s fashionable” then I could understand some of the criticism in that article (although not the implication that she’d be better off with different parents). Zahara’s hair isn’t like her mom’s or her sister’s, and when she’s a little older she undoubtedly will want to make her own choices about her hairstyle. But since Jolie and Pitt apparently have not made any such boneheaded statements, the article strikes me as a huge overreaction to some candid photos of a very young girl. \*I did once ask my mother why I was apparently sporting a crew cut as a toddler. I looked like one butch little girl in the photos. You could see my scalp. “Was that dad’s idea?” (My father was in the Marines.) No, my mother said, I just hadn’t grown very much hair yet. Maybe she should have bought me a wig so I’d have looked more stylish? ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/8 "2009-10-14T00:28:02Z")
Grghghghgg stop trying to fit first-generation African immigrants into this mold of African-Americans that have been in the US since the Civil War. I have a friend from Central America whose parents are from the educated class there - they have nothing in common with temporary workers coming in from Mexico, but they get lumped into that category. Zahara’s only link with the African-American experience is being a black girl in America. I have a gut feeling she might care more about current starvation problems in her birth country than the current hot button black issues in America. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/9 "2009-10-14T00:30:08Z")
Don’t you mean the hot-comb black issues? ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/10 "2009-10-14T00:33:19Z")
First off, and before my post digresses (because it will), I agree with the O.P. Why the _fuck_ is Newsweek writing about hair? The kid is four. I don’t know for sure because I’m not in the household, but I know enough that kids that age aren’t exactly concerned about their hair. My three year old niece tries to out dog the dogs when it comes to digging. That will cause a few split ends. So fuxking what if the kid’s hair doesn’t look pretty. To be honest, I’m _glad_ that the kids hair is messed up. Let the kid be three. If Angelina was trying to enter her in a beauty contest, I’d worry about her motherhood, but she ain’t. She’s raising a three year old, and to hell with the paparazi. Second, why the Hell is fuxking _Newsweek_ even printing this crap. Isn’t that TMZ territory? [/QUOTE] Second, why the Hell is fuxking _Newsweek_ even printing this crap. Isn’t that TMZ territory? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/11 "2009-10-14T00:38:23Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > First off, and before my post digresses (because it will), I agree with the O.P. Why the _fuck_ is Newsweek writing about hair? The kid is four. I don’t know for sure because I’m not in the household, but I know enough that kids that age aren’t exactly concerned about their hair. My three year old niece tries to out dog the dogs when it comes to digging. That will cause a few split ends. So fuxking what if the kid’s hair doesn’t look pretty. To be honest, I’m _glad_ that the kids hair is messed up. Let the kid be three. If Angelina was trying to enter her in a beauty contest, I’d worry about her motherhood, but she ain’t. > > Second, why the Hell is fuxking _Newsweek_ even printing this crap. Isn’t that TMZ territory? Seriously. The kid has the whole rest of her life to be fodder for TMZ and Perez Hilton. Let her be an un-self-conscious, fun, active, happy kid. I wish I could go back to that sometimes, instead of thinking about, “Oh is my hair okay, etc.” If I were Angelina, I’d be furious that someone referred to my four year old child as a “hot mess.” Just who should she be trying to impress at that age? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/12 "2009-10-14T01:05:17Z")
Newsweek needs to leave this stuff for Entertainment Weekly. They know that [natural](http://www.morethings.com/music/macy/macy_gray109.jpg) hair is [very,](http://swaagalicious.net/lauren-hill.jpg) very [much](http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/india-arie3.jpg) in [style.](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nzwNt8HbRi0/SsLHyLNyPZI/AAAAAAAAAbE/uWGcNemi-vI/s320/ndegeocello2.png) I think Newsweek is showing it’s mainstream bias. When you are the daughters of the President of the United States, you get your hair pressed. When you are the daughter of an artist, your hair is natural. They need to keep their sense of what is beautiful to their damn selves. Somebody needs to slap some sense into them. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/13 "2009-10-14T01:11:55Z")
What Monkey and Belissima said. Who gives a damn, and why is this, of all things, the hot news? ---
**Author:** ![troubledwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@troubledwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troubledwater)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/14 "2009-10-14T01:24:40Z")
I am biracial Caucasian/African American, and my white mother got all kinds of flak from my father’s family for not “taking care” of my hair. All she did was keep it short and clean and tell me that I could do whatever I wanted with it once I was old enough to deal with it myself. I had other issues because of being biracial, but that was never one of the big ones (except for when Farrah Fawcett’s look was “in” - that was a rough one for me!) Thirty-five years later, I still have thick & fast-growing hair, while my cousins that used hot-combs and lye in the 1970s have wigs and weaves and receding hairlines. Maybe I should check into the “Things Your Mother Did Right Thread” and add “Not causing me to be prematurely bald.” Anyway, yeah, getting this from Newsweek is pretty surreal. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/15 "2009-10-14T01:36:30Z")
One possible factor: Chris Rock has a documentary out on this subject generally (as in not specific to Jolie), so the issue may be considered front and center, in a cultural sense. Now, if the “Nappy Hair” controversy had been recent, that would make it even more understandable… ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/16 "2009-10-14T01:42:21Z")
In the close-up pictures the kid does appear to have the Eddie Murphy as Buckwheat thing going on, so she does look sort of unkempt but it looks to me like normal 4yo unkempt–my niece looks _at least_ that bad by the middle of the day, no matter what gets done with her hair in the morning. And her hair doesn’t look dry to me, nor does it appear to have matted to her head, broken off, brought forth the antiChrist, or any of the other dire side effects the author predicted, so I have to think they’re meeting at least the minimum care to keep her hair healthy even if it’s not so stylish. Besides, what everybody else said about real news and who cares and all that. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/17 "2009-10-14T01:52:04Z")
I am the mother of a 4 yo, and let me assure you, she knows how she likes her hair. I suspect that little Zahara is perfectly happy with her hair, and probably appreciates not having to go through any of the “treatments” the author of that piece of crap article suggested. It is hard enough to convince a 4 yo to let you wash her hair, let alone do anything more complicated on it. And on another note: why is the author, a white woman, taking it on herself to espouse what black people do or should think about their hair? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/18 "2009-10-14T01:53:13Z")
Unfortunately, bullshit like this sells. And given the state of the print news industry, I’d say this article is a reflection of that desperation. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/19 "2009-10-14T02:06:06Z")
Here’s the only online picture I could find of the author, [Allison Samuels](http://freshfiction.com/images/authors/14798.jpeg) Her hair? Train wreck! And really, who cares what the kid look like when she’s standing next to ANGELINA JOLIE?? Oh, there’s a child there? Hey kid, just don’t get in my sight line to Angelina. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713/20 "2009-10-14T02:15:54Z")
What do you want to bet if she DID get her hair all styled and braided, or whatever, she’d be accused of conforming to society’s expectations of what a black woman’s hair is supposed to look like? Or trying to make her look “white”, by the constant use of products and straightening perms and hot combs? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/newsweek-takes-on-the-real-issues-angelina-jolies-kids-hair/513713.md?page=2)