Oops, sorry, didn’t read more closely.
Right. When I was a MeanLittleGirl, I was not allowed to have my hair chemically processed. On a special occasion, my mother would allow me to have my hair flat ironed if I wanted to which I often did not because it’s a time-consuming process, and my hair looked fine unstraightened. I did not consider my large mane of curly hair to be a “hot mess” and I don’t now. Up until maybe a year ago, as a grown ass woman, I didn’t chemically straighten my hair. I’d usually leave it with its natural texture, and every so often flat iron just to change my look. I now keep my hair relaxed, but if I ever got sick of it, I’d stop. As long as your hair isn’t dry, frizzy and damaged, what is wrong with leaving it alone?
And if she doesn’t get that care, she’ll die? My God.
I think, also, that there may be some disconnect between ‘natural’ and ‘not combed’. When my son was about 14 he decided that combing his hair wasn’t how he wanted to spend his time and walked around with what I called Basquiat Hair. I insisted that when he went out with me, he at least put a pick through that mess. Perhaps spray some sheen on. Now THAT hair was a hot mess.
There’s nappy and then there’s peasy. There’s natural and then there’s matted. There’s ungreased and then there’s brittle and broken. I think many would look at the picture of Macy Gray or India Arie that I posted on page one and think that was uncared for or uncombed. Those people should not comment on black hair as they do not know what they are talking about. Even if they are, themselves, black.
Damn, that little girl doesn’t have half the hair problems I had at that age. When I was a little mini-Z, I had platinum blonde hair that my mother allowed to grow out naturally. You do NOT want to be the tiny boy with the Mary Tyler Moore curl thing going on.
When I was allowed to choose a hairstyle for myself, I went with the crew cut/buzz cut.
So Biggirl, would you agree that Zahara’s hair looks neglected as opposed to just toddler-messy?
I have no idea, I’m honestly asking. I’m a white girl with no experience with black hair. I wouldn’t have looked twice at those pictures if I’d seen them in another context. From a fashion sense, I think black women with natural hair look fabulous. I would have just assumed that Jolie was going for that look deliberately.
Also, down in the bottom left corner - is that Pax peeking around her skirt? It looks like he’s dyed his Vietnamese locks blond. <shrug>
Jeez. Most 4 year olds have jacked-up hair. How many pictures of me are there with cockeyed pigtails or half of my hair sticking up? Lots. I’m white. My mom is white. She’s just not very good with hair.
Because it’s butt-ugly. And I say that as someone who absolutely loves the look of most natural black hairstyles. It’s not that it’s natural hair. It’s that it’s a yucky style.
Angelina Jolie is on the front page of practically every gossip rag in the supermarket, and has been continuously for the past decade or so. Mary Louise Parker? Hasn’t. The comparison is absurd.
What makes you think Angelina Jolie doesn’t know that? Any halfway intelligent person knows that black hair requires different care. If I had a black child, I would learn about black hair care and make sure to have her hair cut by someone who specializes in it. Why assume that Angelina Jolie would do anything different? She’s not stupid or uncaring.
Alison Samuels needs to relax. I think Zahara’s hair is dark and lovely. Sure, the condition little messy, but I’m sure that problem will be ironed out as she gets older. Angelina Jolie has to weave the various cultures of her children together, and it seems like she does a good job of it. Sheesh. If it goes on like this, poor Zahara will dread going out in public! Should she straighten the kid’s hair just to butter up the critics? I think Angelina gets so much guff about this because of her kinky reputation, but she seems like a great mom. The cultural meaning of natural vs. processed black hair? Food for thought. Always interesting to discuss.
Nope. Just toddler messy.
THIS is uncombed, uncared for hair. Also this.
This is combed, but toddler messy, hair.
Note that it is not dry nor matted. Just not processed. BTW, she has had her hair’done’. Doing too much of that will leave her with a receding hairline by the time she’s 18.
Yeah, looks like it. Maybe Angelina Jolie lets the kids do what they want with their hair. I do the same. My son has been growing his hair out for a year because he wants to be a hippie for Halloween! Why not?
Hair can be cut off. Hair grows back. No big deal.
The longer black hair goes without being properly moisturized and cared for, the more damaged it becomes. It mats, it breaks, it’s a mess. Eventually you experience thinning in the most problematic areas, especially if you’re pulling the hair into elastics, or pushing it back into bands. Every time you wash it without replacing the oils that you wash away, you make the situation worse.
Will it kill her? No. Does that mean it’s proper? No. No more proper than not giving your child lotion for their dry skin or balm when their lips are chapped or trimming their finger and toenails regularly. It’s a necessary element of proper grooming.
Ding ding ding, we have a winner!
See, to me, in that first picture there is a serious lack of moisture going on underneath the combed but toddler messiness. Her little pigtail puffs look crunchy as a potato chip.
That last picture in the OP doesn’t look just messy to me. It looks matted and dry. The first picture looks fine, and moisturized.
Maybe they are moisturizing it and sometimes it just doesn’t come out right? Like she has really dry hair? Different routines can affect different people…well, differently.
I’m not black but I know that the kind of hair regimen that I use (washing every almost every single night) might leave someone with finer or drier hair looking like the proverbial hot mess.
To generate controversy.
If she doesn’t have dry hair, she’s the exception, not the rule.
I have no idea what their usual routine is, but as tumbleddown said, it needs regular moisture, or she could end up with very damaged hair. As someone said, hair grows back, but some very curly haired people have very fragile hair, and it’ll take a long time, and gentle care to get it to even shoulder length without weakening and breaking.
Who are these black people who need to regularly moisturize their hair? What does “regular” mean, and what does this moisturizing routine entail? Are people still using Blue Magic hair grease?
Every black person whose hair care routine I know about uses leave in conditioner before their hair dries out. Regular could be every day if that’s what their hair needs. They’re not shampooing it every day as Freudian Slit is doing with hers, either. YMMV.
I use Pink Hair Lotion on wash days and (like the advertisment at the bottom of this page) Carol’s Daughter hair oil on non-wash days. I also love CD’s spray sheen but try and actually buy some. They NEVER have any left when I go.
Palmade, Blue Magic and the like makes my hair greasy.
Also, I was my hair once a week MAX. If I were to wash it any more, I’d have a dry, brittle mess.
Also-- it isn’t that black people’s hair is any drier than non-black people’s hair. The oil that moisterizes hair is produced at the scalp. With straight hair, that oil makes it’s trip down the hair in no time flat. With curly hair-- not so much. The curlier (or kinkier) the hair, the longer that trip takes. Daily washings strip the natural oils and the hair not at the scalp never gets any.
When I chemically straighten my hair (which is hardly ever these days. It’s been about a year now. Had to go to a fancy ball and needed my hair did) it gets very oily and yucky. But I still don’t wash it every day because then I’d wash the perm right out of it in a week. I know it’s supposed to be permanent but it ain’t!
OK, so dreads would be, like straight hair or curls, something which is natural in some individuals but artificial in others. Thank you!
I’m black, and I don’t do any of this. My hair is currently straightened, but I didn’t do this when I left it natural either, and I’ve always thought my hair looks fine. I don’t wash my hair daily, though, because then it would turn into a dry, frizzy clusterfuck.
I look forward to Boyo Jim’s posts. He’s a funny li’l bastard, But no amount of Google-fu has shed any light on this, and I’m dying to know what it means!