Natural Afro-Hair

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Recommended: historical black hair disparities in america

Gabrielle Jones is an average teenager. She is a typical girl that is educated, family oriented, and possesses all criteria that puts her within the American standard, except one detail, her hair. Gabrielle is of African descent and has retained her natural hair texture for almost 12 years. Occasionally, Gabrielle views models in the magazine as a symbol of beauty because they have straight, manageable hair unlike her kinky curls. Eventually, Gabrielle decides to make a drastic decision that would change her hair, she decides to relax her hair. She takes a look in the mirror and but what can she see? She could have kept her curly hair which was associated with her for many years, however she did not recognize herself, she just criticized her features for not being of standard according to society? Although, Gabrielle is a fictional character, however, her story is reality for many girls who have thick, curly hair.
Although, sixty-five percent of African Americans relax their hair (Ebony) there has been a growing movement towards natural hair styling. Through personal research from surveys, books and other forms of documents, I have concluded relaxed hair is no longer a popular choice for African American women for it is has become an attempt to reestablish natural beauty.
I performed a convenient survey of thirty-five women of African American or Caribbean descent ages 16 to 25 on the topic of relaxed hair. Out of the thirty-five I surveyed, 71 percent of the women were relaxed, while 29 percent were all natural. However, through this survey I discovered, 17 percent of those who were natural take 2-3hrs to style their hair, while 31 percent of women who relaxes their hair take 0 to 30 minutes. Yet, 29 percent of those who rela...

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...2013.
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"Madam C.J. Walker Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
"Natural Afro-hair." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Apr. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.
"RELAXER INSTRUCTIONS." Roots of Nature Relaxer Instructions. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
Ross, Janell. "Natural Or Relaxed, For Black Women, Hair Is Not A Settled Matter." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Aug. 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
Sherrow, Victoria. Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006. Print.
"Types of Relaxers." Design Essentials. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
"What You Need to Know About Chemical Hair Relaxers." The Truth About Hair Relaxers. Skin Biology, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.

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