African American Hair: The History Of African American Hair

African American Hair “I’m black and I’m cursed! God cursed me with terrible hair!” I personally know that trying to manage African American hair can be very difficult because unlike Caucasians black people have a rougher grade of hair. No one really knows why God gave Caucasians fast growing soft hair and black people slow growing rough hair. As a African American female I can testify that my hair doesn’t grow fast and I am a proud “creamy crack “user so therefore the chemicals from relaxers I use makes my hair straight and bouncy. When my relaxer expires and I need to get another put in my hair, my hair gets stiff and the roots of my hair become harder to comb. Hair is one of every human’s main features, women care for their hair and desire to find hairstyles that they believe will be appealing on them and speak for the way they

“Hollywood is an industry that gravitates toward trends, but the natural hair movement has gone unnoticed and unaddressed on small screens all across the country” (Gordon, 2015, para. 4). Recently, the shows that are rated high, black women are wearing weaves and wigs instead of their natural, unprocessed hair. When analyzing Olivia Pope from scandal or Gabrielle Union from Being Mary Jane we all see that they obviously wear weaves and wigs. Even though natural hair is missing from hit TV shows, some stars, such as Lupita Nyong’o, the 12 Years a Slave star has strutted the red carpet with their natural hair on display. Only time will tell when more roles will feature women like Tracee Ellis Ross; starring in ABC’s new comedy Black–ish, sporting the big natural hairstyles that more and more Black women have been embracing. I believe actresses have fear of being limited by their natural hairstyles and that’s why weaves and wigs continue to dominate the