The Latin Good Hair Bad Hair Debate

I spotted this documentary called Negro : Pelo Malo or Black : Bad Hair on Alice in NappyLand's blog . It gives a broader look at the whole good hair bad hair debate that has plagued the African Diaspora. This documentary share stories from many African-Latinos and the experiences they have gone through regarding the perception of their hair. (I would normally only post hair related posts on my natural hair blog but felt this debate is always worth sharing with everyone.)

It is quite interesting I have come across this doc as this week I had a debate with some friends. Some have daughters who have begun reading about what is in a Relaxer and have begun transitioning back to their natural hair texture. Of course their parents likewise always say "my child has bad hair and just cannot cope with it" as a reason why they want their daughters to keep relaxing their hair. I also found one who would do twist outs to get back some curls in her hair. 

I also have a friend who went back home to Nigeria for a family event. She usually wears a small curly coily fro which is growing all the time. Her family told her she needed to do something with her hair as in it's natural. Luckily for her they were satisfied with a natural protective style as opposed to chemicals.

The real problem is that far too many people in the worldwide Black community lack knowledge in how to care for their own God-given hair. I myself grew out my relaxer years ago. My scalp did not like it. I have gotten lazy with my styling but as tempted as I am to go back I doubt I will. When someone says they or their child has bad hair they most probably need to re-think how they actually treat and care for their hair. In the explosion of the Natural Hair Movement  the wealth of knowledge is out there and no more excuses. Nowadays there are even forums which are multi-cultural and dedicated to people simply with curly or kinky hair. 

I am not against choice so if you relax your hair that is fine. I am just against ignorant dated comments. That if you were to check the origins of those thoughts and sayings you may find it was not your ancestors who originally coined those terms which have since been embraced en-masse by a whole nation of people.

One more thing the documentary made a good point. A lady said when you think of bad hair what they really mean is African hair. So the closer your hair is to African texture the undertones of the argument means its too far from Europeans and means less progression more primitive looking etc. How sad. Yet if any person cared to look at African countries from North to South they would come across multiple hair textures as so it should be the case for the Motherland.