Let's Bury 'Good Hair'

The hair blog has been up for two weeks now and I'm delighted to see the flood of positive responses in the The beauty of our hair Comments section. I knew I wasn't the only person on BV who had a passion for hair care – and a dire need to better maintain my tresses.

While working through the comments I decided to take this time to address something that continues to pop up often in our community.I see the same trend here online.

Let's talk about the term "good hair."

You've either grown up hearing it all your life from relatives, friends and beauticians because you have "it", or you've heard the opposite such as, "Your hair won't do that because you don't have 'good hair.'" I am in the latter category. I can recall being seven years-old and spending the night over my cousin's house. The next day my aunt was helping me get ready for church and while brushing my hair, said disgustedly, "You have such nappy hair, child."

That stuck with me obviously as I am now an adult and it feels like it was just yesterday. When in college, I decided to grow my then shoulder-length hair down my back and was met with remarks such as, "If you don't have good hair it won't grow that long." Well, I proved them wrong and now have so much hair that the Dominican salons charge me extra.

Who got the last laugh?

I am taking you down memory lane but I am leading to this: We need to bury the term 'good hair.'

I cannot recall when this term has ever done anything more than create a divide among us – and that includes both men and women.

To state someone has "good hair" means that others don't and if we don't see the beauty in our skin, our hair and our various complexions perhaps it's time to look in the mirror and decide if we like ourselves.

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