African American Beauty Research Paper

They go from straight to wavy to their natural state a lot. Whitney Bellinger (2007) explains in her article why African American of the younger generation use the term “good hair” in order to understand why they change there out of the “natural” state. Throughout this research conduct she gives more details towards the women no longer want to stay towards the historical norms wanting to have a White appearance but states it “claim they change it because their hair’s chemical make-up time, ease of styling and the creation and perpetuation of healthy hair.” (Bellinger, 2007, p. 63) Some don’t change their hair because of racial pride taught by their mothers. An example of a way young women change their hair was with chemicals such as relaxers or perms and color dye. While conducting this research Bellinger also discover the main reason why the younger generation change their hairstyle is because seeing their parents change their hairstyles. The older generation then believed if they had “impression of Caucasian hair” they would be promoted in the job force (Bellinger, 2007, p.

Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair, investigates the notion of what good hair is. Dominant society views good hair as straight or essentially caucasian hair. This is not only problematic to the self-esteem and confidence of black women, but it can also cause black women to appropriate Asian culture. Black women unfortunately take advantage of Asian culture in search of what society believes is good hair. Many black women wear weaves in order to align to what society believes is good hair. However, when they buy this hair, they do not realize what Asians go through. Likewise, Asians who give up their hair do not know where or who this hair will be going to. Thus, this desire for good hair further perpetuates the lack of understanding that black

The Mintel market intelligence agency has some thought provoking research on the Natural hair movement and sale changes over the years. From the years 2008 to 2013 hair relaxer sales have declined 26%. From the years 2013 to 2015 hair relaxer sales have dropped 18.6%. These reports really show how natural hair is really changing. This also leads down the road or how prevalent relaxed hair is. Yes, Garrett Augustus Morgan did create the relaxer on accident almost, but why did it take off and become almost the social norm amongst African

The attitudes and arguments towards and against black hair in “Balm” by Lonnae O’Neal Parker and “My First Conk” by Malcolm X are contingent because they express two distinct views on black hair. Malcolm X pleads that manipulation of our hair by straightening or covering by wig is self- degradation. While Parker believes that the time she spent doing her daughters hair is translated to the love she has for them. This time not only assures the girls that they have a loving mother, it assures Parker that she could send them out into a world that would appreciate them because they had someone who put time (love) into the girls. Parker is aware of the scary truth that our worth by outside world is one dimensional and fuel by aesthetics. Both Lonnae O’Neal Parker and Malcolm X have analyze the importance of hair in the black community. Parker praises the “black hair ritual” while Malcolm criticizes it. Even though their topics differ, both essays share the act of taming natural hair, and the motifs of love and pain

The researcher interview with African American women with natural hair and examination of social media. The researchers explain that in the natural hair community a curl texture is more attractive than kinky hair texture and lengthier hair more desirable than short hair; also having manageable hair is dynamic to African American women’s effective performances of Black femininity. This research expands the discourse in African American Studies that theorizes the experiences of African American women with natural hair compared to those of African American women with relaxed hair such as perms (Howard, 2015, p.

Gates also writes about a time when he was at his uncle’s house to watch television. While they were all watching, they saw Nat King Cole, a famous singer with “patent-leather hair” (328). His hair was processed, but not to the point where it looked completely like white peoples’ hair. It still looked somewhat natural. Back then, it was rare for an African American to be seen on television as Cole was. This shows the slow transition of blacks becoming accepted into white society.

Since the early 1900s, Black women have had a fascination with their hair. More explicitly, they have had a fascination with straightening their hair. The need to be accepted by the majority class has caused them to do so. Though the image of straight hair as being better than coarse hair still hasn’t left the Black community, there has been a surge of non straight hairstyles since the nineteen sixties. Wearing more natural hairstyles, which ironically enough include ‘weaves’ and ‘hair extensions’ has been considered to be more empowered and more enlightened. However, this image comes with a price, and though it appears the ‘natural’ hairstyle movement has advanced Black women, it has actually set

In today’s society, we live in a heavily social media world that blurs The lines between heritage and trends. The question often arises if someone is solely trying to imitate something without paying homage to other or stealing it without giving the entitled background of where it originated from. What caused these hairstyles that are rooted from Africa to somehow be manipulated and transition to America. The alteration affects the way we view appropriation and what is considered to be a personal identity of a specific background. Our personal identity is connected to the folkloric aspect of traditional customs that are passed on for generations to generation. Having the customs gives people a sense of roots to grow from and always have something to apply in their daily life. It’s important to have something to look onto for guidance having folkloric customs of tradition Africa hairstyles gives that to African American people.

The author should dive some more into what it had meant for women back then to have a certain kind of hairstyle during the political movement period, between the 1960s to 1970s. One of the main reasons for the political movement was to help bring awareness to the issues whether the black women should straighten their hair or not, and if there were going to be any consequences of doing that. Many were afraid of getting openly killed for changing the way they were wearing their hair, from mostly wearing it in the natural form to the recent popular straightening

Whether is associate hair updo, a harpy sew-in, braids, or an easy however flashy and chic Mohawk, it’s getting to look smart and adding our swagger maintained from our African ancestors; no surprise why some races have area unit jealous of the black woman! Mohawk hairstyles for black women! However concerning that? We’ve got become a lot of daring, risky and tense with our hairstyles.

Inversely,” Girls Trip” was a knock out film of the summer because it showed a vase amount of representation of black women with all different types of hair. It is interesting to Michaela Angela Davis, an image activist says “Natural hair is a sign of modernity, worn increasingly by powerful women in many professions. The fact that we are not seeing that reflected on TV is really interesting.” This is an

Hair has been used as a tool to control people from Africa ever since slavery times by depicting their natural hair as inferior and this is still seen in TV shows today. During the Transatlantic Slave Trade, millions of Africans were taken from their homes and sold into slavery. These individuals were forced to adapt and work in the new foreign world that they had found themselves in. Being so far removed from everything familiar, they had no access to their belongings or possessions. “Without the combs and herbal treatments used in Africa” (Ellis-Hervey, 2016, p. 2), slaves had no way of styling their hair and therefore it became knotty and dirty. This is one of the reasons why the notion of African hair being presented as “bad” and that it

Natural hair, especially on African-American women, was once considered a shameful characteristic and was used persecute these individuals back in times of slavery and the later periods of segregation.

According to the Social construction of gender as a process, men and women should be masculine and feminine respectively. At the beginning of the movie “Good Hair”, the author want the society to know how important the hair is, especially for a black women. Black Women straight and “relax” their hair with having a thought that it will make them look sexier and lead them to be more feminine. They think that nappy hair makes them less feminine. These black women’s have a desire of having hair like the people they see in the magazines. Those are especially white women with natural and blonde hair. Black women’s found out many different ways to make their hair relaxed and straight like the white’s hair. One of the method they found was of applying

As well as celebrities giving it much negative attention, it is attention all in all. The most relevant and viral instance, Miley Cyrus, was her appearance on the red carpet attempting to rock dreadlock extensions. Case in point: When actress Zendaya wore the same style, she was infamously described as smelling like "patchouli oil and weed" on the red carpet, but on Miley, and in the past, on Kylie Jenner, dreadlocks have been described as, "amazing" and "edgy”. You could be the type of person who’d think, why the hell do I care about what some teenager does with her hair? This conversation isn’t just about hair. And it’s not just about Miley Cyrus, or Kylie Jenner. Their latest, constant repetition of cultural appropriation is just a drop in the bucket that’s been filling up for too many ages.