The New Face of Black Feminine Beauty Essay

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

Could she get him away? Would he fall for that long, wavy beautiful hair? Why take chances?” The language employed in the Hi-Ja hair advertisement was intended to provoke shame among African American women and instill fear of competition from more glossy haired, beautiful women. Advertisers intentionally employed this technique to convince anxious female readers that they needed to buy more beauty products in order to keep their men happy and faithful. Additionally, when describing the Hi-Ja hair cream, the advertisers were careful to include that the product was white in color. The advertiser’s decision to include this seemingly insignificant detail painfully reveals the racialized nature of early twentieth-century African American beauty culture and advertising. African American beauty advertisements overwhelmingly correlated lighter skin and straightened hair “with femininity, beauty, and romantic

“Janie ties her hair up in the store un- der her husband’s orders so that other men will not touch her. Hair is a tool for sexual desirability across races and ethnic groups; however, the issue within the African community is that the “type” of hair that is often de- sired. However, hair is a marker of femininity, so to restrict or demean one’s hair is a direct attack on women’s being. This implies that when the hair is covered—as it had to be on the plantation or other places where African women existed, they were deemed less feminine and thus less womanly”

African-American ladies played significant bolster parts amid the Colonial time frame by giving help to the volunteer army. Their help included parts, for example, moving into the "huge house" to bolster the slave owner’s significant other when he left to serve in the volunteer army, dealing with wounds, and working close by the men in building fortresses for security from both the Indians and the British.

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.

African American women's health, hair politics, and physical activities. Studies show that African American women tend to pay more attention to their hair instead of their health issues. Researches came up with a theoretical argument to figure out why hair matter for some women. They discover that hair presents a barrier to exercise in that the time and economic restrictions involved in maintaining a hairstyle post exercise for physical activity as prohibitive. This study provides some perception about the relationship between hair and health for African American women and suggests that extra attention is justified to address views about beauty ideals and hairstyles as a barrier to exercise (Versey, 2014, p. 2015)

The African-American culture includes many things such as clothing and music. However, the highest beauty standard for black people is hair. Kinky, curly in other words “nappy”, is an important aspect of the culture. It is as if it tells a story about where we came from and the troubles our ancestors faced on a day to day basis. Their hair is multicultural, meaning that there are several types varying from straight to extremely tight curls.

The debate of hair concerning woman of color is not new. For years the Anglo-American/ European hair style is seen as the most ‘desirable’ hair that women should have. While there is nothing wrong or bad with that hair texture it is not attainable for everyone. Especially when woman of color have to go to great lengths (as was stated in the previous perspective) to perm, put various chemicals, and dye their hair to make it look like what we see on TV or in the magazines as acceptable. -

Most African American women get their hair advice from low class salon who are self-taught. Low class salons have no knowledge of black women's natural hair texture nor natural hair styles that will protect their hair to keep it from breaking off. These salons use hair relaxer products on their African American clients because it is a fast process and are able to quickly move on to the next client. However, African American woman does not have the option to choose between a relaxer or a protective hair style when dealing with these salons, As a matter of fact, The New York Times mentions, plenty of salons are educating themselves on natural hair styles. “Many wear their twist, locks or teenie-weenie Afros”,” proud to have not given in to the

In the book ¨ Black Beauty “by Anna Sewell, The question ¨ What is more important, fitting in or being yourself,¨ is thoroughly answered throughout the text. The whole story starts off as Black Beauty is being born. Him and his mother were really good companions and stayed next to each other almost their whole lives. Early on in the book, Black Beauty remarks “we shall all be judged according to our works, whether they be towards man or beast.¨ This contributed towards answering my big question because all around the country, people are judged just because of how they look, not how they act towards other things. Black Beauty started off with Mr. Birtwick as his rider and two other young men looking for money as his groomers.

“Black Beauty: An Autobiography of a Horse” is about a horse named, Black Beauty, who hates breaking in and is being attached to unbearable, heavy equipment. Slowly as the story continues, his miserable pain turns into pride when he carries his master on his back. The excerpt from “The Georges and the Jewels” is about Abby, a horse rider, who has been knocked off by an unskilled horse. Later on in the story, lying on the floor, she is reminded of her favorite horse, a sweet boy mare and how she enjoyed riding her every time. In the excerpts, “Black Beauty: An Autobiography of a Horse” by Anna Sewell and “Georges and the Jewels” by Jane Smiley, the authors use first person point of view to demonstrate the character’s development throughout the story. The first person point of view is very vivid on how the characters feel, which lets the reader thoroughly understand the character’s transitions easily.

There has been a notable amount of conversation on the internet on the rebirth of the natural hair movement. Cherise Luter (2014) states that despite afros and the natural hair movement not being a new concept (i.e. the Black Power Movement), it has gone under what she calls a “refreshing change”. Furthermore, what used to be “I’m black and I’m proud”, has been replaced with “I’m me and I’m proud” (Luter 2016). So, what is the natural hair movement? It is defined as a movement where black women decide to not conform to the social norms of chemically altering their hair and wearing it in its natural, kinky, or curled state (Joignot 2015). The movement could also be considered as an outlet for black women to display their racial and cultural pride or to articulate their “political position (Brown 2014:297). However, simply the terminology “movement” is something that should be shocking to many. There is a great amount of historical context behind the continuous influence Eurocentric beauty ideals have had on black women for centuries. According to Nadia Brown (2014), Black natural hair throughout history has proven to be recognized as “either unintended or intended personal and political statements” (298). the beauty standard in Western society which praises European hair textures, has influenced many black women to be critical of other black women who choose to chemically straighten their hair, accusing them of being subservient to the dominant and pervasive racist

The naturals shown on the media is impacted by the Eurocentric idea of beauty because they only show the natural with light skin and loose curls ( Yates, 1).Theses naturals are more accepted than naturals with afrocentric hair and dark skin. This occurs because women with loose curls and light skin are closer to the Caucasian women with natural hair and light skin, than women with Afrocentric hair and darker skin. According to Yates “ I got extremely tired of seeing the natural hair movement being led by the same type of women, light-skinned, loose curled, and filling the Eurocentric standard of beauty…”. This quote support the fact that all natural hair is not being represented in the media because it does not fulfill the Eurocentric idea

Throughout the book Ifemelu refers to hair styles, salons and hair dress frequently. She is a firm believer in natural beauty. She thinks that African Americans have a cultural standard to uphold when it comes to hair. Majority of African American women have to go to the salon to get their hair tamed and styled. They believe if they go through with this they will in return fit in with society. Hair is particularly useful when explaining a cultural background; because it allows others to understand the natural side of you. By women having natural hair it allows for other to see the true beauty that lies within and not their salon modified hair. Ifemelu stated that Beyoncé and Michelle Obama do not wear their hair natural is courageous. We see them as American icons and they set the standards for their supporters and followers.

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