“Our” Vocabulary, Retention, & the (haircare related) Mis-education of the American Negro

By the way if you have not read the book, please do!

     First let me say that I have always had “long” hair with the exception of a few choice hair cuts; and, that I wore perms for almost 30 years.   With that said I’ll begin today’s rant.   Starting with our vocabulary.   OM’G!!!!!!!

    I’ve been seriously adjusting to the vocabulary of being Loc’d and still trying to tolerate the vocab of those that are not loc’d.

    We generally understand that one should not tell a child that they are ugly no matter how “unfortunate” looking the child may be.  We could look in the face of a gorilla lookin’ baby and……will struggle to find something positive to say, despite how we feel.   BUT when it comes to our hair…”our hair?....Wow; we won’t hesitate a midget’s minute to be harsh and throw out the “ugly” vocabulary.

Separating the roots of locks: …I prefer the term untangling/de-webbing, heck anything but poppin’ and snappin.   

Trimming excess hairs:    …..I prefer the term Grooming/Trimming to pruning, I’n not growing branches here.

Real vs. Fake locs’:   ….. It is my belief that if it’s growing from your head, it’s real.  If it’s been attached to your head , then they are “fake”.      I will not get into the matters of taste (cultivated, manicured, twisted, palm-rolled, interlocked, freeform, thick, thin, micro, or etc.)

Natural vs. Non-“natural” Naturals:   OMG, and wow!    It is my belief that if you are natural if you do not perm/relax/texlax/texturize your hair .  I do believe that you can change you hair color and still be considered natural; however, I just recently walked away to avoid a debate with someone who IMHO takes the intent of the term natural way toooo far. 

 This person was standing there glaring  at a “Honey Golden Blonde” afro and was telling me that that person is not natural just because of the hair color!  ….Yes, I walked away.    I know of others who feel one must use natural products to be “natural” .  Now mind you 90% of these folks had on faces full of “makeup”.  ME, I’m standing there thinking that that’s why it’s called “makeup”,’ cause it ain’t “natural”.

Insulting Haircare lines marketed towards Black:  I’ll try to be brief.   Advertisers usually have a “targeted audience” and they position their products totarget this “audience”.   The makers of products such as Softee, Don’t-B-Bald, Doo-Gro, Black and Sassy, Dr Miracles, and Organic Root Stimulator (ORS) are sending messages that I just don’t agree with (though I did try ORS locking gel, I quickly replaced it with Tahila Waajid  products first chance I got).     NOW, there is a beauty supply store called of all things “The-N-Word” a place that clearly targets blacks , the actual domain looks like Then-Word.    I purposely put in the link to the SEARCH RESULTs but I dare not encourage anyone to access their web-site, there by validating their existence:  http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=the+N-word+hair+care

You should really read this book, REALLY

More Mis-education (in my opinion):   1. We need grease.  2.  We shouldn’t wash often.  3. Hair care approaches that treat our hair like it’s a “garden” (politely put).  4. Our hair won’t grow long unless we ___________). 5. Braids make you hair grow.     
BOTTOM Line: We have to take care of our hair no matter what the length/condition/style it is in.  I find that too often we have bad habits/advice  that cause breakage, and thus prevents us from seeing the “actual” growth that we’ve achieved.  AND often its difficult for us to break these bad habits.