Michelle Obama's hair

[spokette]

Well, I was at an event this afternoon and chatting away to other black women when a white woman joined us and asked us about Michelle Obama's hair. She said that Michelle Obama must be mixed race because her hair is straight.

Cue me and the other women look at each other with that knowing look and proceeded to educate the white woman on the intricacy of afro hairdressing as well as the expense. We explained that her hair was relaxed and maybe she wore tracts of weave to add body - we are still debating that one.

Anyway it was quite interesting to explain afro hairdressing to someone who has no idea of what black women have to go through with their hair!! Also, I think Michelle Obama's hair is going to be discussed widely for the next 4 year and beyond by black women at least!

Spokette, but I am talking late 60s when black women (it seemed)showed off their own hair. Like this? Maybe I am wrong?

(Btw,that album is the best.)

So,if you have relaxed hair, you can't wash it or wet it? That must be restricting.

What about Beyonce's hair at the inaugural ball.What had she had done?

Beyonce has a weave. Fake hair. Extensions.
You can go out in the rain with relaxed hair becayuse that process permanently alters the structure of the hair. With blow drying, the straightness is only temporary.

I've seen extensions on a white woman.Just a ratty mess under the hair at the back.But Beyonce's looked so smooth and straight.

It'a an expensive weave. Probably sets her back around a grand a time.

I used to live in Tottenham and loved nosing around all the groovy hair and beauty places and checking out the fab hairstyles.

weave is basically a wig or bits of wig stitched into braided hair. so a wig that doesn't come off really.

why? well, lots of people find afro hair in its natural state quite difficult to style and like the variety of styles they can get with weaves.

Mainstream American has a problem with natural black hair. American women are generally much higher maintenance than British women and that smooth, polished look is what they aim for. Natural black hair doesn't fit their expectations.

Ah, but if you worked in a high powered American company, you would probably have to conform. I know lots of women who were glamorous by UK standards, have fifty fits when they moved to New York. Even they had no idea how much was involved.

Are there Afro-British/American women who see the trend towards hair-straightening as a political thing, or is it not really a topic that gets much discussion (much as, say, most women don't think twice about shaving their legs)?

It seems to me that there was a definite movement in the 70s/80s for black women to wear their hair naturally, as much as a political statement as anything else. But maybe I have that wrong.

So, to go from one extreme to another (Beyonce to Alyshia Dixon) - when the latter was on the Euro thing past night, her hair looked smooth and silky, like a Barbie doll's.

What does she do?

Hmmm, in Canada I knew (and saw) waaaay more Black women with natural hair, than I ever see here. Everyone seems to straighten their hair.

alyshia's mum is white so her hair is perhaps naturally wavy.

Alesha Dixon's hair is natural because she is mixed race.

In 70/80s America, African-American women who wore their hair natural with afro-centric designs found that they were often excluded from white collar jobs and were forced to conform to the eurocentric ideal if they wanted to be employed and advance in their careers. Hence the rise in popularity of first curly perms in the 1980s, relaxing in the 1990s and now weaves, lace front wigs etc. It is mainly in the creative industries where you will find women sporting natural hair. Corporate America still has a long way to go I'm afraid because natural afro hair equates to radicalism (e.g. Afro/Black Panthers).

Looking after afro hair in its natural state is really time intensive for a number of reasons e.g., humidity, breakage, etc. However, afro hair is also extremely versatile and if you know what you are doing, you can wear numerous different styles which are both trendy and easy to maintain. Styles such as cornrows with or without extensions are easy to maintain, twists, braiding, locs etc are very popular too. I wear my hair in braids(extensions) and it is low maintenance and looks fab. My white colleagues always ask me about how long it takes to put in and how I care for it(lol)

i have used the frederic fekkai products mentioned in the link about no lye & they're excellent. i have fine curly hair which i wear naturally (i'm white).

You can chart the changes in black hair fashion by following Michael Jackson's albums in chronological order covers[lol].

Off the Wall - afro
Thriller - curly perm
Bad - Loose curly perm
Dangerous - can't see his hair
History - relaxed with extensions
Invincible - relaxed with zillions of extensions

I am interested in finding out more about the Frederic Fekkai products. This book is interesting because Shamboosie is totally against no lye relaxers as he believes they are responsible for leaving hair dry and lifeless.

The debate for lye or no-lye relaxers will continue but I reckon it is actually down to the quality of the products, how well it is applied to the hair and how well the hair is looked after.

I had my hair relaxed about 10 years but the incompetent hairdresser did not wash out all the chemicals and my hair fell out plus I developed really bad dermatitis and had to have anti-histimine treatment. It took over a year for my hair to recover and it will have to be some amazing product applied by a hairdresser I can trust before I even think about relaxing my hair again!

I thought her hair was fabulous looking - great cut and it had movement and body - it didn't look lye relaxed to me, so my vote is for a natural blow out and straightening irons.

And the girl's hair I thought looked soft and silky. It looked like it had loose curls put in.

Tell me if I'm being weird, but I find the whole idea of extensions/weaves made of real hair absolutely disgusting - talk about bad karma, that hair has come from women and children who are so utterly dirt poor and exploited that they are reduced to selling bits of themselves.

I saw a great play a couple of years ago at the Hackney Empire about black women and their hair ('da Kink In My hair'. It was excellent. I (white) went with a black female friend and she was crying the whole way through - with laughter and with genuine tears. It's an emotive subject, isn't it? And quite a political one. Through the years my friend has done the whole weave thing, dyed her hair red and blonde, shaved her hair all off, gone completely natural, and is now wearing it in a relaxed bob, but frets that years of relaxing it is damaging it. It's a whole other world of female angst!

p.s. I think Michelle looks fabulous. I did wonder at her daughters, though. Their hair looks relaxed, too. I would be quite wary of relaxing my childrens' hair. But then, I am white and so (admittedly) a bit scared of messing with my children's curls, not being as up on what's OK and what's not OK as a black mum would be. DH is bloody useless with hair and has shaved his head for years, btw!

I'd like to see more women just letting their hair do its own thing. We have all got so used to straight Jennifer Aniston hair that anything with a bit of life in it looks wrong. Ages ago, my hairdresser told me curly and wavy hair were coming back, but it is taking a HECK of a long time to filter down to the high street.

I have thick wavy hair, and although I'm white, and I see this purely as a fashion issue and not a political issue! I'm always being asked why I don't blow dry it straight or have it straightened. When I do get it cut and come out of the hairdressers with 'the jennifer aniston poker straight do' people make such a big deal of telling me how nice I look, the message I take from it is, 'really you should do it like this ALL the time'. But it's too much like hard work!!

I feel for women who have to get their hair relaxed every 6 wks and then worry about it breaking in the meantime.