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!

I realise there's a political element but surely if white women can dye, straighten, perm, whatever etc. their hair then why can't any woman do what she likes to her hair? I don't feel any pressure to show the word my hair in its natural, pure state, so if I don't want to why should I? I would be most annoyed to be told that I shouldn't dye it because other people would like to see me being true to my paled-skinned, mousy-haired celtic-possibly-mixed-with-Jewish-who-knows ethnic origin. It's my business and so I think Michelle's hair is her own business.

As for the girls, their genetic heritage is of course not just black as they have a white grandmother, so it would be extremely hard to predict how much of what their hair looks like is nature and how much is treatment.

those phyto products mentioned in that piece are available from space nk, i use them on my straight mousy hair and they're great. no silicone in them etc.

although i don't think michelle obama's hair does look that good, funnily enough. but she has a difficult jawline to balance so she may be stuck with a long bob. i think rush limbaugh would have a fatal fit if she came out in cornrows.

Well I don't think any beauty treatment is fine I suppose - I've got some serious worries about the rise of cosmetic surgery for example and women wanting to pay to have themselves sliced apart for some perceived attractiveness. Yes it's their choice, but I think it says bad things about society.

But this is about hair treatments, which is not an invasive thing and my point was that all women (or all people) should at least have the same right to do what they like with it. It seems decidedly dodgy to me if I'm allowed as a white woman to dye, perm my hair etc and no one bats an eyelid, but people tut tut if a black woman doesn't stay true to her afro "heritage".

I reckon the pressure is exactly the other way around, snowleopard. It's so rare nowadays to see an African-heritage woman with natural curly/afro hair; if a woman dares to go for that look, she must feel like a right social freak compared to all the other dark ladies with only straightened hair.

Hairdresser to Michelle and her mama.

You make some really interesting points@snowleoopard.

I suppose as a mum of mixed race children I am super-conscious of what messages I (and the rest of the world) are sending out to my child. When she's older, she'll do what she wants with her hair, and if that means straightening it or whatever - fine (I well remember battling with my mum as a young teen about having it cut/permed etc. She just didn't understand that two 'Irish Sunday school' plaits with ribbons wasn't cool ...sure I'll be the same!). But importantly, I really don't want to send the message that in order for her to be beautiful / acceptable, she has to have straight, European looking hair.

I do think times are changing, though, and I personally don't think that any black woman (any woman, actually) should have to justify to anybody else what she wants to do with her hair. Why shouldn't a woman with afro hair straighten it and dye it bright red if she wants? But in the real world, I also don't want my daughter growing up to think her natural hair is somehow undesirable. A balance has to be struck, I guess.

I totally agree with Snowleopard. I know men and women that think that to be strictly roots, you have to wear your hair au natural or else you are a sell out. I personally think that is garbage and I think one should be able to wear their hair as they please. I guess the motivation behind how you wear your hair could be called into question (e.g long flowing weave) but tbh, it is nobody elses business really. By that I mean, if it is OK for the likes of Angela Davis and Stokey Carmichael in the 1970s to wear their afro as a political statement of black pride, is it wrong for the likes of Beyonce, Rhianna etc to wear eurocentric weaves because they can and because they want to?

One of the aims of the Civil Rights Movement was for African-Americans to achieve self-determination so by dictating what one can and cannot do with one's hair, does that not go against that ideal?

My hairdresser is black and most of her clients for weaves/extensions are Caucasian and Asian women so why do black women receive such angst for doing the same? Other ethnic groups do not define themselves by how they wear their hair so why as a group should black women be defined as stricly roots or sell out by how they wear their hair? It is complete nonsense.

MrsMattie, my DTS are mixed race and tbh, I'm glad I have boys and not girls. I just cut their hair short for an easy life.

Interestingly, the twin with fair skin and blue eyes has afro hair whereas the brown skin and brown eye twin has eurocentric hair! Genetics eh!

spokette - my DS had a beautiful mop of curls until very recently. It was a nightmare trying to find a hairdresser who could cut it, though. We tried Afro hairdressers, European hairdressers, a black barber, a Turkish barber's - they all butchered it. We chopped it all off a few weeks ago (actually, DH brought him to have it chopped - I cried at home like a pathetic wimp). It's really short now (like, military short ), but do you know what the cheeky little monster said to me after all the years of (my) angst over his hair? 'It's much better going swimming now, mum, 'cause my hair doesn't get in my eyes'. I could have cut it years ago! Great!

My DH cuts our DTS hair and does an excellent job. He likes their hair short because he finds it easier to comb.

As a white man, he thinks that he has entered another universe when it comes to black women's hair.

I live in Nigeria and a woman with hair au naturel is as rare as hen's teeth! If her hair is as nature intended it is either cropped very short and looks absolutely stunning on the beautiful women I see, or she is an elderly matron with a greying afro. Otherwise I see an astounding array of hairstyles, either relaxed (there are some nasty products in the shops here ) or braids and/or extensions.

A new law making motorcycle helmets compulsory has been introduced and has caused some angst amongst women using the numerous okadas (motorcycle taxis) because of the damage caused to their hairdos by a helmet. Some choose to risk being fined while other just perch the helmet on top of their braids. In the rainy season women protect their hair with carrier bags on their heads, fashioned into stylish 'hats' akin to traditional headwear.

My dd had waistlength hair (it's now mid-back length now) which attracted a lot of attention whenever we went out. People were forever offering her money to have it cut. She did think about getting braids but wasn't up for 10 hours of sitting still! All her friends straighten their hair but it does damage it sometimes. Her bf's hair broke off all across the front recently. An odd phenomenon dd has noticed at school is that there are always loads of fallen-out braids lying on the ground during the rainy season.

I absolutely agree that emancipation involves doing what you want - but realistically, we're all in thrall to the images of the 'ideal' that we're constantly bombarded with. Now, I'm a white woman with, quite possibly, an unsophisticated understanding of this particular issue; but isn't the choice of an expensive, time-consuming routine in order to imitate 'euro' hair a rather depressing indication that black women have been co-opted into the beauty industry's myth that only 'white' women are truly beautiful? If the women concerned really believed that afro hair was beautiful, would they still do it?

It seems similar to the many other debates about body image, particulary where women are concerned; we're all supposed to love ourselves as we are, but in truth many of us spend time and money in the fruitless pursuit of a supermodel ideal.

Hair has always been something to tinker about with. In regency times they wore wigs on their heads.

Have we ever just left our hair to get on with its own thing?!!?!?

I think after reading this thread, anybody can do whatever they like with their hair. But I would like to see more fashions available.. I feel like it's just straight hair or nothing. And with similar hair to snowleopard's celtic-jewish hair that's a no-can-do...

I'd like to see some frizzly-haired models. That would be like so um groundbreaking, yeah?

Mmm, I'm not arguing about whether or not women wear their hair naturally - of course, the vast majority don't (which is itself the result, you could argue, of oppression). My point, WRT this particular thread, is that so many women with afro hair choose to imitate the euro 'ideal', rather than opting for the many other things that one could do with afro hair.

I'm not trying to say what individuals should or should not do - of course it's none of my bleeding business. I'm just saying that the near-unanimity means that it is a political issue, rather than a happy mosaic of individual, unfettered choices.

I agree with Policywornk that the default position amongst black women seems to be to adopt the eurocentric ideal of what hair should be and that happens because we have been brainwashed into thinking that that is what constitutes beauty and desirability unfortunately.

I find more black women are rediscovering their heritage though and hence the rise in natural hairstyles. This is probably due to the increase in African immigrants to the UK but after what Suedonim said about Nigeria, I'm not so sure now.

I wear braids because after spending 10 hours sitting to have them put in, they are extremely low maintenance. One friend twists her hair and redoes it every 2 to 3 weeks. Another friend wears her hair in canerows and these can last up to 3 weeks. Interestingly, another friend who uses relaxers, is always complaining about how her hair is so lifeless and dull but refuses to try a natural hairstyle because she thinks it would not suit her.

Natural hairstyles like twists, canerows etc are not actually that time consuming and can last two to three weeks before having to redo them.

In the 1990s, a white woman won the title of Afro Hairdresser of the Year for the first time. She said at the time that working with afro hair provided more interest in terms of design and versatility.

This is a very interesting conversation. I wondered the same about Michelle and the girls' hair. Re. places in London - there's loads in Finsbury Park and Walthamstow isn't bad either.

Spokette, can you tell me the difference between cornrows, braids and twists? Braids I always think of as being done with extensions but I'm not at all sure. How do you look after them ie how do you wash them without it all coming to pieces?

I was fascinated to learn recently there have been styles for different occasions going way back in Nigerian history. There is one particular style which is for a woman on the day before her wedding, to denote she is a bride. It is never used on any other occasion. Of course, most woman don't adhere to the traditions nowadays but I thought the subject very interesting and can imagine hair was an important social indicator at one time.

Cornrows are three strand plaits that are plaited close to the scalp so that they lie flat on the head. With each twist you pick up a new strand of hair so keeping the plait close to the scalp.

Braids are usually three strand plaits and these are plaited away from the hair.

Twists are two strand plaits where you just two pieces of hair around each other.

With all three styles who can use only the natural hair or add additional hair to give extensions.

Then of course there are national variations like Ghanian twists!

HTH!

Just googled and this looks to me like the girls hair is naturally quite straight (more european texture). Given that their dad is half white, and their mum could have a mixed background too it could quite easily be quite unafro - my dd's father is dark skinned and has very curly afro hair and she's fair with almost straight hair. Don't know about MO tho - hers definitely looks straightened/relaxed.

Yes I think her hair is definitely relaxed and worringly if her daughters' is also. When I lived in Ghana my friend had a salon and the smell of the chemicals used to relax the hair was industrial - I would definitely not put that near my child's head.

My cousin has two black parents but her hair is wavy rather than afro, and straight when blow dried. Her siblings all have afro hair.

I think this old photo answers the question about what the daughters' hair is like naturally - bit different from the one chickenmama posted. Looks more like my DDs' hair. I would never dream of either relaxing or blowdrying theirs because I want them to be proud of their beautiful curls.

I once thought Sky News Presenter Lukwesa wore a weave - but not so apparently. she use to wear her hair natural, curly, but now it looks relaxed.

All of you must watch a movie by Chris Rock, american comedian, called "Good Hair"....

its sooo funny and really examines black hair from all aspects

its just fantastic! rent it at the DVD shop today. x