If there’s one Biblical ideal almost every woman in the world has subscribed to from the beginning of time—perhaps unknowingly—it’s the scripture that states “a woman’s hair is her crowning glory.” When I say people have taken that passage and ran with it, I’m talking a Flo Jo sprint to Carol’s Daughter, the corner beauty supply, and back because no matter how much we want to throw out that cute, “it’s just hair” catch phrase we know good and well, our attitude toward what adorns the top of our heads is hardly as casual.
You mostly hear natural women say “it’s just hair,” when they are forced to explain why they no longer have any after a big chop. Interestingly though, as their hair grows back, their free time will begin to be spent scouring the Internet to find a how-to video for a twist out or reading product reviews or finding a natural hair meet up or trying to accept the new type of beauty that doesn’t involve several inches of hair falling from their scalps. It might have just been hair that hit the salon floor the day they got rid of it, but when it starts growing back it turns into much more—a project of sorts and for some, a new identity.
Even a woman who gets a simple haircut, not even a big chop, deals with the same. You can go from shoulder-length hair to a pixie cut and start proclaiming short hair, don’t care, but the moment you leave the salon, you begin to question how people will respond to you now. Will they think you’re still attractive, will you be seen as less or more beautiful than before, will your sexuality be questioned, are you even the same person? All that inquiry spawned from the simple snip of some scissors and $40-$100 missing from your wallet.
Just something as simple as a bad hair day can get someone cussed out quickly because you just don’t feel like yourself. It might be too humid and your hair is frizzy, your curls won’t last, you sweated out your perm, your hair’s too short to do anything with, you’re tired of wearing the same raggedy ponytail everyday—whatever it is, if any of those thoughts are the first ones to flood your mind when you start your day, chances are you won’t just have a bad hair day, you’ll have a bad day period; and anyone who comes in contact with you might as well.
And though there are a slew of other things that can go wrong, so to speak, with our physical appearance on any given day—a pimple, rip in our stockings, having on the wrong bra—nothing holds nearly as much weight as our hair not being up to par—even when it comes to our weight. If it was a toss-up between your hair being laid and you getting it in in the gym, the hair’s probably going to win. And if someone wants you to go somewhere and your hair is not looking right? Rain check please!
Hair is serious— to all women—and the gravity of it most of us haven’t been able to escape no matter how many times we chant, “it’s just hair.” The question is, is it a problem? Though in most denominations, people today are no longer bound by old testament teachings, if you still believe your hair is your crowning glory, is that such a bad thing?
Because society has become so beauty-obsessed there’s this unspoken, yet clearly evident attitude among those who aren’t apart of the beauty elite that if you care about your physical appearance, you’ve essentially drank the sugar-free Kool-Aid. It depends. One’s hair shouldn’t stop them from engaging in society but there’s a huge difference between being conscientious of what your hair looks like when you leave the house and trying to make the strands you were born with into something they weren’t mean to be just to fit some Eurocentric standard.
Outside of that merry-go-round, women should feel the freedom to say no it’s not just hair and I do care—just like you care that your skin is blemish-free or you can fit into that body-con dress for the party Saturday night. We’re allowed to want to be beautiful by our own standard and if that means investing time and money into our crown then so be it, that’s better than frontin’ like you don’t when you know you do.
Do you think it’s OK to spend a lot of time dealing with your hair and wanting it to look a certain way or does it mean your oppressed by society’s obsession with beauty?
*Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.
Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.
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