What Spending A Half A Trillion Dollars on Hair Care and Weaves Says About Us

“We have so many deep rooted issues that we need to overcome in our community to finally make ourselves whole. It’s a shame where we chose to concentrate our efforts,” said Walton, who has chosen to go natural with her hair and councils women on how to do the same.

“In the natural hair community many of my clients tend to go natural because it is a healthier choice for them,” she said. “The vast majority are unfamiliar with their hair’s real texture, because they’ve had perms since they were five or eight.”

Some of the hair drama that she councils about stems from an internalized bias toward their natural hair, she said, so she believe they have to give themselves time to reconnect with their real beauty.

“Just go out and get comfortable with your hair,” she says. “Just embrace the anxiety and insecurity because sometimes you have to fake it until you can make it.”

My Limitless shine and falseness style is divine

African Americans spent $507 billion (out of our total estimated buying power of $836 billion) in 2009 on hair care and personal grooming items, according to an annual report published by Target Market News. This figure is up 16.6% from the $435 billion spent the previous year.

Yet for those who are one with the weave – the price seems worth the sacrifice. And the psycho-social condemnation does not register.

“You should be willing to pay the money to have good hair put in,” Clark stressed. In fact, human hair is all she wears, because it easily fits into her lifestyle. “It has good body, takes heat well, can get wet and just lasts longer then synthetic hair,” she said.

This makes a difference since she visits her stylist twice a month or once a week when she sports a shorter cut – which is what she wears when she wants to convey sassy. Much like Johnny Wright, whose signature phrase: “I always tell people be vain or be forgotten,” channels the deep seeded quests for style.