Archive for July 27th, 2007

If you can’t braid it, best thing to do is fade it (c) Phife

There are things I believe and things I know. Like, I believe that gravity keeps people on the Earth and the Earth in orbit around the sun. I believe that water is made up of molecules with two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. I believe that fat meat is greasy. On the other hand, I KNOW that if you want some real trouble - not no for-play stuff, I’m talmbout sho’ nuff trouble - mess with a Black woman’s hair, either figuratively or literally. Actually, don’t. Even if you are lookin for trouble. Cuz that’s almost guaranteed to be more trouble than you’re lookin for.

Anyway, I’m disregarding my own advice and publicly wondering, what’s the deal with all these weaves? I’m sayin - I know my own perspective is probably shaped by the fact that my mother has worn her hair natural for years and years, but that’s only part of it. See me, I don’t really care what it looks like, as long as it’s what’s growing out of the woman’s head. Anything from close-cropped to that “righteous moss” they be talkin about in Zora Neale Hurston, it’s all alright with me. Weaves and wigs, though? Not so much.

What brings this to mind is an article in the Philly Inquirer about the newest trend in bionic hair, the lace-front wig.

Lace-front wigs are the next “miracle product” designed to give black women what society tells them (and what many now believe) is perfect hair. Meaning, long and straight.

The fad started with transvestite RuPaul almost a decade ago. Within the last five years, many silky-maned black celebrities, from Halle Berry to Vivica Fox, began wearing the wigs.

The lace-front wigs grew in popularity mainly because they give the impression that the wearer’s hair is growing directly from the scalp. So once the wig is fastened securely around the hairline, a woman can part her hair or pull it up into a ponytail without fear of exposing indentations where the hair has been sewn or glued in (otherwise known as tracks).

“It just affords me more options,” said Andrea Wright, 42, as she sat in Lisa Johnson’s chair at the Wyndmoor salon Shapes -N- More.

Wright, an event planner who lives in Mount Airy, walked into the shop sporting a short, relaxed style. She walked out with straight dark brown hair that fell well below her shoulder. Her face was framed with soft curls.

“This is so nice. It’s not so severe a look for me. I can put it in a ponytail and still feel professional … feminine.”

When lace-front wigs first hit the scene, they cost anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 because they looked so real. But these days, the wigs, most made from human hair, can be found for $300 to $1,000. There are demonstrations on YouTube.com that show people how to apply the wigs themselves and Web sites that tell people where to find them.

I really didn’t need all that, i just wanted to get down to the price. $300 to a grand? A KILODOLLAR?! FOR A WEAVE?! Let me slow down.

Now, one thing I’m noticing in this article is the inherent critique of the style, noting that it stems from the desire to have some other type of hair. Specifically, hair that more closely aligns with Western standards of beauty. That is to say, white people’s hair. (But it really ain’t just white people’s hair - it’s every race’s but ours.) I think the critique is valid. For as much “flexibility” as the weave provides, and I do not question that it does provide some options in terms of how a woman wants wear her hair on a given day, I think it’s still more about the hair texture than anything else. As the one woman said, having the weave made her feel “feminine.”

At the same time, I don’t really have a problem with women using straightening products. We all know permanents are temporary; Mother Africa is gonna win in the end, so I don’t sweat that. Cuz that, to me, is about options. That’s taking what’s there and altering it. My beef with wigs and weaves is that they’re add-ons. It’s not just changing the style, though, it’s creating an illusion. One of my personal mottoes is “It is what it is.” But with wigs and weaves, it is what it ain’t.