Gabby Douglas has made history as an African American Gymnast. Unfortunately she may be remembered most because of the controversy surrounding her hair. (Chicago Sun Times, August 8th 2012).
This young lady is running jumping and sweating. And those movements will cause course black hair to sweat and “go back” to it’s original kinky state. How shallow of sister African America women to deflect from Gabby’s accomplishments and focus on her hair.
There is no way to say this mildly. Black women have issues because a majority of us have nappy hair that won’t grow. The only time I have observed an Africa American woman’s hair growing beyond the length it was in school is when curl and wave perms were popular.
These perms allowed black women and men to have curls and waves instead of kinky hair. Because there was no need for heat or a lot of maintenance the hair was stronger. The hair also received proper nutrients through the sprays and gels. This reduced damage and improved moisture balance. Therefore the hair grew.
Today man African American women don’t deal with styling their course hair. They camouflage it with weave, hair track extensions and of course the old stand by, a wig. Women of other cultures have no way to relate because basically they all have similar hair structure. They have the type of hair where you can wash and go.
The criticism of Gabby Douglas has brought a dirty little secret out of the closet. Black women are jealous and petty when to comes to hair. ( Todayinlondon.com) What has been done to Gabriel in public has been done to others behind closed doors for all of my life.
If you have a so called good grade of hair you are told you think you are better than those who don’t. And if your skin is light in addition to long hair you will be told you think you are white. This happened to me personally and I hear the story from others all too often.
Darker hued Africa American women are subjected to jokes like, “Your hair sure is nappy, whose your pappy?” My grandmother would say this all the time. There was also a running joke regarding ConColne. This was the relaxer that men used in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. The gag line was: “If your hair is short and nappy, Concolene will make you happy. These are inside jokes that non blacks probably never heard until now.
Truth be told the Gabby issue is getting it’s 15 minutes of fame and soon we will be on to another debate. But the saga of black women and their hair will go on until the end of time.
