The truth is that any hair texture is limited in the number of styles that they can rock. If my hair is not loc’d I cannot achieve the variety of looks a loc’d style can. If my hair were straightened, I cannot achieve the styles hair with Afro texture can achieve. Straight hair has its limits, Afro hair has its limits, indeed the degree of straightness or curliness determines the degree of limitation.
However white little girls don’t seem to care that they cannot have lovely afro puffs, that their hair cannot stay in braids long enough, that cornrows don’t look as neat, that beads tend to keep falling out, that their hair (depending on the length) can get in the way, getting in their face, eyes and mouths sometimes, that water changes the look making it limb and sticking to the scalp. I don’t see white women worrying that they can’t rock a locs updo, an Afro or just having hair that doesn’t bow so visibly to the dictates of the weather, or have a hairstyle that you can go swimming with and it practically remains the same!
So why then do we, who have Afro texture care that our hair can’t do a million and ten things? Why do we care that our hair doesn’t grow flat on our heads; that it doesn’t grow to our bums; that it doesn’t blow in the wind (how we even think that is a good thing shows the power of persuasion), that it doesn’t comb easily without water? Oh and by the way, straight hair tangles and brushing can be painful if not done carefully or if the ends have not been trimmed for a while.
That’s teenagers – what about the pre-teens, and younger children? More and more I see little girls in extension braids continuously, and hair extensions. I have noticed children in push chairs with weaves, yes weaves!! How many white children have you seen in hair extensions, going to school ladened with someone else’s hair or rather something else as hair? Many of these children have started having the hair problems of older women. Imagine facing a life, from say age 2, where you have to rely on wigs, weaves and extensions for the rest of your life to feel beautiful. What kind of choice is that?