Apr
18
Monkeys with wigs???????!!
4 Comments
What do you think of this guy’s argument? Is he right?
Apr
18
Is it just me, or is it everytime you go into a black cosmetics store, there are other races (usually Asians) behind the counter? I am a north londoner and the biggest black cosemetic store chain in the area is situated in Finsbury Park-Pak Stores. Pak Stores are worth millions, if you take a look at Stroud Green Road, it is clear to see that they have monoplised the whole area; green Pak stores signs everywhere you look. They are run by, (you guessed it from the name Paks) Pakistanis. Do black people have a problem with this though? In no way is this a racist post, suggesting that different races cannot sell the products of another race. But is it not an issue that black people are not the ones to profit from products that are made for black people. Yesterday I stopped some shoppers at the Finsbury Park stores to get their views.
Denisha Johnson, 19 is a student at Middlesex University, and lives in Tottenham, North London. She is a regular customer of Pak stores, she said: “I come here to buy the hair for my extentions, cocoa butter, Dax and other products you can’t find in in Boots or Superdrug.” Commenting on the store being run by Pakistanis she said: “I’m not that keen on it. It’s not just here though, it’s wherever you go in London. It would be better if black people were the ones making money off black people. But then again black people don’t get off their lazy arses and do something about it. It’s all very well to complain, but if there is no action what can you do?”
Sheila Owusu, 41, an accountant from Holloway said: “If black people were the ones selling they could offer a lot more assistance to you as a customer, because they would know what they are talking about. I come here and they try to sell me hair of two different colours and get me to mix the two. A black woman would know that would come out looking terrible!”
The store manager refused to comment on the staff’s knowledge of black hair products and requested me to leave the store.
Through asking around, it is clear that many black women do not like buying their products from other races, but since there is a lack of black alternatives they make do. Pak Cosmetics simply saw a market and exploited it, and that’s buisness for you. It seems that the complaints of black people against black people will remain merely complaints, unless they can offer something better for the black market.
Apr
04
They’re increasing in great numbers. They are the ones that choose to rock a hair colour that’s lighter than their own skintone. Hosts of celebrities are doing it; Beyonce, Mary J Blige, Kelis, Eve, and Keisha Cole. They are the black-blonds and they’re taking over!
Is it really a good look though? It has to be admitted it suits some. Light skinned black people look better with it then dark-skinned. But still, it looks totally unnatural, and in many cases quite cheap.
One could even view it as again celebrating Western beauty, as opposed to young black women embracing with their Afro-Carribbean (I hate that word, but I’ll use it anyway.) features. Once that is mentioned, the argument can go on and on. Is it just their hair that black women are dissatisfied with? Or does go further to include the flat shape of the nose, the big lips, and the dark skin? In many black and even asian cultures it is considered more attractive to be fairer, thus skin-lightening products are not uncommon within the black and asian communities. It is ironic that Caucasions spends hours sunning themselves on beaches to look darker, when black people are using all sorts of toxic creams to look lighter. It seems no one is happy with what their genes dealt them.
However, It could be suggested that black women dying their natural hair blond, or getting blond weaves put in is symbolic of the age we are at. An age of multi-culturalism, an age that has begun to see little wrong with mixing colours; black, white, yellow, green, whatever. As we are in an age of mixing what is wrong with a black girl borrowing her look from a white girl and vice-versa? White girls rock cornrows these days too, thus it seems we’re all borrowing each other’s looks.
Mar
28
Now if you’ve ever been in a black hair salon, you’ll know it’s chaos; even more so in an area such as Brixton; a lot of broke black women coming in their hoards to get their weaves done; no child care so bringing the young kids along to run riot . It’s definately not dull! I recently had a trip down to my Brixton Salon, and my hair stylist was kind enough to give me an interview on what goes on.
She is a stereotypical yardie; thick Jamaican accent, big earings, charismatic, colourful dress and multi-coloured hair to perfect the look. Her accent is so thick that it is hard for me to understand everything she is saying. However when we get chatting she has a lot to contribute on the politics of black hair.
1) Are black women trying to look white with their weaves?
“Weavin’ has become for everyone. Me can’t undertand why people wanna say black women trying to look white, wid dere weaves, when me get quite a few white girls coming in for weave too.”
2) What about men, Have you found that they are unattracted to women that wear weaves?
” A few me clients’ husbands don’t like it. They say they want their women to wear dere natural hair. Me think bout five me clients say that to me.”
3) How many clients do you see a week?
“It varies. It can be bout 60, or it can be bout 20.
4) Out of these clients, how many white girls do you see?
“Sometimes none at all. Sometimes quite a few. dey get a few weave rows at the bottom. dey come to us cos we cheaper than white girl salon. Everybody want long hair”
5) You say that everybody wants to have long hair. Why do you think that is?
“Cos it’s nice to have long hair. It feminine, and das what men want, and womn wanna be attractive to men. Black girls want it, White girls want it, Chinese girls want it; everyone want it.”
6) Why is long hair beautiful?
What you mean why long hair beautiful? Cos it is. Dat’s what everyone tink.
7) Can’t short hair be beautiful too?
Yeah, it alright. But people like long hair.
Very few black women can grow their hair long. Do you think they should embrace their short natural hair, or fake it with weaves?
It up to them. If they didn’t weave, I wouldn’t have a job would I? If they comfortable wid dere natural hair, good for them. If they wanna weave they should call me!
Mar
28
The weave- it gets its fair bit of criticism. Ask any man and he would most definately cuss at a girl that always wears one. But what’s wrong with weaving? Many men will say that they are fake, and in a sense false advertising. When guys see a hot girl , one of the main features that attracts him to her is her hair. It is understandable that a guy might be a bit pissed off at the discovery that it is not real!
Those that are still all for black power would suggest that weaving sees black women trying to look white, and obviously for them the weave is a big no, no. Personally, I dismiss the politics behind the weave and say that fake hair is great hair! It allows for versality, so you don’t get bored sporting the same hairstyle day in day out. Is it not the case that wearing a weave is just like wearing make up? Make-up does not tranform a girl’s looks, it enhances them-the weave has the same effect.
However, it must be pointed out that the most popular weave style is long and straight- emulating European hair. It can be accepted why this is an issue. Is the fact that so many black women weave to have the ideal long, straight hair a form of self-loathing. Are black women dissatisfied with their natural kinky, frizzy and even nappy hair? and are we conforming to Western ideals of beauty?
In some respects I think western ideals of beauty still prevail, and because of this discrimination in the beauty industry will always be there.
Mar
11
What connotations come to mind when you think about the panther? Strong, powerful, dominant and fearless- it could be said that the controversial Black Panther Party embodied these characteristics. There are however, alternative characteristics associated with the panther; characteristics that fail to capture the essence of the animal in such a favourable light. What about predator, dangerous and even a beast that is capable of heinous violence.
The Black Panther Party without a doubt possessed all of the characteristics of a panther. Yes, they were strong and powerful, being the first black political organisation to actually stand up and be heard at a time when black people did not have a voice (The clenched fist, the renowned symbol of black power was created by the Black Panthers). Of course they had tremendous effects on the attitudes of young black people of the time, It created a new positive air of self worth. However, the methods of the Black Panthers were all wrong. They were dangerous, ALWAYS using force to be heard. Take their attire for example, often military jackets, hats, the afro and complete with a huge gun strapped to their chest, intimidating to say the least. To this day the Panthers are admired by black people as if they were heros. (their politics have even sparked the creation of the New Black Panther Party. a modern version of the original organisation.) Little emphaisis is given to their violent side.
Mar
07
He has been called a hero, a leader and even the father of Black Power, but was Malcolm X really such a great man? Many disagree with the favourable pictures painted of him, branding him an extremist, crazy and even a racist spokesman of the fanatical Nation of Islam. Which description did the real X fall under, and what relevance did he have to black people and their hair?
Malcolm X was born in 1925 in Nebraska. His father is said to have been an outspoken Baptist speaker, that was strongly affiliated with an activist group called the Universal Negro Improvment Association. from a young age he was exposed to politics and the social inequalities of black people; living in that era social inequality was his world. His mother was light-skinned, and it is often documented that X often shunned her for that reason, claiming that she looked like a white woman. While X was still young three of his uncles were violently murdered by white men in racist attacks, (attacks of this kind are depicted in the film ‘Mississippi Burning’) . This has been suggested to fuel an element of hatred for white people in X, a hatred that would later be the ammunition of the Black Power movement. X was baptised Malcolm Little, but in 1952 changed his surname to X in the pursuit of freeing himself of his “slave name”. He chose X, as this was often the symbol branded on the arms of slaves. The Caucasion sounding names of black-Americans are usually the names of the slave masters of their ancestors, thus many blacks opted to changing their names. The most common example is Mohammed Ali, who was born Cassius Clay.
X spent a proportion of his life in prison for theft. It was while in Prison that he developed a profuse thirst for reading, and spent much of his time in the prison library. He acquired the nickname Satan among fellow inmates for his well known hatred of the God, the Bible and religion in general. After serving his sentence, he met Elijah Muhammad. The two of them would serve to publicise The Nation of Islam, and the growing political movement of Black Power.
The Nation of Islam is a religious, social and political organisation that promotes ideas of Black Supremacy. It preaches, like regular Islam that there is no other God but Allah. Their beliefs go further to suggest that the human form of Allah was witnessed in W. D. Fard, the creator of the Nation of Islam. The organisation is often rightly called racist, for example, they frequently refer to white people as “the devil” in their teaching.The nation of Islam seemed to capture the minds and hearts of many young black people of the time; it was new, it was liberal and it was the first organisation to state that black people were not inferior to white people, but in fact preech the opposite. It was almost as if the organisation was fashionable, Mohammed Ali, a strong public figure at the time was doing it, so eveyone else wanted to follow suit. There was a change of thinking, and this trancended into the way Black people saw themselves. They were no longer ashamed to be black, they were proud-This was the essence of Black Power and the birth of the afro hairstyle.
The afro became the symbol of Black Power, it strongly stated the common expression “Black is beautiful” which played a huge role in the liberation of black people. However, a dark-side can be suggested. The movement was so closely connected with the Nation of Islam, which has been shown to be openly racist. Malcolm X could be called a hero on one hand, but he can also be called an istigator of hate and extremist views on the other. There are even FBI files on X that claim that he was in fact Schizophrenic.
Malcolm X was assasinated on February 21 1965. His extremist views and his affliation with the Nation of Islam served to kill him. Was this the death of a great man, an activist that caused black people to gain selfworth that trancended into the way they wear their hair? Or was this the end of a hateful man that promoted racism in Black people? What do you think?
Mar
06
So what is this site all about? Its name makes it obvious doesn’t it?- the politics of the black people and their hair. You might think that a whole site dedicated to the subject of black hair is pointless,when there are subjects such as poverty, gun crime, obeisity and all the other issues that have that element of ’seriousness’ attached to them, hopefully I will demonstrate how serious the politics of black hair can be. This site will serve to highlight the issues surrounding black people and the cosmetic industry, racism in the industry, whether Western ideals of beauty still prevail, and more.
There have always been issues attached to black people and the way they wear their hair; the most obvious example is the emergence of the afro during the late sixties and early seventies. This was the result of an era of black power; the Black Panther Party were campaigning potently, Malcolm X also. Black pride was in the air, no longer were black people conforming to western ideals of beauty by straightening their hair- for the first time they let their natural hair stand out, big and bushy in all its glory.
Today, we have an equally political hair trend in the weave. You see them everywhere, it is like every black girl out there (well apart from those who were blessed with good natural hair!) has one. What is this saying about the young black female of today? Is she hiding underneath her weave? Could it be suggested that black people have conformed to be accepted in the West?
Black hair has always been political, it is far more than just aesthetics. The only problem is that it is dismissed as insignificant, when it is far from it.
