Black Women BEWARE: Your Secrets Are Out

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, black hair was rarely ever openly discussed. This was a time when weaves, hair dyes, and wigs were just one of women's many little secrets. Secrets that you just don't ask about, discuss, or bring up in a public place. Other "Secrets" that you might be familiar with include waxing your mustache hair, your mother dying the grey on her head, plucking your eyebrows, or even trimming your bikini line.


See we women, especially black women, have worked hard to preserve our secrets. We have walked out of our houses bright and early on Saturday mornings with a pony tail in place, scarf on our heads, and black shades on our faces. All so we can be as incognito as possible as we travel to our haven, our destination of choice, to purchase our drug of choice. The one place where we can be ourselves, show our real selves, and emerge the woman that all of you see on Monday morning.

Some of us tell ourselves that we only want the creamy crack. Who are we fooling? The creamy crack is usually just the gateway drug of choice to the dyes, the weaves, and the lace-fronts that our stylists convince us to try.

And you better believe these shops know what they're doing. You think your stylist is driving that 5-series BMW by flipping burgers at Burger King on the side? If you saw the previews for the new Chris Rock movie, you know that the black hair industry grosses over 9 billion a year.

You see all the stylist has to know how to do is slap on the chemicals, sew in the weaves, and style our hair. They leave the brainwashing up to the media. Some of them are so slick about it all they have to do is leave a few black magazines laying about, and you can instantly pick out something that will make you look like your parents had Indian, Brazilian, hell even Asian in their blood. No one will ever know that it's not yours. I think actress, Ms. Joy Bryant herself, said it best HERE. She rocks her weave according to how she feels that day, not according to how someone else thinks she should look. She did not mind letting people know that she is a proud "weave-aholic."

We live in an ever evolving society. And today that society has decided that my secrets are out.

My hair is the new "IT" topic of discussion in the black community. It is being debated about on the Tyra Banks show, written about in the NY Times, and even documented by comedian Chris Rock. If your reading this blog, chances are they've leaked your secrets out too. We should be appalled and outraged at such shameless, open displays of what we have worked so hard to protect. Who's With Me?

Huh? No takers? Fine, well at least I know one woman agrees with me. I do not know her name or where she is from, but I do know that she stood up on the Oprah show and let Chris Rock have a piece of her mind. She argued that her "secrets" are now all out in the open for the world to see. The same "secrets" that have probably "secretly" held her mind (and hair) in bondage for the past umpteenth years.

So what do you think? Good Hair, Bad Hair, Relaxed Hair, Natural Hair, are all terms used in the black community. Some black women are so scrambled in their own thinking that they don't want "unwanted attention" called to something that they don't fully understand themselves.


Many don't understand the reasoning behind their decision to chemically alter their hair, nor do they understand the social history, nor damage that can occur from having a "Good Hair/Bad Hair" mentality. And for the ones that do understand- for the ones that say using chemicals on their hair, or wearing weaves, is a personal preference and nothing more, they should have no problem discussing their "secrets." In fact, many are down right proud to share and let you in on them. [See Joy Bryant again for proof].

So, if you go to work Monday morning and a woman comes up to you and asks you if your wearing a weave, go ahead, share away. If your not comfortable then go ahead and ask them what brand of facial wax they use. I'm sure they'll get the hint.