This is an exciting time for black beauty. Black women all over the world are discussing their hair and beauty choices as a result of the so-called natural hair revolution that is sweeping across many parts of America. Over 10 years ago, I wrote a book called "Black Beauty," which tried to make sense of the history of different black aesthetic styles and the way they have been received within this culture. With so much exciting debate going on right now, I decided to draft my own personal manifesto for the 10 new rules of black beauty.
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1. Action, not hair, is what makes you black
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. remains our best example of this. The ultimate signifier of his blackness was not his hair, features or skin color, but his words and deeds. Photo: AFP
2. All hair and hairstyles are good
<a href="http://www.stylelist.com/2012/02/26/viola-davis-hair-oscars_n_1302789.html" target="_hplink">Providing you choose them for yourself</a>, rather than through any forms of pressure or coercion, from family, friends, haters or society. Photos: Gety Images|AFP
3. Know your black hair history
Knowing the cultural history behind the hairstyle you choose empowers your choices. For example, for those who wear wigs or weaves, this type of adornment dates back over 5,000 years to ancient Egypt, where they were worn for ceremonial occasions, and as sun protectors. Photo: Hulton Archive
4. Know your own hair history
For many black women, their preference for straight hair is driven by bad childhood memories of being teased and tormented at school about their natural hair, or being made to feel insecure by parents who insisted on the hot comb or hair relaxer. Understanding your own psychological back-story, and the way it has influenced your choices today, is fundamental, thereby raising one's consciousness from "choice" to "informed choice." Photo: Getty Images
5. Understand who controls black beauty today
They are media owners, magazine and newspaper publishers, advertisers, cosmetics manufacturers, Hollywood producers, directors, casting agents, etc. If you translate this list into people, those in charge consist predominantly of white men. It is they who control what images of blackness are disseminated through the global media. This is not a bad thing in itself, if these men have an expansive view of black aesthetic diversity, but mostly they don't. To a greater or lesser degree, we are all influenced, conditioned, some might say even brainwashed, by their decisions. Photo: Getty Images
6. Black men -- be more supportive
The black Nationalists of the civil rights era chastised African American women who didn't give up their processed hair during the aesthetic revisionism of the 1960s. Today's black men should support black women in their aesthetic choices, whatever they may be. They should be more empathetic and less chastising. Photo: Hulton Archive
7. End black-on-black hair conflict
Black women are under attack again, only this time from each other. Curly against straight, natural against processed. The two styles are billed in opposition to one another -- like a face-off between a pair of heavyweight boxers -- always with the word "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/19/split-ends-natural-vs-rel_n_931691.html" target="_hplink">VERSUS</a>" separating them. In reality there is no reason why these two styles should not co-exist in harmony, with both factions accepting, instead of attacking the other. These feuds are divisive, and distract black women from life's more important battles. Photo: Cheryl Gerber/AP Images for P&G
8. All hair has meaning, and yet no meaning
All hair is subject to interpretation, and this will never change. <a href="http://www.essence.com/2012/06/09/solange-addresses-natural-hair-police-says-hair-is-not-important/" target="_hplink">Whatever someone's personal reason for adopting a particular style</a>, others may view that choice differently. Black women get judged over their hair, but then so do blondes, redheads and women with shaved heads. From this perspective, hair will forever be political and apolitical simultaneously. Photo: Getty Images
9. Perceived meanings can't be trusted
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/contessa-gayles/going-natural-without-joining-the-movement_b_1660286.html" target="_hplink">Reverting to natural hair</a> is often talked about alongside adjectives such as "self-acceptance," "freedom" and "political awareness." But these terms could just as easily apply to a black woman with a blonde weave, who chooses her style while being fully "aware." All assumptions based on aesthetics alone must be outlawed. Photo: Getty Images
10. Keep salon culture alive
Whether hair is natural or processed, black women enjoy the ritual of getting their hair professionally done in a salon. Not only are they also valued meeting places for chat and gossip, but they also support a large multi-ethnic community of hair care professionals who rely on their patronage. Photo: Eric Reed/AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation
'Black Beauty' is out now. www.arogundade.com
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I have seen many little black girls with relaxers, weave, pony tail and awful looking dyes and hair colors. I always wonder, did the parents saw these kids leaving the house. There is some serious issues in the black community, insecurities, parents not being involve and neglected. Please stop this B.S with rules and blame it on everyone else but the black community.
The black male does engage in the exact same choices as black women when it comes to hair; he can do the s-curl relaxer, his waves are stylish, if he is gray he is wise, if he has neatly shaped dreads he is powerful, he can throw in some integrated weave and he is then seen as creative.
A black female can engage any of those same choices and get a major beat down. Why? Female black beauty is in crisis due to abuse and constant negativity.
I think your 10 rules can jump start a major revolution / conversation in how that needs to change; the slavery mentality and self-hate is not about the texture, nor color of our hair but rather how we verbally and emotionally beat one another up instead of celebrating and lifting one another up concerning our hair choices. Great article check out my blog www.strandzofadiva.wordpress.com
Thanks
are constantly subjected
through the media to a Caucasian
standard of beauty. White people
globally only represent 10%
of the world’s population.
Click here to see why
its time for women of
color to redefine beauty
on their own terms http://bit.ly/ra07Tw
P.S. Black women in America
spend over $10 billion dollars
a year mostly trying to straighten naturally
curly hair. Instead, think what that
money could do to empower their minds
and personal wealth.
Let's stop making black women's hair choice a platform for debate. We have other issues to worry about. And, if you don't... that's very telling about you.