Why can't I say it's low racial awareness? With all of the pressing combs, flat irons, and blow dryer with the big toof combs just roaming the lands - if a girl wants straight hair she doesn't have to use a relaxer. But you see they don't want AFRICAN straightened hair which reverts with a few balls of sweat - they want EUROPEAN straightened hair so, should they so decide, they can jump in the pool, dry off, and keep cascading.
Every one likes to play crazy and get dumb on this issue. If an African Diaspora woman isn't comfortable with her own type of beauty - she wouldn't do these things to herself and they are tantamount to a type of self-mutilation.
Also, I said EXACTLY what I meant. I meant (1) folks moving thru the Diaspora and (2) having begun the (unregulated) chemical processes early and (3) engaging further in weaves, braids and (4) never allowing their natural hair to be styled and shown.
I did mention those extreme styling methods of Motherland women which even further contribute to this condition. I've see women burning finished braids when the extensions were synthetics. This is no different than melting plastic on your head.
I didn't pinpoint women who ONLY braid/weave their hair because African women have been braiding their hair, wearing braided wigs, and adding extension for centuries without any deleterious effects. I didn't pinpoint these women because I've done enough research to know that many women in Africa who cornrow their hair DO NOT use the same pattern each time. I didn't pinpoint these women because I've done enough research to know that this (hair braided in the same direction and far too tightly) was first called pattern alopecia and there have been times when people simply stopped braiding their hair and it started to grow. I was speaking of something specific.
What else? The 500 word piece was about women who make war on their Blackness thru their hair (and their skin). Since I'm long past 21 I'm not trying to look like the girls in the movie screen. But if I DID feel the need to have some Indian ladies' hair streaming down my back it would either be a wig or micro-braids.
And for the record. I'm not someone with "good" hair saying this. My hair is one of the coarsest grades to ever come from the Continent. I have actually and really cut my fingers when cornrowing my hair. I've had fingernails just get sheared off from the base. I cannot comb my hair unless it's wet and then only in small sections. I've been cornrowing my non-chemical, unwoven hair since May 16, 2011. I wear scarves to work everyday. And let me tell you, the men still give me "that look." It's okay and it's alright to be ourselves.
LV
--
-- On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 1:12 AM, Ayo Obe <ayo.m.o.obe@gmail.com> wrote:
Traction alopecia is common here in Nigeria, in the older generation, among those whose hair is plaited very tight - the use of chemical straighteners is irrelevant, and indeed, it is the desire to achieve a straightness (neatness?) that the traditional weavers used to pull the hair so tight and not allow even the tiny hairs on the hairline to escape! In the younger generation, it is more likely to be due to what we call Ghana braids: that is more likely to go along with chemical straightening, it starts small at the hairline but it is often not realised that the whole weight of the attachment is pulling right from the hairline, and pulling.
But it would be a mistake to ascribe all this to low racial awareness among West Africans.
Ayo
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijama
On 25 Jan 2012, at 03:25, La Vonda <lrstaples@gmail.com> wrote:
> New Medical Condition Among African Diaspora Women: Traction Alopecia
>
> by La Vonda R. Staples
>
> http://lavondastaples.blogspot.com/
>
> Since I have embarked on the study of Africans in America I've been
> shocked on rare occasions. As Moms Mabley once said, "if you ever
> catch folks acting nice they're probably just not feeling well." Very
> little amazes me. I've recently been shocked to find out that there
> is a new condition among African Diaspora women. It's called traction
> alopecia and it is caused by the combined use of chemical relaxers and
> braiding/weaves as the ONLY style of coiffure maintenance. In this
> condition, women in their 20's are reporting to medical professionals
> with patterns of baldness seen in much older adults and those
> suffering from healthcare emergencies such as cancer. The condition
> is permanent. It is not reversible.
>
> The purveyors of this condition are Black American hairstylists who
> have yet to demand national certifications in natural hair care. As
> of yet, there is no national training school for the care of African
> hair. There really is no standard in the FDA for the regulation of
> products for African hair. Additionally, we have yet to see a
> standard on age at time of application of relaxers etc. If it is
> against the law to get a tattoo before the age of 18 surely there must
> be an eye and skin test for the application of the caustic chemicals
> involved in relaxing hair. Concurrently, there must also be a
> standard for West African immigrants who engage in the styling of
> hair. Again, persons who braid her are NOT required to obtain a
> cosmetology license or education in skin conditions. They just open
> up shop and start braiding.
>
> I've developed a background in beauty standards and applications from
> the gamut of the African Diaspora. From the black soap to the shea
> to the neem oil, I have sat down, shut up and let those women teach me
> their customs and cultures. More and more, the indigenous cultures
> are supplanted by Eurocentric ideology of health and beauty.
>
> How can a medical condition be produced in a mere decade? Ignorance.
> Plain and simple. Traction alopecia is a condition of ignorance, low
> self-esteem of gender and low racial awareness. Makes me crazy just
> to think about it.
>
> --
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La Vonda R. Staples
Writer and Historian
St. Louis MO
"If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great; Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.
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