In a World of Weaves

In September I took a trip to Mexico with a bunch of ladies. When you, as a natural, venture out with Black women who stick religiously to weave hair for styling it can become glaringly obvious that natural is still not the norm. At what point did we as a race of women decide that our hair was good for little else than gluing or braiding fake hair into it? Am I crazy for thinking that we've bought into the euro-ideology that longer and straighter is better?

Three of the 8 of us was weaved to the max. I am natural, the other two relaxed. The rest: colors, length for days, and straight as Indian hair - weaved to the max. Even my own mother decided to top her "love knot" off with a coily ponytail for our night out. Weave, weave, everywhere.

Is straight hair better? Prettier? Although I have my moments of insecurity, I always find myself back at the same conclusion. Straight hair is in fact more common, maybe more manageable, definitely tends to be shinier - but better or prettier, surely not.

I once was asked by a woman whose opinion I once respected "a woman's hair is her crowning glory - so why would you chop it all off"? How can chemically altered or just plain FAKE be any more of a crowning glory than my naturally coily, cottony in some places head of hair?

In a world of weaves it can be hard to strut your stuff when yours is a head of shorter, "poofier" hair that tends to be less common. It's sad that nearly a year into this natural thing I still find myself a shrinking violet in a garden of fake daisies. I could just kick myself.