Black women, why do you relax your hair?

Many will say personal style, but how can one say it's a personal style when it been done since you were children. Many black women have never seen there hair natural, except when they were little kids. And I'm not including the new growth under the relaxer.

And why bone straight. That is the most dangering of all. Going from one extreme to the other extreme is the healthy. Why not leave some curls.

Are you tired of all that hair in the comb? It's not normal head shedding.

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

I have a relaxer, I've been getting them since I was 17, I took a break from getting them for years, from 18-20 then again from 22-25, and each transitory period I cut off all of my hair. I just recently started relaxing my hair again this past October. My hair isn't shedding excessively and I believe within the next few months it will reach mid-back length

http://public.fotki.com/brat011981/journ...

I have not taken most of the curl out of it, I'd never dream of processing my hair to bone straight. I take extreme caution when applying chemicals to my scalp. I condition frequently, wash every other day...

I relax for the ease of maintenance.

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

maybe they like something new...perhaps...

personal style...^_____^

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

I don't. I really don't understand the whole weaves thing. I've seen many black women with pushed back hairlines, and messed up scalps due to weaves/relaxers. You would be shocked how fast your hair grows when you don't put all that crap in your hair.

Susannah,

Black woman with blond hair is scary. I just don't get that!

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

I think black women look awful with straight hair. It is not natural for them. I think they look good the way God made them. A black woman with blonde hair is a nightmare unfolding. Black women should stop trying to look white and just be the way God made them, it looks much better.

It really looks bad when black women try to look white.

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

I perm my hair with no weave or anything, its slightly curly. I admit blond hair and purple contacts are not cool. But I definitely can't afford to keep it natural, way too expensive and stressful. I tried for a year and alot of money and time was spent. My hair is really nappy. If you find a reasonable alternative please tell me. Try having my hair and my budget someday.

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

in my opinion .... it's because of pressure..

I'm not trying to complain but its true in society people see girls as only having long flowing hair to the ground no afros or anything like that..

I myself have had many perms when i was younger...

I remember one time i had my hair in braids for a long time so when i took them out my hair had grown naturally and i actually liked liked how it looked, so i went to school with it tied up nicely nothing ugly at least in my opinion it wasn't and one boy said to me "wow why's your hair so NAPPY!" and started laughing at me. and if you heard how he said it it was with so much disgust and was so hurtful I went home the day and spent like 2 hours straightening my hair...

now a days i'm older and don't care what people say recently i've just cut the ends of my hair cause i'm trying to grow it out...

right now it's like right at the top of my neck... and i don't wear a huge afro because thats not the only stlye black people are limited to.. before i go to bed i just braids 5 or six big cornrows in my head spray it and when i wake up take out the braids and go to school i've gotten so much compliments on my hair..

and it's not that hard to maintain.. just have to know how because i know a lot of people say there natural hair is sooo hard to maintain..

all you have to do is look up some site on google, thats what i did..

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

Force of habit. My hair was relaxed when I was too young to even know what the hell a relaxer was. So from that point on I just considered it to be the norm and I grew to like it because it was what I was used to. I do realize that relaxers are damaging, which is the reason I will never relax my daugher's hair when if I have one.

And you have a slightly preachy tone. So what if people relax their hair? That's their business. Everyone doesn't have to be like you. Let people live their own lives.

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

You know hun, it really doesn't matter what they do to their hair. Whatever makes them happy. Me? I have never relaxed my hair and it's pass my shoulders. I have what you guys call "good hair" and a lot of other black beautiful women do too. My sistas are beautiful- relaxer r not.

In reponse to a comment about black women trying to look white baby it goes both ways. Many white women shoudn't try to look black either.

And instead of putting down your sistas- you should be lifting up. We go through enough hate...if it's not our curves they are talking about our hair, or how we do this or that. I'm so sick of it. Post something that shows your intelligence not your ignorance.

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

No. My niece decided at 12.

Its easier to deal with permed hair. Its socially aceptable. Black people don't seem to like natural hair. Its weirde. I've only heard blacks complain about Nappy hair...and racist people.

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

I used to, i don't no more. I did because my mom pummelled it into me that "bushy" hair ain't pretty, and my hair was too hard to comb out, and that I needed it to be straight. I thought it was "supposed" to be straight, and that there was something wrong with it.

But I researched and now I know that every texture is beautiful, and that it ain't necessary to chemically burn up my scalp, and to burn my fingers and scalp and ears with piping hot metal/iron utensils. So now I'm happy being me, fro and all. (well, I'm working on plaiting it and doing braidlocs now.)

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

Listen its all about switching it up. As a black woman I am able to show creativity with my hairstyles, and there is nothing wrong with that. When I was a teenager I had all kinds of hair colors, blue, pink, blond, purple, red, etc. And I liked it. Did it look good? No way! But it was another outlet for me to express myself. So if a person wants to perm it, cut it, dye it, or have a head full of weave, so be it. Its their choice and they shouldn't be judged for it.

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

I don't like nappy hair. I think it's repulsive. That's why I relax.

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

i think it's out of habit. i would really rather grow it out naturally but my hair grows slowly and it would look horrible while i grew it out. i use to have naturally curly hair until my mom had it relaxed when I was younger and since then it's just been a habit.

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

I'm going to be straight up with you; when I first saw this question, I was going to come on here and say some stuff; Look, for as long as I can remember, we black women always had love hate relationships with our hair; For one thing, it's one way naturally, and we've been taught that it wasn't good hair, if someone combed it, it mostly hurt or was downright traumatic for some, or they were putting relaxers in little kids hair; to me, although I did it to my daughters(my ex and my mom caved to pressure on this) and when I was young, I got one but it was disastrous and it grew out; I personally think putting relaxers in little kids hair is just wrong; plain out wrong; I have a healthy length of hair myself and since I live in the deep South, I promised myself to go to braided styles during the summer time because frankly, my hair just don't hold with a relaxer during that time and I'm just defeating the purpose; If I would let myself go more natural(and that is an internal thing), I would. but to have it relaxed makes it more manageable. But I feel that we as black women need to stop this madness and let this hair thing go where it need to go and that's the garbage; India.airie sings a song that I really dig about I am not my hair; Although I like it, I tend to disagree with it because after all, my hair is a part of me and I have to comb it and make it look good to me. I believe relaxing our hair makes it more manageable to me, but if there was a way that we could do this without resorting to chemicals, oh boy! that person would be like another Madame C.J. Walker, a billionaire and I am surprized there isn't.

Black women, why do you relax your hair?

I relax my hair because I don't know how to manage natural hair. And I could go to a beauty salon and let them do my hair, but I hate sitting at the beauty salon for HOURS. Even when I get there on time, they still take up my time trying to finish the first lady's hair.