People crack me up! I stopped at the gas station on my drive home from work last night. Got out of the car, and this man says, “Let me guess…6 years, right?
“Huh?”
“No…7 years?” he asks me.
So I’m looking at this man like he’s crazy. Because he can’t be asking if I’m 6 or 7 years old. Then he says he’s talking about my hair. How long have I’ve been growing my hair. Ok, so he’s not kooky. I tell him around 2 1/2 years. He’s shocked, and I tell him my hair grows fast…blah, blah, blah. Then the store clerk says, “Yeah, she got that good hair.” Aaaggghhh!!!!!!! Three things:
First, this phrase makes my ears BLEED!!!! I can’t stand to hear it (although, my sisters and I use it when we’re joking about how hung up on hair some people are).
Second, I’ve never felt that I had ‘good hair.’ That is, not the definition of good hair inherent in the clerk’s use of the word. My hair is thick, and kinky, and difficult to comb, and I used to dislike it very much.
Third, I do feel that I now have good hair, because it’s healthy. Good hair is healthy hair, according to my definition. I just want us to stop thinking of good hair as hair with a particular texture. Good hair can be tightly coiled, loosely curled, bone straight, kinky, etc. If it’s healthy, it’s GOOD!
What about you, how do you feel about ‘good hair?’ What has been your experience with the term?
I had great hair in high school. When I look at pictures of that 1980 perm though …. eh, makes me not miss it so much.
i’m biracial (my mother’s black and my pop’s white) and i’ve heard all my life that i have “good hair.” well, honey, it’s a curly daggone mess!! hahaha… everyone was so surprised a little over 10 years ago when i chopped it all off to about two inches while away at college in nyc. it’s much easier to manage really, really short, but i’d love to straighten it. i can put a relaxer in my hair and by the end of the week it’s all curly again. drives. me. nuts!!!
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When I had a relaxer, a beautician told me that I had white girl hair. I was like umm ok. I guess because it was soft and stringy…
At any rate I am now happy nappy. I agree good hair is healthy hair but the good hair comments directed towards those with the soft curly texture will never stop.
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Were did that saying come from any way? My mother would tell me growing up that I had a good grade of hair. It didn’t have to be perm or hot iron just water and oil and it would get very wavy. I still don’t get it.
I went on a rant about this topic a few times on my website. My daughter, who’s biracial, gets these comments a lot. Well she used to get them from family members until I laid them out. There is no way they shall fill her head with that nonsense. I tell her all hair is good hair. Last year when we were in church we were sitting by a little girl and her family. Anyway Aiyana told her the girl, You have beautiful hair. It made the girls day.
You are correct good hair is healthy hair. We need to toss that slave mentality to the curb.
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Thanks to all who commented. This subject really intrigues me, I’ll probably bring it up again in a future post.
Wow. Interesting topic here.
I don’t know where the term good hair came from. People have said that about my hair, but you know what? It’s called TAKING CARE OF MY HAIR. Anyone can do it. Just requires more effort than some women want to put forth.
Good hair. I don’t use that phrase, neither does anyone in my family.
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The hair topic is interesting. I am a black African with thick hair and yes that good hair thing would be said over and over so much that my cousins ended up resenting me. I could not wrap my head around that!! I can wear a bald head and not care and I can decide to grow it and it will grow real quick and healthy. I just had to ask my cousin what the big deal was and she said its because she has to struggle with thin hair blah blah blah. Point is - is it really that serious seriously? I applaud you ladies for stemming this issue in the bud because it really does mess a child up. Speaking of children you do have a cutie up there (even if she is feeling cranky
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