Black Hair is Beautiful

So why all the Weaves, Straightening Products and so on?

Photo by Suad Kamardeen on Unsplash

I have a German friend. He and I were chatting about something when I mentioned a black friend of mine who had long, beautiful braids tipped with multicolored beads.

“I’m so glad she’s kept her hair natural,” I said. “Because it’s so pretty that way.”

“I know,” he said. “I don’t know why black women straighten their hair, it’s so beautiful.”

He is a white man who grew up in Germany in the 1960s. He never saw a black person until he came to America in the 1990s, at least as far as he remembered. He thinks black hair is beautiful.

So do I.

But what if we didn’t? Why would any black woman care?

Here’s the thing. I don’t want to tell anyone what to do with their hair. I mean, it’s your hair. You do you. If it makes you happy to straighten it or color it or whatever — not my problem. As long as it makes you feel good about yourself.

But please don’t change how you look because you think you need to in order to be beautiful. Because you don’t. You are beautiful just the way you are.