Zahara’s hair

 

About two weeks ago, Newsweek printed a blog post about Zahara Jolie-Pitt’s hair (she’s Angelina and Brad’s adopted daughter from Ethopia.)

The author, Alilison Samuels, says Zahara’s hair is a “hot mess'” because it’s “wild and unstyled, uncombed and dry.” The column goes on to mention that many African-American blogs and website are demanding to know why Angelina won’t comb Z’s hair (News flash: most naturals don’t comb their hair, but I digress). Samuels goes on to compare Zahara’s hair with Madonna’s adopted daughter’s hair and the hair of Sasha and Malia Obama. She believes Brad and Angelina can do Zahara’s hair in the same manner.

Now, I don’t agree with this post at all, but the last sentence really did it for me: “But there will come a day when this beautiful little African girl will understand what it means to be an African-American in this society and realize unlike her younger sister, hers is not a wash-and-go-world.”

To start, I really don’t see the big deal about Zahara’s hair. She has kinky-curly hair and that’s just how it is. Unlike a lot of other people, I don’t think it looks a hot mess or bad; I think it’s gorgeous, actually. I haven’t seen a lot of other pictures of her, so I can’t say that her hair looks good all of the time, but I do believe we all have days where our hair is less than perfect- I look at my childhood pics w/straight hair, and I’m like ‘yikes, what was my ma thinking?’ lol. Really though, I just don’t see what’s wrong with wearing the hair that grows out of your head. Most of our (black people) hair grows out and up, and I think it is as beautiful as anybody else’s hair. And so what if people think it’s wild? It is what it is.

What really bothered me, however, is when she said Z’s hair is not wash-and-go. Um, why isn’t it? Just because her hair isn’t straight when she washes it doesn’t mean she can’t wash it and wear her little ‘fro as is and look just as good. Plenty of women do it (check out the women on nappturality.com); I’ve even done it myself before I got locs. I think most of the criticizing individuals are very ignorant about the nature of their own hair.

I just wish that black people in general can learn to accept and love our beautiful and unique hair. I’m not saying everyone should be natural (although I do think everyone should try it at least once when they’re older), but I do think we should appreciate and embrace our nappy/natural/kiny/etc. hair.

What are your thoughts about Zahara’s hair or black women’s hair in general?

(Photo from newsweek.com. Check out the full post here)

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Jamie

mochawriter.com