I saw a post about this video entitled “Black Women’s Natural Hair: why MEN prefer it! ” on nappturality.com and thought I’d share my 2 cents. Please take a look and tell me what you think.

I saw a post about this video on nappturality.com and thought I’d share my 2 cents. The video is a bit long and as one of the smart posters on the nappturality board noticed South Korea is North East Asia, not in South Asia but these are just side notes.

The point I am trying to make is that the analogy on the beauty issues doesn’t really work. Not just for me but factually it is just not right.

Let me start by saying that I agree with this young man that every woman is entitled to choose her own hairstyle, whether it’s natural, relaxed or a weave. Needless to say, I also prefer natural and of course it’s great to hear a (Black) man say it out loud that he prefers a natural woman. We really need to hear it more often.

Now back to the point of the analogy that doesn’t really work. I am aware that every race has its beauty issues like the double eyelid in some Asian communities he is talking about. I understand that many Asian women do eyelid surgery to fit the beauty standard of single eyelids. I can see the comparison with us, Black women, relaxing and weaving yet I still think our issue with natural hair has another layer that sets us apart from any other culture.  

If you live in any Western society you know that the dimension of natural hair goes further than the superficial, yet oppressive beauty standards that every woman has to deal with. So, I am not denying that a person who fits a preferred beauty standard will be hired over one who doesn’t fit that dominant standard. In general beautiful people often get special treatment and this hurts us all.

However, there is no law anywhere in the world that says double eyelids (I hope this is not derogatory) are not allowed on campus or in the workplace, for instance. If this example is not enough to hit home here are a few others. Hampton University, a Historically Black College banned dreadlocks and cornrows and Six Flags recently rejected a returning employee who already had dreadlocks.

Basically any company or organization can reject a potential employee because their dress code policies don’t allow styles like dreadlocks, cornrows and afros. All of which are perfectly normal black natural hairstyles but are regarded to as unprofessional, political, or even as “criminal”.

So Black people are the only ones on planet earth who don’t have the basic human right to wear their God-given tresses natural and that is our issue. I don’t see any of this happening with any other beauty issue or any other race. Do you?