Hi Tiffany.

Thanks for continuing to provide us with information that illuminate our minds to see that the fight continues. Yes a lot of African-American women are afraid to wear their hair natural. But with more and more media sources portraying us in our natural hair, it is possible that we can embrace our hair as being beautiful and versatile. Our hair can be styled in so many different ways and it has the ability to be curly, straight, up or down without the use of chemicals. This is what is so beautiful about natural hair.

When I started my job years ago, everybody called me “the girl with the braids” because they didn’t know my name. But they knew my hair because I was the only one with natural hair. Even today, I am still the only woman with natural hair. I have never been ashamed of my natural hair. As a matter of fact, when I was a little girl, I didn’t like straightening my hair, which was done every week. I would do whatever I could after Sundays to get my hair back to its kinky/curly state. I loved the feel of my roots at the scalp as my hair was growing. Unfortunately, most women don’t feel this way.

It is my opinion that society contributed in making women feel bad about themselves not only, by their hair, but by how big their breasts are, how small their thighs are, how big their butts are, how much they weigh, or how they feel about themselves emotionally. And if you are an African-American woman the focus is not only on your hair, but the shade of your skin. Just about every magazine cover tells a woman that there is something wrong with her. These magazines make money off the insecurities of women who have no or low self-esteem. And those insecurities are what drive women to “fix” whatever is “wrong” with them.

The media continues to spread a negative image of African-American hair as “bad” or “ugly” to keep our women from realizing their true glory. It is hard to imagine that actual African countries now see themselves as ugly when they used to walk tall with pride and confidence. The media is bondage that can be broken when we decide to free our minds of what people want us to look like and realize that it operates not only to inform, but to deform. True liberty is truly loving who you are.