The Hair Divide

In a conversation with, I think, six black women the topic of hair came up. That topic is kind of a given with all women and yet I felt surprisingly left out. Now, talking hair recently with a girlfriend who is white, we discussed products we liked, etc. and I didn't feel excluded. But in a convo with only black women I felt as if I couldn't get a word in edgewise because of my natural hairstyle.

Of the six, two of us have locs and we stood by politely while the hair conversation started because one of our friends had found a new hairdresser. I can certainly talk hairdressers, but since I mostly do my locs at home, I had to recent adventures. Plus, the talk centered on who could to the best job and the methods used to help hair grow and who could get your hair really straight. And while I remember the days when making my hair as straight as possible and counting the days until my next perm was an obsession, I took part, but couldn't fully participate.

At one point when the subject of texture came up, I joked- "Hey, I've got texture." This was acknowledged, politely, before everyone except my other loced friend and I, turned back to the real matter at hand--who could produce the results. I even turned to the other woman with locs and purposefully started to discuss our hair, not that anyone else cared.

Since we were waiting to leave an event and wanted to see that everyone got safely to their cars, we waited it out. I don't know why, really, since the conversation went on for quite a while. I know majority rules, but for how long?