Hair Matters?

Mee Street Chronicles by Frankie Lennon, in the story “Plaits”, the author is saying that images of beauty and obsessions with hair were “Programmed” into females by American society. Beauty plays a major role in everyone’s life, especially for Frankie. Just like in today’s society we are made to believe that we should look like the models in magazine, or the actors and actress in Hollywood. As people of color we are constantly pushed into looking like the white people. . Being a person of color I can actually admit that dealing with my hair was really complicated and frustrating to handle as I was growing up.

I still remember like it was yesterday, I had to wake up for school early just so that my mother could comb my hair. Most of the time she had to comb it in the morning because I was so tender headed that I would move for every little tug. I hated getting my hair combed, every time I moved my mother would pop me with the comb in my head. And I would not dare to scratch, because then I would get popped on my hand. My hair was so unmanageable that the only hairstyles my mother could do were plaits, and that made me so mad. As I grew up I wanted the one ponytails or a bun like the rest of my friends, but my hair was too “Thigh” for those hairstyles. I don’t know which one was worse, having my mother comb my hair or getting it braided in millions of braided that took all day long to finish. I always complained, I hated my hair I could never do what I wanted to it, besides the hairstyles my mother did or the braids she would pay someone to do that was my hairstyle for life. My mother would say that I was blessed with those genes from my father’s family, but I never saw it as a blessing. A typical non-mixed African American’s hair is described as nappy, thigh and full of kinkles or some might even say “Beady Beads”. I heard those words my whole life even through high school. I was constantly reminded of how nappy my hair was, and how I looked like I came start from Africa.

In this story Frankie is constantly talking about wanting to look like the kid star, Shirley Temple. Shirley Temple was portrayed as the perfect little angel, with perfect curly blonde hair that every little girl should want. But because Frankie was African American, her hair texture was always thought of as being nappy, and difficult to mange. She believed that the only way she was going to look good was if she looked just like Shirley Temple. Nevertheless, we have to remember it is not the color of our skin or the texture of our hair that makes us beautiful. It is the person that’s inside us that defines our beauty.