The words we use to describe our hair are so loaded with significance and so often lead to complex, thorny issues. I try to choose my words carefully, but even still, sometimes I get tripped up in what’s acceptable and what can be offensive. I personally don’t care for, and consequently don’t use “nappy.” But…
natural hair
Tyra Declares National Real Hair Day
Tyra Banks is beautiful. Tyra Banks is ambitious. When Tyra Banks gets on a topic, she gets down into it and involves herself in a way that few other models-turned-talkshow hosts do. So when I read that Tyra was declaring September 8 National Real Hair Day just in time for the new season of The…
Worth a Click – Hair Edition
In case you’ve been wondering — what’s Afrobella up to? I’ll tell ya. Grustling. Real hard. I’ve been working my fingers to the nub to keep the fires blazing here at Afrobella while writing at AOL Black Voices and tah-dah — just last week I wrote my first article for Ebony! Yup, it’s about Michael…
Define Your Natural
About a decade ago I was hair-color happy, blissfully experimenting with a veritable rainbow of semi-permanent shades and relaxing my hair bone straight all the while. Then I made the decision to go natural, and man oh man did I notice a difference in the health of my hair. Relaxer and regular coloring chemicals had…
There’s Nothing We Women Can’t Be!
Consider this your daily reminder, courtesy of an old school Sesame Street clip! I grew up a Sesame Street junkie, and this song was always one of my favorites. The empowering message resonated with me at an early age — “just look around you, it’s easy to see. There’s NOTHING we women can’t be!” This…
Ask Afrobella — Curly, Coily, Kinky, or Coarse
I had a really interesting experience recently. Picture this. It’s a Wednesday afternoon, I’d just finished my deadline for work. About to have a window of downtime before the cycle picks up again… Then my editor-in-chief calls and asks me to represent our newspaper on a panel at a meeting of the South Florida Black…
Like India Arie said…
When I was three years old, my hair grew down to my back in a thick curtain of curls. At that time, I lived in an old fashioned house in a neighborhood in Trinidad called Belmont. One day, these older girls plaited my hair into the iron chains of a swing and ran away, leaving…