Bouncin' & Behavin'? Not So Much.

Tick…tick…tick….I’m counting the days until Chris Rock’s new movie “Good Hair” hits theaters.  Good Hair explores the peculiar relationship that black people have with their hair, as well as the booming hair care industry that was born of it.  Throughout the years, my relationship with my own mane has run the gamut from Skipping-through-the-daisies-Love, to Bad-hair-day-Frustration, to I’m-going-to-get-it-over-with-and-cut-it-all-off-Resignation.  My love/hate-hair-relationship isn’t unlike what thousands of people go through – regardless of ethnicity – but with black people (at least this black person – I don’t claim to speak for the whole race), it’s a tad different.

Back when I was a kid, the shampoo commercials featured models who breathily boasted about their “Bouncin’ and Behavin’” hair.  Well my hair didn’t bounce.  And when it was humid, rainy, or if I even thought about water-related things, it did everything but behave.  Feathering like Farrah?  Forget it.

I was always left someplace in between “I wish I could have hair like that” and “But what’s wrong with my own natural hair?”  The result was that I, like so many other girls in that weird middle ground, would have it straightened with a hot comb, also known as having your hair “pressed”.

Many years (and burned ears) later, I abandoned the hot comb and started getting chemical relaxers to temporarily “relax” my naturally kinky (A.K.A. Nappy) hair.  Good Hair calls these chemical relaxers the Creamy Crack of hair products because of its addictive quality -- you have to have it “touched up” about every six to eight weeks to address new kinky growth; and yeah, I’ll readily admit that I am indeed addicted to the Creamy Crack.

Now, enter GG.  Her hair is someplace in between my extreme kinks and Jamie’s wavy hair.  But the refreshing thing is that now, media is increasingly featuring models whose hair isn’t always silky and swingable, but that looks more like hers – and mine...and that’s a good thing.  She’s fine with her kinks (except when I have to comb through them – Ow!); and she readily sees the beauty in her natural hair -- or "poofie" as she likes to call her unbraided ponytail. 

And Me?  I’m just looking forward to seeing Good Hair….and to having that Creamy Crack the next time I’m at the salon.