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This is a screen capture from the website Natural Hair Movement that was created to help support the movement that many African American men and women have begun taking part in that places emphasis on associating beauty and pride in natural African American hair. This website in particular provides tips and hints to help educate Black individuals on how to embrace this movement and provides support and community to those who are dedicated to changing the perception of Black hair. This topic in particular relates to Evan's short story, "Snakes" in that it specifically addresses the shame commonly associated with Black hair as well as the way in which the White community has historically dictated the standards of "beauty" and have not only excluded African Americans and their hair from qualifying as "pretty" or "handsome", but have also used these standards to control the African American experience as well as to manipulate them visually and aesthetically.

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For many Black women, "Natural" now means beautiful.
This movement has prompted the posting of vast numbers of YouTube videos that not only discuss tips for men and women embracing this movement, but also that act in reaction to the movement itself. Many men and women are actually speaking out against this movement. One blogger on the website Natural Hair Community claims that the movement actually works against the Black community by sowing seeds of superiority and creating separation. The woman claims, "The elitist feeling that is growing with the Natural Hair Movement is just another way for us to divide. It smacks of all of the superficial marks of superiority we have lived by for so long. Light skin, dark skin, good hair, bad hair and now natural or relaxed hair. Enough already we need to stop finding ways to exclude each other and work to be a stronger more prosperous Black community no matter how we look."

What are your thoughts? How is this movement beneficial? Can it also be negative? Also, how does this post further relate to "Snakes"?

Megan Peters
4/30/2012 10:15:07 am

"Hair texture, a female feature that is far more malleable, also matters greatly in re-creating femininity in the context of the new color-blind racism. Because a good deal of women's beauty is associated with their hair, this aspect of women's physical appearance takes on added importance in the process of constructing hierarchies of femininity" (195).
Later in Collins a women speaks out about "good hair" and "bad hair":
"Blacks are judged on their hair. I think basically the long, straight hair people are favorable. The shorter, kinkier, nappier hair, the less favoritism is shown. I lived that, coming through school as a young girl I was dark, but I had long hair. I was put in with the little light (skin) long-haired kids. But the ones who had the short, measly, nappy hair, no matter what they looked like, they were always last, in the back"
This perspective in Black Sexual Politics gives us an inside look on how black women feel about this subject and how your hair looks makes a difference in society today. I am not sure how I feel about this movement because it draws attention to the issue but it making other people aware of the issue and that it needs to change.

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Monica Wisniewski
5/1/2012 11:28:35 pm

I think that Black Women finding beauty and strength in how they naturally look is an amazing movement. It allows them to be empowered by themselves instead of by the standards of someone else's beauty. In regards to the feminist movement and how Black Women played a part, Gloria Wade-Gales comments, "Even the old specter of the White Woman's beauty as symbolized by straight hair was not a problem for black women activists, who walked tall and dignified in their Afros, a sign of self-acceptance and black pride"(Black Women in White America.

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1/28/2015 04:17:20 pm

Very nice post....I am looking from a very long time for such a topic related to natural hair movement. I will surely share this with my friends.

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3/21/2016 09:43:51 pm

The elitist feeling that is developing with the common hair development is simply one more route for us to isolate. It bears a resemblance to the greater part of the shallow signs of predominance we have lived by for so long.

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3/24/2016 08:18:45 pm

Good job, mostly this beforeyousuffocate blog has been updating well information about the natural hair movement. Thank you for your informative site, keep it up in the same way in future also.

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5/8/2019 02:51:28 am

Yes, I do sufffered the same issue as yours and i tried ORS Olive oil as its paraben free . You can clarify with the same by consulting your dermatologist regarding the same.

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