When I talk about skin bleaching I do not face much opposition. At least not as much as I face when I tackle the issue of false hair. It seems women who wear fake hair easily get offended when this topic comes up for discussion. Yet if you ask me, I would say skin bleaching and wearing fake hair are one and the same disease. Because the reason people do both is the same – they either hate their hair and/or skin or feel they will not be accepted unless they change them. Every time I talk about natural hair, women who wear weaves get up in arms. They take my campaign to encourage women to wear their natural hair as a personal attack. Yet this is not the case. They go on the defensive and there are two phrases I hear time and time again: “I am not my hair” and various opinions that say “It’s my choice to wear a hair weave”.

Sometimes they give me the lame excuse of natural hair being too hard to manage. So what does “I am not my hair” mean? We can look at this in two ways. Literally as in meaning, I am not the hair I am wearing. In which case I have to agree. Because as a black woman, if you are wearing Brazilian, Indian, Russian, Peruvian or synthetic hair, then of course you are not your hair. Unless you are a black Brazilian for example, Brazilian hair is for Brazilians, Indian hair for Indians, Peruvian hair for Peruvians and kinky/nappy for black people worldwide. Whether born in Africa, Europe, America, Asia or any other part of the world, all black people are born with African hair. Our hair comes in all forms of kink. From the soft manageable type to the very hard tough type that makes you cry as you comb it. To be continued.