Lacefront, Lacefront!: "Bad Hair", Black Women and Black Pop
"You need to get you hair long, if you can. If you can get your scalp cut off, and get you a whole 'nother scalp..."
Leave it to Badu to bring scalps into it. From shorn and swaddled in gele to dredloc extensions to shorn again to braided wig of Crystal Gayle proportions to interchangeable afro and Beatle bob wigs, Erykah Badu got some hair stories.
My hair ain't never hung down to my shoulders
And it might not grow
Erykah Badu, "Cleva"
It's an old story. Paper bag and rat tail comb tests drew lands in the sand in segments of Black society. Only some could win. Spike Lee visualized and vocalized it best.
Nan straightening implement had touched my hair since November. I just twisted my abundance of hair or bunned it up. Since I was traveling this past weekend, last Wednesday I went to see my impeccable stylist Eric at Time Salon in Fort Greene. Now thanks to a steam flat iron and a hot comb for the edges my hair is long and straight. Now, all the Negroes love me in New York (well, not all but many more than before). I won't keep it up. I have 4 dust-covered curling irons of varying sizes that I have no intention of using. I'm trying to stay fit and all straightened hair does is hold Black women hostage to low perspiration activities or to our homes if it's rainy or humid outside. And since some of us our brave, there is always the back of a curling iron, an application of grease and water, hard boar bristle bush and circulation haltingly tied silk scarves to keep our edges in check. I inherited just enough of my father's silky hair genes to be beady bee free and length has never been an issue and still I'm anxious. Very much so.
There is an issue of Essence, or maybe one of the many incarnations of Honey, where Beyoncé, she of the 'immensest of weaves' to paraphrase a commenter at the best blog ever, Crunk & Disorderly, expressed affinity for wearing her hair natural. Apparently, she grew out her relaxer for her role in Austin Powers in Goldmember. For the film she fixed an afro piece to her roots and considered staying with the look sans piece but explained that she was met with resistance from fans hence the return of the lacefront, the "getting of a new scalp." That said, I don't think B ever had a problem with buttnekkidness, glitter and I know for a BET rotational a fact that she used to have a beeper (pager if you will).
Do check out Tyra speaking on her weave situation here.
Tags: Beyoncé, Black Women, Erykah Badu, Hair, Music
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