African Women And Their Hair (2)
Just as I promised last week, I am taking the second part of this article today. Some people are going to crucify me because of this article, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters to me is the positive results this article will yield in the lives of my fellow African women.
Today’s article is about hair extensions. Everybody knows me as one woman who does not joke with her hair. I cherish my hair and skin so much that I find myself spending time and resources to pamper myself. Like the numerous Nigerian women, I found myself spending fortunes on Brazillian, Indian, Peruvian, and Bohemian hair extensions. It wasn’t until recently my attention was drawn to how much I waste on frivolities just because I have very low self esteem.
I have always been into beauty and I do it with so much passion. I love being stylish and fashionable at all times. But recently, in my struggle to know more about Africa, I stumbled on something, a publication that changed my life and reasoning.
What I am going to talk about today has nothing to do with religion because I am sure some are already thinking there could have been a change in her religious belief. I am not one of those fanatics who believe a woman should not use make up or wear good clothes. This article is geared towards the liberation of African women from slavery. It is for the African woman to realise herself and regain her self esteem once again.
There is this wave of change blowing all over Africa and I can tell you it is time for Africa to arise and rule the world. This is the time for Africa to regain her lost glory and contrary to the usual, African women won’t be left behind. We are going to champion this great cause. But you know what; we are not going to be taken serious, we are not going to be respected if we go on struggling to become like them. For how long are we going to allow fellow humans give us laws on how to live and carry our hair? When are we going to get other races to respect and cherish our look?
You may try to prove me wrong by telling me your desire to have their look has nothing to do with self-esteem. You can come out to tell me you are a woman with very high self-esteem. I agree with you, everyone appreciates you and your courage, but the truth remains that you are unconsciously living with a very low self-esteem. You have no pride in yourself. Someone recently told me not to let my head swell with people making comments about my look. Guess what my response was; people won’t celebrate you until you learn to celebrate yourself. I know I am beautiful, I am in love with me and so your opinion about my look doesn’t matter. This is the truth, fellow African women. We are black and beautiful with the best skin in the whole world. We are unique with rare features.
Why is it that even African employers don’t want a woman with that Afro look in their establishment? This is because our colonial masters did not just colonize our lands; they colonized and are still in control of our minds. They use the media to discredit our features. They have almost succeeded in destroying all, I mean everything about Africa and we being their slaves are still ignorant of the level of damage they have done to us and our natural heritage.
I am going to ask you all the questions I asked myself before taking this very tough decision; what is your reason for wearing the weave-on and lace wig? What are they made of? What is their source? What is their own interpretation of your person when they see you struggling to be like them? How many of them have changed their look to become you? What are we indirectly telling our creator when we attach those things on our hair?
There is this revolution going on in Africa and I believe Nigeria is not going to be left behind. After my friends called me back to our lost heritage and the glory of an African woman, I became ashamed of myself.
In his usual funny manner, a friend had constantly told me that what I carry on my hair is just a dead white woman’s hair. I never believed him because I had always come up with this defence that it is not from a human being, but factory produced.
That day came when my friends on facebook started appreciating my natural look. The compliments that came in were so much that I started wondering what was actually going on. Suddenly, a friend sent me a web link which I clicked on to meet the shock of my life.
Do you know the pop star, Jamelia? She conducted this investigation with the BBC crew in India and Russia. According to Jamelia, Hindu women go to their temple and get their very long hair shaved as sacrifice to their God.
The right practice is for the hairs to be destroyed, but the Hindu priests, instead of destroying the hairs, sell them to hair extension industries (religion and corruption). This is one of the origins of our expensive lace wigs and Indian hairs.
She later travelled to a rural area in India where she saw women and children from poor homes picking hairs from the garbage. When Indian women comb their hair, a good amount fall off and are cleared as refuse. The poor families started making their living out of it by gathering them and selling to the manufacturers. These are the ones sold at very cheap prices in the market. When next you want to buy that human hair of N8,000, please remember the source. Check this link: http://www.bellanaija.com/2008/12/10/the-story-behind-human-hair/
I know the sellers and importers of human hair and lace wigs will be so mad with me at this time, but I don’t care what it costs me to deliver my fellow African women because we have so humiliated ourselves before other races.
I can’t really remember the site I got this other story from, but I will try to publish it whenever I get it. This other story has it that most of the human hair we wear come from corpses in the mortuary. The hair manufacturing companies connive with the keepers of the mortuaries and pay them  to shave the dead.
Fellow African women, are we now worth living or dead since we play second fiddle to women from other races? Can you imagine the beautiful you moving about town and paying hundreds of thousands to carry another woman’s hair? Some of these hairs come from young innocent girls whose parents shave their hair against their own wish just for $100.How do you feel being the one promoting man’s inhumanity to man.
Jamelia felt very bad with her findings and so did I. It’s almost two months since I took that decision to promote the African culture. I decided never to have those things on my head again. I called my friends to pack all the Brazilian, Bohemian, and Indian hairs in my house. It wasn’t easy giving out a brand new one that I got in readiness for Christmas. Anyway, I made sure I told them the story behind it all.
I am not trying to talk you out of it or make you take this decision with me, but I am so happy to be one of Africa’s Ambassadors, promoting the beauty of African women. And there is so much peace and tranquility that comes with being original. I now wear my African hair styles and I flaunt them wherever I go.C’mmon girls lets enjoy Africa just like our mothers did.
It wasn’t easy for Jamelia because her profession demands she wears the long hair for Red Carpets and endless photo shoots. It wasn’t also easy for me being someone who loves her hair very long. There are times I get tempted to go back to it, but I always remind myself that I have put my hands on this plough and going back makes me unfit to lead. It is a sacrifice for humanity and I am going to live the rest of my life with it.
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