Celebs Going Weaveless: You Don’t Have To Prove Anything To Us, Boo!

I have always understood and agreed with the reasons most celebrities rely on wigs* and weaves* as their style of choice.

In fact, many of their reasons are usually the same as mine – to protect my real hair from the stress of styling, ease of care, and to save time.

I’ve always sympathized while reading interviews where it is obvious a celebrity feels it necessary to defend their use of extensions* with saying “My real hair is actually [insert positive adjective of your choice here]. I wear extensions* because it is just easier in my line of work.”

The truth is the line of work is irrelevant – for most weave wearers also on HHJ’s, part of the reason we opt for that style is to give our hair a break and protect it.

While celebrities feel their appearance is a part of their job, how is that any different than any other employed woman? I can’t go into my job looking any type of way either!

However, I do understand their desire to explain their styling choice because it is the same feeling I have when someone after seeing my real hair asks “With all that hair, why do you even wear weave?”

I have no idea why it is said with such disdain…almost as if because my hair is neither short, damaged nor broken off, I don’t deserve to wear fake hair!

With the popularity of Twitter, celebs are taking it a step further tweeting photos of their “real” hair and it is obvious from the accompanying text that they do so in effort to prove that they actually HAVE hair, that it is indeed well cared for, healthy and in most cases long.

While I enjoy seeing black women in all roles disproving so many age-old myths that black hair cannot, does not, or will not grow, I am beginning to find this entire process a little sad and a bit juvenile.

I’ve been on my healthy hair journey for three years and am finally enjoying a bit of success but I’ve never felt compelled to post a length check photo to my personal Facebook to prove anything!

I doubt there is a woman alive who is happier about growing long hair than I, but does that mean I need to brag about it?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being proud of the work you put into your hair and I encourage all women to have healthy self-esteems but there is a fine line between self appreciation and vanity.

I could even understand if the photos were accompanied with a short synopsis of their regimen – but nope, just a picture or two with a boastful caption.

Granted this does not apply to all celebs, some are actually very helpful with responding with products used and regimen information, but I’ve also seen some say things like “Don’t be mad just cause you ain’t got no hair!” in response to a few negative reactions.

My objective in writing for BHI and documenting my journey on my personal blog is to share information and encourage other women who desire long healthy hair.

Not to make it seem like an elitist club that only few are capable of achieving.  I would love to see ALL OF US grow gorgeous hair down our backs if that is our desire.

Furthermore, wouldn’t it be awesome if long, healthy hair on black women became so common that these tweets seemed strange?  Obviously from the reasons celebs do it to our reactions, we still  view women of color growing long healthy hair as an exceptional occurrence instead of the norm.

And  from the looks of these bragadocious tweets and interview statements, most celebrities do not seem to be in any rush to help  move us closer in that direction.

While there is a lot of positivity and information in some online sources, I guess I just wish overall black women having long hair were more of an inclusive rather than an exclusive thing.