How Do You Know If You’ve Got Good Hair?

Yes honey* child I said it. This is where I’ll give you the skinny on how you know you’ve got good hair. I bet you just rolled your eyes and let out an exasperated sigh cause using the term ‘good hair’ is a little taboo in this community; isn’t it?

Except this won’t be your run-of-the-mill ‘good hair’ banter. I know there are people who are uncomfortable with the term and upon starting my hair journey and learning about black haircare, I was a bit put off by the term too. But now I actually dig it and here’s why:

I subscribe to and wholeheartedly believe that you and I are “fearfully and wonderfully made” as stated in Psalm 139:14; so well designed  are we that the creator has ” numbered every hair on your head” [Matthew 10:30]. In addition “every good and perfect gift comes from above.” In essence much thought was put into us, into our appearance. Why then should I not be glad I have the good stuff?

What? I sound like some Bible toting freak? Thank you :)! We’re all guided or influenced by someone or something one way or another. For you it might not be the Bible and that’s fine. Your source of inspiration and enlightenment serves to build you, to encourage you and aid you in being your best self by accepting yourself. That’s what mine does and it points out to me that everything on me was created good :).

You see, for me good hair is not about having that generally ‘acceptable’ curl pattern; you know, the perfectly defined corkscrews or soft loose/ wavy hair that people usually gush over. Good hair is a combination of things that any black natural can identify with regardless of what category the hair typing chart says your hair falls under.

You know you’ve got good hair when your hair is healthy. It bounces, it curls it snaps back into place after manipulation, that’s how you know you’ve got good hair. You know you’ve got good hair when you see positive results from that regimen you’ve been following.

When you have good hair you are confident in your beauty cause you know bad hair days don’t stand a chance when your natural can yield over ten rocking styles and a so-called failed attempt is just the foundation of the work of art you’ll create with your creative genius. If your busy schedule won’t allow time for you to whip up your masterpiece you know you can still slay with a puff or a bun.

When your hair is the center of attraction, the cause of amazement and admiration to the point that people feel they need to touch it, you better know you have good hair. Of course the problem with good things is that they are always in demand and sometimes they drive people senseless with envy.

Such envy may even drive others to make you feel that what you have isn’t all that special to the point where they devise all manner of ways to goad you to change so you don’t stand out so much, being a constant reminder of what they don’t have. They’ll redefine beauty so you find nothing of yourself in their definition.

They will call your hair a distraction; tell you that your glorious mane is unkempt and unprofessional, come up with ridiculous rules regarding hair grooming to get you to conform to their forced sameness; but all the while it is just a way to get you not to recognize that you have the good stuff.

Do you see other races outside of ours walking around asking to touch Asian and Caucasian hair? I doubt it. Albeit creepy that Teyonah Parish’s hair was groped by that rude man who violated her personal space on the sorry excuse that he had to touch it because it was so stimulating, have you ever heard anyone describe Asian or Caucasian hair as ‘stimulating’?

What you can achieve with your hair without lifting a finger, others have to go to great lengths and spend good money to get. Might I cite perming –  which is something Caucasians with straight hair do to get curly hair- or back combing to create volume? Why have Asians created a system that turns their hair into an Afro? The answer is simple; it’s because we’ve got that good hair!

So yes I do have good hair. Good hair is the hair I was born with. Good hair is the one which grows out of your scalp. I will not apologize for it. I will not feel guilty about it and neither should you. Once I was blind but I’ve been enlightened and there’s no way I’m going to let anyone tell me differently. My wish is that one day we will all be confident in who we are and recognize that we’ve got good hair.