we gotta do better

okay, so i was totally going to talk about something else today; something with meaning, something with heart. then i saw some total b.s. and that pretty much messed up my mood, so i'm going to talk about that.

before i begin, i just want to say that this should be apart of a series of blogs simply called "black folk...we gotta do better". i know that i've brought some things to light about doing better, but it seems that not a one person really takes that to heart. i don't normally call out names but in this case, i got names and pictures.

but first...the beef (insert suspenseful music right here)

i remember back in the day, my mother would go to the beauty salon on a saturday to get her hair (say hair like nelly would) "did". she would come back hours later with her hair simply flawless and yet classy in my eyes. getting the hair done on the saturday before church is a time honored ritual in the black community, because we would always go out and praise the lord looking our absolute best...you know, look like you got money even when you ain't got it.

now i realize that some women went a little and even waaaay overboard, but it was something that they were very proud of and if there's one thing they didn't do, it was do anything that was going to mess up that hair do. no swimming, no sweating (through whatever means), sleep upright, etc.

all of a sudden in the 90s, toni braxton came out with that short do, and it looked good. if you ever listened to another sad love song, then you know what i'm talking about...she was definitely cute back then



after that look, there was no other that could duplicate it. the few r&b "divas (i used that term loosely)" that tried couldn't really pull the super short look off except probably monica.

a lot of years went by and we saw a lot of things, a lot of hairstyles that you can obviously see in (insert title of a black hair magazine), but the general hair silhouette was growing. the hair itself was as well, but we saw what we thought was the end of short hair once braids hit mainstream...i mean dudes (allen iverson, randy moss, certain members of wu-tang clan) were getting braids (i'll never forget r. kelly's ad lib at the end of i wish "come on and braid my hair") which eventually grew to dredlocks.

perhaps i'm generalizing, but anytime somebody (female in particular) shaved their head, it was either for a movie role (demi moore in g.i. jane) or they just went crazy (britney spears).

well people, crazy is a trend and it tends to grow slowly nabbing victims one head at a time...



cassie...victim one. in an attempt to garner attention which will lead to more record sales (the sales will not happen more than likely)



rihanna...victim 2. after going through what she went through, she would have gotten a pass if she shaved it all off, but in this case...she got nann pass from me.



solange...victim 3. she looks like somebody's uncle in this pic



keyshia coles...victim 4. can you tell me what this (is) or is supposed to be?

now, don't get me wrong. it's your head, do whatever you want. use caution. just like we don't like seeing women with birdcages and christmas trees in their hair, we don't need to see you look like you don't know what hairstyle you're working with. just think about this logically, if you shave one side of your head, you either have to maintain that look, or shave the other side and start over.

as far as hair goes...black folk, we gotta do better.