Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Spirals and Whurls

I've heard so much curl-bashing in my life, one would think I would be dead-set against having natural curl myself. The truth is, I love curls. I love them so much, that I get curl envy whenever I see a beautiful head full of springs.

And I'm talking about *all* sorts of whurls. Long, barrel curls, spirals, tight little tufts that stay in any direction it gets pulled into. It breaks my heart a little bit every time I hear  woman complain about how 'gross' her curls are. It irks me whenever I hear a person say "curls are so unprofessional!"

The truth is that curly-haired women have a bad reputation. They're usually seen as temperamental and disorganized, often sexually overcharged with a bit of a sadistic streak. If we're solely judging one's curl- or lack there of- based by these adjectives, I should have an afro. A red-headed afro (The social view of gingers is another blog topic in my opinion). And yet, when my hair is left in its virgin state it is a very, very, indecisive type of 1b/c.... and a dark shade of brown akin to mahogany with its deep red undertones that peek out at the right angle of light. 

So why am I discussing this issue today? 

I just came back from a trip in which I got to hang out with my niece. Monkey is a precocious, lovely child with the most amazing head of Goldilock spirals that spill to her waist. It is fine as thread, soft as silk, shiny and breath taking. It kills me to know that at some point, she will come to hate her curls because of some idiot who doesn't understand that dependent on the humidity, it will frizz. And the saddest part of it all is that her hair is far from the 'kinky curl' of mixed races -- which by the way, I hate the term 'kinky' because to me, kinky makes me think of hair that's been burnt and bends in all directions. 4c curls make tight little circles when shed. Its cute! --- I hate to think of the stigma that my mixed and African ladies have to put up with. 

While I was there, one of my sister's friend came for a visit. She had the most amazing round afro adorned by a long scarf. My niece, at having never seen such a curl before, simply stared in awe. My sister's friend, henceforth kown as B, simply laughed and said "Do you want to touch it?" 

Monkey stared in silence and simply nodded her head. B grinned, bent at the waist and urged Monkey to touch those lovely tufts. And what did Monkey say? "Its so soft!" 

So there you go folks, tight curls are neither kinky nor tough.. The next time I hear someone say that an afro is nothing more than a glorified 'brillo pad' I will have to be held back before I give them a one-for. And my ladies with ANY form of curl, there are quite a few of us who simply admire your whurls. We may not say much but boy, do we sit in awe at the beauty of it. Hell, I know of many who perm to get a curl and others who sleep with uncomfortable rags to get a spiral. It never comes quite the same as the real thing, but damn it, we try. 

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