I've had a few experiences lately that have shown me that people believe I have some type of "good" or "special" hair. One experience happened in the university convenience store. I was checking out--with huge hair--and the cashier asks me how long I have been natural. I tell her that it has been two years since my last relaxer, but only a few months since I cut off the relaxed ends. The cashier then tells me how she attempted to transition one summer but went back to relaxers when she found that "natural hair ain't for everybody". Wow, I thought. I must be really special--the few, the proud, etc.
In another happening, I was in the beauty supply. I rarely go there, but my product search drove me there. While looking at the hair color isle lightly--I wasn't planning to buy--I hear an employee and a customer speaking to each other about how beautiful my twists were. I hear 'em, but I act like I don't. Then, the employee calls me over. The customer compliments my hair and then the employee says "but she has a good grade of hair." Now, I am southern so this terminology isn't a foreign language to me, but what this employee doesn't know is that I do not have some magically "good hair". I have "well cared for hair."
I was the child crying as the comb attempted to get through their hair. I have had loads of products slapped on my hair to "get it to behave." As a child my mom would lose the shampoo in my hair. Shampoo girls would remark that they are tired while washing my hair. Heck, I've even been said to have that "kaintdoncha" which--translated from country speak--means "can't comb it and don't you try". So, how is it that I am now a poster child for "good hair"?
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