After seeing many women bemoaning shrinkage in relation to natural hair, I decided to create a video pointing out this disdain and expressing my own views on the topic. Spoiler alert: I'm not really concerned with shrinkage. I filmed, edited, and--nervously--uploaded the video. I'm always a ball of nerves when videos featuring my opinion go live. You never quite know what the response is going to be and I'm a sensitive (read: anxious) person!
Shortly after upload, the comments began to roll in. Most of them--to my relief--were quite positive. Many of the commenters aren't preoccupied with shrinkage while those that stretched their hair mainly did so to stave off tangles. It was also pointed out to me that pineappling and styling with gel are forms of stretching so I stretch my hair too. (While I can understand that at a surface level, my styled hair shrinks up much shorter than my "shower" hair and the pineapple doesn't offer me much additional length.)
It was one comment in particular that inspired me to write this post. It started "but not everyone has long hair??" and when I had finished reading the comment, I thought about the possible privilege that I experience as a long hair natural. Perhaps I am privileged to be able to not care about shrinkage? Gravity and length causes my hair to fall downward no matter if it is stretched out or not. I simply do not have to contend with the tangles that those with shorter hair sometimes deal with.
Is this revelation going to cause me to strike up the banner and ask long hair naturals to be more aware of short hair naturals? Probably not. Unlike other forms of privilege, many long hair naturals have been on the other side whether they seem to remember it or not. I too had hair that dried somewhere near my ears.
All in all, it's just something interesting to "chew" on.
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