Speak on It: Natural Hair & Weaves

We’ve talked about the rise of celebrities photographing their natural hair in between weaves before, but for whatever reason, celebs still do so and the interwebs – natural haired and not, black and not – still go wild.

Nikki Minaj’s “No Perm, No Extensions” Straightened Hair

Gabrielle Union’s #WeaveandFlowandLetitGrow Blown Out Hair

YAWN.

But I’m not tripping over the ability to grow hair long while habitually wearing weaves, or other protective styles. That’s not news, that’s kinda the point of protective styling – you leave your hair alone – and it grows!

What I’m trying to wrap my head around is the sorcery that is weaves that look EXACTLY like natural hair. And not that curly/coily/wavy kind of hair either, but hair just like mine!

Clockwise from top left: @heatfreehair For Kinks installation; @hautekinkyhair Haute Curls, Haute Coils, and Haute Kinks;  Crochet braids installed by @dmvnaturalista; and @downtoat wearing a Fingercomber unit.

What kind of trickery?? Like… am I the only one who’s baffled by the level of realness of hair these days? Y’all out here talking ’bout “ooh I love her hair” and “dang that’s my hair crush,” meanwhile homegirl got it sewn in last week. Granted we’ve been getting straight weaves while we had relaxed hair (if you did at some point), and yeah some people’s weave was really laid to the point where you never knew if it was real or not; but…

Is there something deceptive about natural haired weaves and wigs? If you see a woman with a great fro and you ask her whether she did a twistout or a blowout, is she obligated to tell you that it’s not her hair? Do these weaves contradict the mission of the natural hair movement, which some might say is to embrace your hair? Does it matter if it’s only worn for a few weeks or year-round? Speak on it!

I personally don’t have strong opinions on the matter, but I do think it’s a good topic for open debate. All I’m really trying to say is that I need me one of these weaves. STAT.

Share your thoughts...

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comments

  1. On the question about natural weaves contradicting the movement or not: I think it does wonders! The whole point of weave is to wear hair that is aesthetically pleasing to the person. To see that natural hair is something people actually aspire to having is awesome!

    I busted out laughing at the sorcery comment, hahahahah! I know! It’s so deceptive! But it’s only deceptive because it’s new. No worries, people are getting hip to it really quick. But damn, I don’t want to achieve the head of hair I always dreamed of having, and people seeing it and their default is: “is that a wig?” dammit!

    …anyways, let grow out this hair first. Natural almost all my life, and I still don’t know what I’m doing wrong =/

  2. I think that all textures of weaves and wigs have been around. People are just now getting hip. Straight and curly just seem to be preferred or more popular

  3. I will love to try it out if I can get one that is easy to manage and not one that can turn into a hard unmanageable puff. This year I want a different look so I’m up for good natural hair styles. It’s been 3 years since I went natural.

  4. I love the idea! This takes me back to my first sew in during my transitioning when I let my cousin talk me into relaxing my edges to blend with the weave. Smh! This keeps us naturals from the trouble of flat ironing/blending our hair [with the weave], or the “wig-ish” look of a full sew in. If Solange can do it, why can’t I?!

    Now my question is about the quality, texture, and versatility of this kinky/coily hair.

  5. I love them and I hope I can find an affordable brand so I can try it soon, it can be so expensive. I don’t think they are meant to deceive anybody I actually think it makes it easy to blend our hair with weave for once. It saves us the trouble of flat ironing our hair or manipulating it with twist outs braid outs etc. to blend in with straight weaves and wavy/ loosely curly weaves. I’m sure it helps women with that “awkward” length stage too.