“confessions of a hair weave addict”

The Huffington Post recently published a piece called “Confessions of a Hair Weave Addict” in which filmmaker Erikka Yancy shares her thoughts about her relationship to her hair and about the fact that she’s used hair weaves for most of her life.
Excerpts: “Before anyone gets upset I am not saying that women who get hair weaves have fantasies of being white. This is my story and my experience. If you see yourself in it or feel indicted after it, think about it — then forget it; or don’t, it’s up to you.”
“I have always hated my hair. That is not true — I can remember a time, pre-kindergarten, when I wore afro-puffs and would go to my Aunt Georgia’s house and she would cornrow my hair for the summer. During that time I was indifferent about my hair because I was four.”
“When I got to high school, I discovered relaxers — but that was a nightmare. I had grown my hair out to my shoulders at the start of freshman year, but I damaged it so badly with curling irons and blow dryers and whipping it around, that by second semester I had to have it cut into a permanent Halle Berry hair cut until I graduated.”
“While at school, I tried all different types of extensions and braids. (…) I changed it nearly every two months and everyone always thought it was really my hair, or at least I convinced myself they did. I prided myself on getting realistic styles. I didn’t even really know what my own hair looked like. I was cast in roles based on my hair — but which hair? Once I had to reshoot a scene for a movie and could not remember which hair I had for continuity. That was pretty funny.”
“Trying to “fit in” had made me feel more misshapen and gray than ever. So one day I just decided — because I only operate from two points, inaction and impulse — to walk into the salon and have them remove my weave and cut all of my hair down to its natural state. I loved it. I felt free and centered and beautiful. Then I walked onto the street and immediately felt like everyone was looking at me differently and I did not like it. They did not smile at me the same way. Men didn’t look at me the same way. Friends did not know what to make of it. “It makes you look more severe”, “You look more ‘ethnic’” and “I liked it long” were the most common responses. Twice in the grocery store a clerk called me ‘sir’.”
“in order to recover from an acute addiction to hair weaves, you must realize that no amount of Kanekalon, Yaki or Indian Remy is ever going to make you anyone else but some woman with a bunch of store bought hair on their head.”
“I have been natural now for longer than I have ever been, which is not long. I’m not going to lie, it has a challenge. But the more time I spend being natural, the more I like my hair and the less gray and misshapen I become. Sure, in the beginning, I wanted to run and hide whenever I thought someone was looking at me funny or when a shampoo commercial came on, you know the ones with all of the straight hair flowing down the screen?”
Full article here.
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