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Sep 23, 2009

An Open Letter to Tyra


Good Morning Goddesses,

Who knew that Tyra's "Real Hair Day," would have women all over thinking; thinking about the state of their hair. Thinking about their self-esteem, and overall self-image. Who would have thought celebrities would step up and show out about their hair, weaves, etc. Well one celebrity in particular, Joy Bryant did. She actually blogged about it in an open letter to Tyra Banks; about her love for her weave. Women love to profess, "its only hair," when they know good and well the state of their hair, the mere presence or "lack their of" has them thinking--some kind of way. Read for yourself, as Joy talks about how her weave makes her feel complete.


Ouch! My tailbone really hurts when I sit on hard surfaces or slouched down in a chair for too long. That’s what I get from busting my butt from too much snowboarding. It makes it really hard to sit in a salon chair for hours on end getting my weave hooked up.

But oh, how we suffer for beauty...I must bring a pillow next time.

As the threads of the grown-out tracks were being snipped, I broke out my laptop and began my ritualistic daily web search. I go from news of the day to articles/blogs about the news of the day, ending up on entertainment/gossip/fashion stuff.
But that day, something caught my attention and trumped all of the glowing reviews of President Obama’s health care speech:

It was Tyra’s hair.

National Real Hair Day? I missed that one...In fact, on National Real Hair Day, I was calling Extensions Plus in L.A. to make sure they had enough of the 20” "relaxed roots" texture hair that I love oh so much (and that keeps selling out like crazy!), and making an appointment to get my hair, I mean, my weave, hooked up.

So Tyra, while I didn’t take part in your observance, I just want to say: "WOW!" You are such a brave woman for breaking the chains that bound you since your teenage years! What courage that took, for you to expose yourself to millions of people! Such fearlessness!

Oh, how I wish I had the guts to do that. I guess I’m much too much of an insecure, self-loathing Negro for all that self-acceptance foolishness.
I’m glad we got down to solving the mystery of what’s under your lace-front, though. I mean seriously, it was "THE" question that has perplexed the world over. And now we see that there’s a beautiful head of hair underneath it all, hair that was surprisingly relaxed and ready for the world. Whodathunkit?! If I had the same length and fullness of hair that you have, I might take my weave out too.

Ha!!!! I’m just playing! Even if I DID have your "real" hair, I’d still be wearing a few tracks or clip-ons up in there.

Why?

Because I’m straight weave fo life, kid!!!

Ima ride ride wit this weave, die die with this weave!!

Let me break it down for you:
See, I loooooove taking new hair out of the bag, combing through it with my fingers, holding it up with my two hands, and burying my face in it. Mmmm, mmmm, mmm! Nothing like a new batch of zig-zag curly to get your self esteem out of the dumps!

The feeling of getting my hair, I mean, my weave done over. I feel human again. I feel sexy. I feel powerful. It makes me feel...it makes me feel...it makes feel like a natural woman!!!

I can be whatever, whoever I want to be with the stroke of a sewing needle...

With long brown tresses and a tan, I’m Pocahontas, 'cause I got Indian in my family. With easy waves, I AM bohemian rhapsody goddess personified. And now that I got blond highlights! What!? I know I look like Beyonce! You can’t tell me nothing! Uh oh, uh oh...

And then I looked up from my computer, and caught a glimpse in the mirror of my head minus the long weavy locks. I looked crazy! Awww hell naw! I looked over at the new batch of hair sitting off to the side waiting to join forces with me. Damnit, I’m trapped, I thought to myself. I can’t let it go. I am powerless over it. Just when I think I’m done, it pulls me back in!

Now I guess I can get help for my self-loathing addiction.
I can learn to accept myself in my entirety. I can emancipate myself from that which keeps me locked-up. I can embrace the natural state of things.

Yup, I can do all of that…

But don’t hold your breath!

Hi, my name is Joy, and I’m a weave-a-holic.

*Taken from Joy Bryant's blog, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tracks of My Weave.

Queens what do you think? Please chime in!

Stay Blessed & Happy Locing!

9 comments:

B said...

I wish people would stop referring to Native Americans as Indians. It's 2009! Ugh! That's my only frustration about that. I can't co-sign on weave wearing because I've never worn one but to each her own. She's a little dramatic about it but then so was Tyra so hey! I'm kinda over it now....LOL!

Nickelicious said...

Poor Joy- needing weave to feel whole, beautiful, powerful and complete. We as natural queens need to snatch her up and take her away and install as much positive, self confidence as we possibly could. We can call it Weave Rehab.

LocStar in STL

Toshia "Writing Addict" Shaw said...

Bwuhahahahhaaa you know you are right LocStar, I mean is she serious? To feel complete? Lawd I have one word for that...therapy!

Amarie said...

She would need therapy for sure, because she's a hardcore weaveaholic. She would look awesome with an afro or a beautiful crown of locks.

Toshia "Writing Addict" Shaw said...

Amarie,

Its amazing isn't it? How the internet exposes these so called confident celebrities. Hmph, this is more evidence that they are just like us, they just have a bit more money, and exposure. To be quite honest, I think were the ones who are wealthy. Healthy spirit, minds, and self esteem is better than money any day!

Breath of Light said...

I thought it was really ignorant and immature for her to react so strongly and negatively about what someone else is doing to their hair. Did she really need to make a sarcastic blog post about it? And then how people chimed in about "oh Joy, I feel you girl, I feel the same way". It does irritate me when self hating black folks want to make excuses for, well, hating things "black". I mean really taht's the root (no pun intended) of it all, right? Nappy hair is associated with blackness and no one REALLY wants to be BLACK, right?

But I guess I don't have it in me to blog about that sort of thing. lol.

Toshia "Writing Addict" Shaw said...

Breath of Light,

Honey you don't need to blog about that mess. You just got down to the nitty gritty of it all. Shew...that the whole problem self-hating blacks, misery loves company. SMH Joy needs to stop seriously.

Anonymous said...

Her blog was obviously supposed to be over the top in order to match Tyra's over the top behavior since dropping her lacefronts.

And like Joy implied (hilariously, by the way), once Tyra took off the wig, her hair still wasn't in its natural state...A weave somehow means something that having chemically relaxed hair doesn't? National "Real" Hair Day, but not National "Natural" Hair Day...yeah, right.

Don't be fooled by Tyra's intentions. She's read one too many blogs implying that she's baldheaded, and was insecure about it. It's just like after the whole big "kiss my fat ass" charade, she promptly shed some pounds.

BTW, I've never worn a weave, but I did relax my hair for a few decades until recently. I loved my "blackness" as much then, as I do today.

Anonymous said...

She was being sarcastic ppl.
re read the letter.
its supposed to mock tyra not applaud her.
i would do the same

sincerely,
just some 16 year old chick