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2021 was a big year for the Black Cowboy. There was the April 2021 release of Concrete Cowboy starring Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin and Jharrel Jerome as well as the October 2021 release of The Harder They ...

If children, the natural extension of their parents/household, are allowed to be seen outside the house looking unkempt, like a ‘ragamuffin’, what does that say about their parents? Wild, wooly hair would surely garner inevitable comparisons to Buckwheat, (the dark skinned Black boy on Little Rascals) and that was unacceptable – for little Black girls or boys.

Hair and grooming have always played an important role in the culture of Africa and the African Diaspora. The traditional African comb or pick has played a crucial role in the creation, maintenance, and decoration of hair-styles for both men and women.

It has been extremely important to me, as the mom of a young Black man, to find hair icons for him to look at and find himself reflected in the world.

The Afro would become Black beauty personified—and done without White validation. The Afro did not care about critics. It did not care about disapproving looks.

A black child’s proximity to mainstream respectability is a kind of social barometer for many black parents. Respectability politics, the tendency of a minority group to police its unique cultural practices, is not universally accepted as good practice in black communities. 

Hair relaxers have been in use since the early 1900s. A hair relaxer is a cream that reduces the natural curl pattern of your hair by breaking down the hair strand and chemically altering the texture. Most people who decide to get their hair relaxed have curly hair who want it stick straight without the frizz.