Black Hair Dos and Dont's

Oct. 10, 2007 — -- This month fashion magazine Glamour takes on "the secret things making you fat" and "perfect pants for every body" — pretty run-of-the-mill stuff for the glossy monthly, but the magazine also finds itself embroiled in a nasty controversy about culture, beauty and race, touched off by, of all things, a discussion about hair.

In June, then-associate editor Ashley Baker spoke to a group of about 40 lawyers at the offices of Cleary Gottlieb in Manhattan. The idea was that Baker would offer the "dos and don'ts" of corporate fashion, so far so good. But, when Baker got to a slide showing a black woman sporting an Afro, it read "Just say no to the 'fro." Outrage ensued.

"African-American women who chose to wear their natural hair have been stigmatized over the years," said Venus Opal Reese, assistant professor of Aesthetics and Cultural Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. And that's why Baker's statement touched a nerve.

In the firestorm that followed, Baker was forced to resign. Glamour's web site sports a front-page response from editor Cindi Leive that reads, in part "Glamour did not, does not, and would never endorse the comments made; we are a magazine that believes in the beauty of all women."

The magazine has offered apologies all around and promises to convene a panel on "women, beauty and race" in the near future.

Natural hair for black women is kinky "when the curl is so tight it's hard to comb through," said Reese. Children who were the product of mixed-race unions often had lighter skin and hair that was soft and wavy. "It's pretty basic. It has everything to do with the institution of slavery and the whole notion of good hair and bad hair."

For years, black women used chemically rich relaxers on their hair along with hot-iron presses to achieve a straighter, what some would call "whiter," look. Then along came the "let it all hang out" '60s and many black women decided to grow their hair as a political statement. The huge, head-framing Afro was popularized by black power icon Angela Davis.

But the '60s gave way to the '80s and a glossier, Jheri curl look took hold. Think Michael Jackson circa "Thriller." That was followed by braiding and weaving in the '90s and up to today.

Willie Morrow, of San Diego-based California Curl, has developed dozens of hair products for black women. Morrow, 68, said some women come in for treatments every two to three weeks because "they don't want to see any kinky hair sprouting. They want hair like Halle Berry."