The Controversy of Hair Typing

There has been many a controversy surrounding hair type in cultures around the world. Red hair has been deemed odd and exotic. Blonde hair has been typified as the classic western beauty. Curly hair normally characterized a childish, less sophisticated person. And, well, coily hair has been at the lower end of the todem pole.

In apartheid South Africa, the authorities of the day would use the "pencil test" on the hair of residents who were racially ambiguous to ascertain their race and social classification. The test was partially responsible for splitting existing communities and families along perceived racial lines. Here were the guidelines:

See Also : womens funny jokes, womens humor quotes, womens humor quotes,

If the pencil was pushed into your hair and would slip right out, then you were classified as White.If the pencil was pushed into your hair and would get caught in a curl but slip out after a bit of a shake, then you were classified as Coloured or Mixed Race.If the pencil was pushed into your hair, get caught and you couldn't shake it out, then you were considered Black.

In one famous case depicted in the 2008 movie called Skin, a tan-skinned girl named Sandra Laing was born to two white parents in South Africa. In 1966, when Sandra was age 10, she was subjected to a pencil test by "a stranger" and subsequently excluded from her all-white school when she failed the test. Although her white father passed a blood-type paternity test, she was reclassified from her birth race of white to coloured. Consequently, Sandra and the rest of her family were shunned by white society and eventually Sandra was shunned by her entire family.

This test, although deemed asinine by many anti-apartheid South Africans, was thought to be the only fool-proof way of separating out the sheep from the goats, so to speak.

For Sandra and many others like her, it was an indirect message that Negroid hair was what sentenced you to a sub-par lifestyle. Your hair became your doom. Because it didn't flow in the wind or wasn't easily combed through, you were destined to live a life that was substandard.

Today, Black women in Africa and all over the world have learned that their hair type does not have to define their success or even beauty. There are examples of Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong'o with short natural hair and model and actress YaYa Dacosta with long natural hair that give Black women hope.

In fact, the 21st century woman has turned typing on its head by discovering that black hair consists of a flat, ribbon-like hair shaft while typical Anglo hair, which is straight, consists of perfectly round hair shafts. Although, straight hair is softer, it is much less pliable and difficult to style. Indeed, Black hair is the most versatile hair type on the globe because of the hundreds of styles that it can bend into.

Celebrity hair stylist Andre Walker, well-known as Oprah Winfrey's personal hair stylist, designed a texture typing system several years ago to give Black women a better sense of how to classify the hair that grows out of their scalp in hopes that it would empower them in knowing how to treat, style and maintain it.

This hair typing system is helpful for women who are seeking to find regimens and products for their specific texture since several hair care brands, stylists and bloggers have implemented the system.

Type 1 hair is completely straight and very thin. Type 2 hair is wavy and has some body. Type 3 hair has a curl pattern with clearly defined spiral curls when the hair is wet. Type 4 hair has fewer cuticle layers than any other hair texture, it is extremely coily and it requires more moisture.

According to the pencil test, type 4 hair was the hair that even when you tried to shake the pencil out, it would not drop to the floor. This hair type was classified as coarse and very tightly coiled; however, it should have instead been classified as strong - strong enough to hold a pencil. Due to its misclassification, Black women were never taught how to care for their hair in its natural state. They were given suggestions to apply a permanent relaxer cream that would change the hair shaft, making it straighter and easier to comb through. Changing the hair shaft did not have to be the solution, though.

A mere lesson on moisture application, detangling methods and styling could have sufficed because it would have empowered the Black woman to embrace her unique hair type and find the beauty in it. Quite simply, in order to maintain and manage Type 4 hair, all one needs to do is apply regular moisture to keep it soft! Type 4 hair responds well to moisture, natural oils such as coconut, jojoba, shea butter.

With this new found knowledge, Black women have begun reclaiming what is naturally theirs and creating countless Black natural hairstyles.