Light Skinned Storytime: My Experience W/ Type 4 Hair 

Wow - the relaxer curse! I'm a 62 yr old blk man grew up with 2 extremely LS sisters - one yt passing the other with natural red hair and freckles from my mom's mom. My mom is MGM and has more type 2b hair (no - we didn't get it. I have type 4a hair though) but my sisters didn't get the relaxer until they were 13, the got the "hot comb" though, earlier and that. It was definitely culture (albeit of brainwashing style) but I too went through the relaxer mess as a young black man in my late teens in the late 70s and through the '80s as i wore a Jheri Curl from Fall, '79 until the early '90s. Now, as a guy, the big chop was easy and painless as in the '90s brush waves for short hair was in. Here's the thing though, the gist of my comment. We black men, 99.9% have the same hair as black women. I think black men should have more compassion for what black women have to deal with, with their hair. Now - being born in '61 and a kid in the '60s and a teen through the '70s - I am a natural hair man as that is what I grew up seeing girls/women embrace and boys/men celebrate ("Say loud - I'm black and I'm proud" days, and not a fan of wigs/weaves but believe women can wear whatever they want on their heads but hopefully they understand the psychology behind "feeling" you look prettier, are more feminine/more beautiful with straight, wavy or loosely curled or or otherwise that which is not yours. But we black men should "understand" the reality of black hair - from black women's experience. We have the same hair! Thanks. You're doing a great job, young lady. Your delivery is so easy to take! Peace!

I'm Gen X and grew up in the time when most black women and girls had relaxers from an early age unless you had "good hair." I spent most of my life with my dad's side of the family who are MGM, many of them "white passing" so they all had "good hair" (silky, loosely curled). I definitely did not inherit that hair type so my coarse hair was very much looked down upon, which I heavily internalized and therefore hated my hair growing up.

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