COVER STORY

Good hair, bad hair

The politics of follicles

Good hair equals white hair, Chris Rock insinuates in his recent documentary, “Good Hair.”

The movie shows that many black females are taking great pains to secure the straight, silky locks favored by society, including burning through their scalps -- and their pockets -- by the regular use of costly hair relaxer, known on the street as the “creamy crack” for its addictive pull. Some women had begun the practice when they were as young as three years old.

“The lighter, the brighter, the better,” is how actress Nia Long describes the glamorous goal in Rock’s film.

But local teens and hair professionals interviewed say the debate over good hair versus bad hair is not just a case of black and white. Many say that they relax, weave, or otherwise alter their hair out of convenience and style, and not from a desire to look white. Meanwhile, they say, there are white women who wear dreadlocks or braids and go to tanning salons, and no one accuses them of trying to be black.

Francia Pierre, 15, from Boston Latin Academy, says that her natural hair is short, coarse, and curly.

“It’s hard to manage,” she says.

She says she relaxes or weaves her hair for one main reason: “To look good.”

Kara Blackwell, 15, from Boston Latin Academy, says she refuses to put harmful ingredients in her hair.

“Chemicals mess it up,” says Blackwell, wearing her hair naturally curly.

When she goes to the salon, all she lets her hair-dresser do is to blow dry it.

Blackwell says she does feel that some black women may relax or weave their hair to look more white.

“I feel like it actually sounds kind of true,” she says.

Helen Roy, owner of Helen’s Hair Connections on the South End/Lower Roxbury border, says that, like many black women, she relaxes her hair, but does so to make it simpler to handle.

Curly hair might take a woman about 30 minutes to style in the morning, she says, whereas straight hair could take someone only about 10.

“Black hair is hard to manage,” says Roy. “They want to soften their hair, to comb it through easier.”

Roy says that she is definitely not trying to be something she isn’t.

“I’m born black,” she says, “so I love to be black.”

painting by Marvin Bynoe // Artists for Humanity