To Weave or Not to Weave: Why is That Still The Issue

a few days ago I overheard my black neighbors downstairs (I say they are black because I live in a predominately Hispanic apartment complex to the point the management changed the name of the complex to Spanish Village from Inway Village, but I digress) commenting on my hair. The wife said, “ I know good and well that black people don’t grow hair that long. I wonder what brand of hair [weave] she uses.” then the husband says “ That is her hair. I looked and I never saw any tracks showing. She must be mixed with Mexican. That’s why she gets along with them so well. I even heard her speaking Spanish once.” Then the wife says, “why you looking at her that hard to see if she got tracks n***er! That b**ch ain’t mixed. She just as black as your black ass. She got weave!!!” then they actually came up the stairs just to ask me if I had weave. My reaction was “Dude …. Seriously?” I was about to close the door then I decided to ask” why does it even matter to you? If I don’t have weave its my hair because I grew it but, if I do have weave, its still my hair because I bought it with my money. You knowing one way or the other won’t change anything so why is it even an issue?” they just walked away with the conclusion that because I wouldn’t say “yes” or “no”, I did indeed have a weave. I still want to know the answer to my question, why is it still an issue?

I can remember as far back as 1989, when girls were wearing Vidal Sassoon products as all the rage, there was a song called “hair or weave”. Girls and women would want the look of long thick locks and would buy a weave to achieve that but deny that they did, even though their grew 6 to 10 inches overnight. This was the way it was in the greater population black, white, or Hispanic. Nowadays, the Hispanic and white population could care less if their fellow sister knows what’s going on with their hair, just as long as it looks good. We, on the other hand, attach a stigma to the weave. Once we see a sister with long beautiful hair, we assume it’s a weave because there is no way she grew that. I don’t understand it. Yes it is possible for a black woman to grow long hair, and just because she did doesn’t mean one of her parents isn’t black.

On the other hand, when we see a woman with short hair we assume she can’t grow any hair and the first thing we do once we get angry with her we call her baldheaded, no matter if she is bald or if she has ear length locs. Apparently there are those out there that think being called bald headed is the worst thing you can call a black woman. Guess what guys, being called bald headed isn’t the end of the world and most black women with short hair can grow hair, they just choose to cut it short because it’s easier to maintain. I know because I wore mine so short that you couldn’t even grasp it for 2 and a half years. Now I have hair around my shoulders. Just because a woman has short doesn’t mean that its really short because some women braid their long hair and sew in a short weave because she want’s to rock that look for a few weeks.

The answer to the nosy neighbors questions is this, I have both. My real hair grows so fast that when I did wear it short I would have to get it cut every three days in order to keep it so short. Now my real hair is on top of my shoulders but I do braid my hair and have a few tracks that extend past my shoulders a few inches sewn on top. This leaves less damage to my own hair, when I want long hair I can have it , when I want short hair I can sew in a short weave and not cut my hair length, when I want a different color hair I can achieve that without dying my own. I don’t see the problem with it and for all of those people that does, all I have to say is this, Dude…Seriously ?