Weave...Tracks...Added Hair...Whatever you call it, it didn't grow out of your scalp

Picture taken from http://fashionbombdaily.com/tag/hair/

**And no, this is not Erykah's real hair....this is a wig.

Why do people seem apologetic or secretive about their weave? I mean, if you wear weave, you wear weave. And if you don't, you don't.


Before my transition to locs, I used to wear weave- a lot of weave. On the flip side, as I had beautiful all natural hair*, I also wore my real hair quite a bit. I was never apologetic or ashamed of the times that I wore weave because I knew that I was wearing it for versatility and to protect my natural tresses. Sometimes I wanted a fro that I could wear all day long and not worry about combing at night. So, even though I had my own 'fro that the 1970s would have been mighty proud of, I still chose to purchase kinky hair on a track and sew it on to my neatly braided hair. That was my preference and I was never ashamed. Because seriously, wearing my natural hair in a 'fro for nearly 12 hours and then trying to comb it at night was a nightmare! 


I also used to wear wavy, straight, short and long weaves, that changed depending upon my particular mood of the week. I loved fake hair. And when I was done with it, I just threw it away.


Now that I have locs, I have placed my weave wearing days behind me (at least for now). But no matter what, I am not ashamed or apologetic for the weave that I used to wear. Now, I say all of this to say....


Jill Scott's new hairstyle that she wore for the Why Did I Get Married 2 premiere is mostly weave (and so is the hair from the style that she wore to the NAACP Awards). I am not fooled. IT IS WEAVE. And I love it. I absolutely love it. It almost made me want to come out of weave retirement but, considering my current hair situation, I decided against it.

Picture taken from clutchmagonline.com

While visiting afrobella.com I read a post about Jill's hair stylist Felicia Leatherwood. This sista girl is a baaaaad stylist from what I can tell. I really like her work. I found it interesting though that, when advising others as to how they can achieve Jill's look, she never once said "go to you closest beauty supply store and purchase 1-2 packs of some wet and wavy INSERT CURL TYPE HERE 14 inch hair." Instead she said that you have to braid one half of the head and two strand twist the other (to untwist and get the floppy fro style). Why did she not mention the fact that weave is necessary? I know why---because she is a natural hairstylist and Jill Scott has "natural hair." It seems that natural has to equate to "hair with no weave." Therefore, to call yourself a natural hair stylist and to call your client a natural hair client, you cannot assertively admit that you use weave in your clients hair because that's just blasphemy. Right?


For the record, toward the end of the post, there is a quote from Ms. Leatherwood stating, "I did use some added hair in that style" in reference to Jill's WDIGM premiere hairstyle. I appreciate her saying that. But my reading context clues interpreted that as 'I only added some hair to Jill's own hair, just for protection and versatility purposes.' If my context clues are correct, then the insinuated meaning is untrue. I know that all of that hair hanging to the side of Jill's head is fake and I know that Jill's real hair could not have created that style by itself. Yet I still love it. Yes, me and my natural-hair-all-my-life-and-now-I-have-locs self LOVES JILL'S HAIRSTYLE. Its just a shame that there has to be an apologetic tone when admitting that Jill has weave.     There is nothing wrong with weave if that's your thing...as long as you do not perpetrate a fraud and act as if your weave is your actual hair.....


In closing, I must say again, Felicia Leatherwood's work is incredible and Ms. Jilly from Philly looks fantabulous. 


P.S. And to all you women pretending like your lace front wig is your actual hair, please stop. Just stop. I know its fake.




*natural hair all my life. Never had a relaxer....never.