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Sep 07, 2016, 06:59AM

I Have a Question For White Girls With Braids

Hair is never simply hair. 

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Apparently the hottest hair trend of the moment, in Berlin anyway, is white girls with braids. Not just any type of braid, though. I’m talking long, braided extensions that take hours and hours to do. Think Beyoncé in Destiny’s Child. I’ve even seen fashion divas with cornrows a la Queen Latifah in the movie Set If Off. The utmost! The first time I saw a white girl with braids I was like, “Hmm, interesting…” But now I’ve probably seen it on like 20 different girls all around the city and the shit has me completely fascinated. I ain’t even mad. I just don’t get it.

To my white queens: do you, boo. Hair is personal and you can style it how you want to. I’m not mad or pressed. All I’m saying is that I see you, and within the sphere of cultural appropriation, white girls with braid extensions seems like a stretch.

It reminds me of something Madonna said in Rolling Stone at the start of her career. When the interviewer asked Madonna if she felt “black” here’s what she said:  “Oh, yes, all the time. That’s a silly thing to say though, isn’t it? When I was a little girl, I wished I was black. All my girlfriends were black. I was living in Pontiac, Michigan, and I was definitely the minority in the neighborhood. White people were scarce there. All of my friends were black, and all the music I listened to was black. I was incredibly jealous of all my black girlfriends because they could have braids in their hair that stuck up everywhere. So I would go through this incredible ordeal of putting wire in my hair and braiding it so that I could make my hair stick up. I used to make cornrows and everything. But if being black is synonymous with having soul, then, yes, I feel that I am.”

For me, these kinds of braids have always been a black cultural thing and it’s hard for me to see otherwise. Black mothers braid their daughters’ hair in little plats as soon as the first piece of hair pops out of their heads. I have so many memories of my sister sitting in the living room on the floor between my mom’s legs watching TV while she got her hair braided. Over the 10 hours it took to put the braids in she went between crying because it was painful and looking totally bored because she had to sit still for so long while her head got yanked in all kinds of different directions. “Hold your head up!” my mother told her.

But after it was done she always came out looking fabulous. The first few days her scalp was tight and that led to inside jokes between us that we still laugh about today. She always had to “tie her hair down” with a scarf at night because if she didn’t, her braids wouldn’t stay fresh for as long.

My mother braided my sister’s hair because it was stylish, but the real reason is that she could send my sister off to school and out into the world looking presentable and didn't have to worry about doing her hair every single day. When you’re a single mom who’s also putting yourself through graduate school, like my mom was, you don’t necessarily have time to fix hair every morning. Practical and stylish, all in one.

When I started wearing my own braid extensions a few years ago I felt like I could finally understand what my sister went through all those years. I had a girl in the Bronx who gave me the hook-up every couple of months. The scene was so familiar: sitting between her legs on the floor for hours, watching the Food Network, eating pizza or whatever, gossiping about men and sex, feeling fabulous at the end.

The first time my then-boyfriend (white) saw me at night with my hair tied down with a t-shirt he laughed, maybe out of surprise because he’d never seen me like that before. I had to explain the whole thing to him. Do white girls with braids and cornrows have the same conversation with their partners?

Hair is never simply hair. It’s also culture. Hair is style but also politics. Will an on-trend white girl with cornrows or braid extensions be denied work or told by her boss that her hair is unprofessional?

The thing that makes me uneasy about white girls with braid extensions, and why for me it’s a mile marker too far past the cultural appropriation bridge, is that it’s a clear example of how blackness gets treated as something you can make a trend or hipsterify or put in a pop-up shop and pick or chose from without any connection to blackness or black people. It’s about having all the taste but none of the calories. 

Discussion
  • Blessed is the person for whom this is the worst problem on the plate.

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  • 'Braids' on 'white girls' does not typically mean tight cornrow plaits. 'Braids' means what Margaret O'Brien and little Natalie Wood and just about every other movie moppet wore in the 1940s. Two pigtails, hanging down the back, each about 1" thick. The tight plaiting you're talking about is exceedingly unattractive—nay, repellent!—on just about everyone, and its association with the pickaninny look should be enough reason for black people to avoid it. Another reason is baldness: pull your scalp like this all the time and you'll get traction alopecia. Look up hair-growth pills and elixirs and notice how many adult black women have bald patches all over the place. Tight plaiting is bad; don't do it.

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  • You must have a lot of extra time on your hands to sit and fret, and write, about such trivia. Worrying about how people wear their hair is a teenage activity, and I assume you're beyond those years, at least chronologically. You'll never be free either, because the next outrage is coming down the pike at this very moment. The girls will wear their hair as they wish, despite what some old grump trying to sound super-woke thinks.They're out there actually living life, not just observing it, but maybe doing this gives you the illusion you're actually living it too.

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  • I'm not sure why people feel the need to take the time to weigh in on a subject just to say that they don't think it's worth talking about. If you don't want to talk about it, don't talk about it, you know? If you're here talking, it looks like you care.//Anyway, I liked this piece.Thanks for writing it, Madison.

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  • You probably agree, then, that "hair is never simply hair." If so, why don't you tell us why this is so?

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  • Hair is really important in the black community. Also, hair (and fashion in general) is an aesthetic expression, and as such carries cultural and social weight. Fashion is denigrated because it's associated with women, and is therefore supposed to be frivolous, but if you're willing to talk and think about novels or poetry, there's no reason not to think about hair.// nothing people do is a "just". We're meaning making critters, and hair/personal appearance is one way we communicate with and about each other.

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  • In what communities is hair not important to women?

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  • Fair point. It's even more important in black communities, I think (Madison says as much.)

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  • Obviously you know nothing about white people. Watch a few episodes of VIKINGS on the History channel or Hulu.

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  • He comes off as being an expert in black culture. Knows all about hair issues and other esoterica. Bizarrely equates hair with literature. Perhaps he's seeking approval. Wants to be the Great White Protector, which is quite condescending, maybe even racist.

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  • North Korea, Syria, and any other war torn community to name just a few.

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  • Wrong Noah. Stop imposing your white, U.S., superficial privilege onto other cultures. Only in the most superficial, privileged, (or a few religious cultures) does hair have any cultural significance. After all, is it more important to eat or to look good? Is it more important to educate ones offspring or to have tight corn-rows? It is nothing other than racism to suggest one culture (U.S. blacks in this case) is more superficial than another as you did with your prior comment. I expect better from you. It is also beyond offensive to suggest that the superficiality of appearance is an apt metric in determining ones worth (which is once again, your suggestion from your previous comment). Do you really disagree with MLK statement that one should be judged by their character rather than the color of their skin? Apparently you do. Be better Noah.

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  • Texan, as usual, your ignorance is only matched by your bizarre beligerance.

  • Why do you bother to take the time to weigh in on some petty feud? I've never understood that. It looks like you care, which isn't a good look.

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  • I weighed in here because I liked the article,and thought the criticism was off base? And sure, I care enough to comment. I don't really get why it's some sort of sign of weakness to care about stuff. I don't think indifference makes anyone superior.

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  • Step one: Noah makes racist statement. Step two: Noah gets called out for racist statement. Step three: Noah throws insults and has hissy fit. Must be a Monday.

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  • hah, you're a treasure Texan. don't ever change.

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  • You're welcome Noah! I'm glad that we can agree on something. Let me know if there are other issues I can help you with. That's what I'm here for.

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  • Why does this racist and profoundly ignorant piece maintain its position in the top five "Most Viewed" articles on this site? This moron Afrocentrist has obviously never seen an episode of VIKINGS.

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  • I really appreciate that this piece continues to annoy bigots. Madison did a good job.

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  • Why the fuck do you care so much about a white bitch braiding her hair? Literally looking for anyyyyyy reason to be pissed off and scream cultural appropriation. Is a white bitch in braids disturbing your life so much that you gotta focus in on it like this? Way over thinking. White bitches have long ass hair that we want out of our faces just like you do. Stupid ass racist fucking bitch. White people sure are breaking your balls by wearing braids....Find something else to complain about like maybe black bitches straightening their hair or wearing blonde extensions. OH IM SO HURT BC IM WHITE AND HAVE NATURAL BLONDE HAIR WAHHHHHH. Go cry in a corner somewhere. You say oh idc do you girl no you don’t. You’d rather cut a bitch down than unite as women and build a bitch up. lammmmmmmmmmme as fuck.

  • I'm white. I'm tired of my hair blowing into my face. Having to constantly style it brush it, wash it, getting dirty so fast if it's down. Throw it up in a bun and it don't look nice at all. I like to look neat and organized and I love my hair to look good, but it just DOESNT with my stick straight hair. A lot of us have love hate relationships with our hair is what I've got to say.

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  • I realize that I'm a bit late- as this is something that I've only recently noticed. For all of the outraged white women who have read through this article and felt the need to retaliate... I pity you. What both men and women seem to fail to understand- this runs deeper than hair. Cultural appropriation is very real... and it's actually pretty sad seeing how all of you read this and automatically want to jump on and personally attack her, telling her that she has no life and twisting her words. As Madison had pointed out, a box braids on a white women mean something completely, totally different. Just like bandanas. I mean, as a black woman... I feel you, Madison. White women shame us for having "nappy hair" and dark skin, while the average tanning bed in a tanning salon generates about $12,000 – $15,000 per year. So, obviously having dark skin isn't all that bad, huh? PS: @Briwixonnnn Chill out. The fact that you felt you even needed to attack her that way is sad and petty. Maybe you should take your naturally blond hair and actually go do something with it. And... let's be honest with each other, okay? I can't speak on the part of all other black women, as we are not the same (contrary to popular belief). However, anyone that's ever witnessed a black woman being called "nappy headed" for leaving her hair natural would understand WHY black women straighten their hair. And.... you say that Madison should, in your words, "build a bitch up." White women are one of our HARSHEST critics. I'm Black first. #melanin I feel you, Madison. Sincerely, Laciamelodii

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  • i am "white" and i have braids. i have rather frizzy and undefined curly hair. when i wake up in the morning i should wash and define my hair because my curls are lost. so, i love braids a lot but for me it is also a necessity. i don't like chemicals and i am living in a snowy city, so i cant just wash and define my hair and go out. so am i allowed to have braids now?

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  • stop trying to validate yourself, yes hun, you can have braids, but your way of asking is rather problematic, first of all, you put white in quotation marks as if today having curly hair makes you less white, as a fellow white person with curly hair I can tell you braids are fine to an extent. I'm sure will these bold words you use you have done your research and know the history and significance of braiding hair, whatever your hair type, the box braids and cornrows discussed here are indeed not culturally appropriate however the "pippy long stockings" imho are OK, but your entire tone of this post seems condescending and makes you seem as though your situation makes you non-white.

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  • I am a black women that has worn braids period I ally but do not think of braided hair as black culture. Other ethnicities have curly hair, afro hair. Some black women are light skin some like Indian are very dark. Who cares who has braids. However, if the intent is to mimick and mock black women then that is wrong. If it is to take it, make it trendy and give no credit to African artistry that made it popular then that is wrong. The intent is the point. I think any sensitive reaction would be, not feeling unique or special as a black person. But I love the goddess braids and long boho locks on white people. Why not braids? I want long white box braids and I have dark skin. Who cares. When I was a kid I did braid outs that blacks thought looked like dreads. They trendy black girls would say, you need to straighten your hair and stop dressing like a white girl. I was into punk but very educated about culture and thought the comment was racist and ignorant. Speaking nicely as talking white for example. My mom said, tell them you don't talk white but speak in the vernacular of Fredrick Douglas. The blacks kids said what's that?

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  • "do white women ever get told their braids and cornrows make them look unprofessional at work?" YES. white women wearing those styles would look totally unprofessional and wouldnt get professional jobs, whereas ive seen bankers with braids and dreadd who were black and looked hella professional

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  • I totally understand why the Caucasian race likes to put protective styles in their hair. The reasons being probably because it’s a trend or they just like it. I mean I understand completely BUT since I am a person of colour I think that when you want to take or use something from another ethnicity you should learn the cultural history behind it instead of just doing it because you thought it looked good on that one white celebrity. But one thing that I don’t understand is why they try to take it and then play it off like they are the original creator. Because that is when problems start to erupt and cultural operation is claimed. But you do you.

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  • Oh yeah, one more thing! When people of colour are wearing protective styles they are claimed to be “ghetto”,”nappy”,or “smelly” but when people of white/lighter race wear it they are praised for looking “cute”,”pretty” or “professional” and it just makes me sad to have to see that happen over the news and social media.

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  • I am a white girl, and I think braids are absolutely beautiful. I have always been jealous of women of color wearing gorgeous braids. It’s hard for me to believe people see them as “unprofessional” or “ghetto.” To me they are the epitome of beauty and grace. It’s sad that I myself can’t wear them, but not everything is for me. Could be worse! My husband loves kilts but he is not Scottish, LOL

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