I can still feel the love đ pic.twitter.com/lBjEmPLE6f
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) July 24, 2018
People have strong feelings about Kim Kardashianâs hair and North Westâs hair. I get it, to a certain degree. Kim is such a culture-vulture and the whole neverending drama with her Fulani braids is enough to make people question her motives about everything hair-related. Her daughter North is biracial, half black and half Armenian/Caucasian. Judging solely from photos of North since she was a baby, she seems to have thick, curly hair. But in recent photos – paparazzi photos and social media photos – Northâs hair suddenly seems to be quite straight. Is Kim Kardashian forcing Eurocentric hair standards on her daughter? Is she teaching North that her natural curly hair isnât as pretty as straight hair? I donât know. Kim posted the above photo to her social media on Tuesday, and then she responded when someone asked about Northâs hair:
She is allowed twice a year, on her birthday and birthday party! This pic was taken back in June on her bday https://t.co/f0WlCYnCEo
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) July 24, 2018
North is âallowedâ to straighten her hair twice a year? Iâm assuming she means straightening with a flat-iron, not with chemicals? If Kim is talking about chemical straightening, thatâs an awful thing to do to her 5-year-old child. But if itâs a flat-iron situation⌠I donât know, is that okay? When I was that age, my hair was pin-straight and I always wished I had curly or wavy hair. It was awful because my hair has never âtakenâ a curl, no matter how long I leave the rollers in, nothing. My hair just wants to be straight and it refuses to do anything else. Iâm saying this as a way to explain why I think many little girls just want to experiment with their look and try something different. Not to defend Kim, but I donât think sheâs actively discouraging North from embracing her curly hair. What do I know though?
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Kimâs Twitter.
I donât think straightening it with a straightener is that big of a deal if thatâs what sheâs doing. When I was Northâs age my mom would curl my hair with the curling iron for special occasions.
Same. When I was slightly older than North, my dad and I would sit and watch Star Search on Saturday nights while he crimped my hair. Oddly they are some of my fondest childhood memories.
aw, that is a very sweet memory to have.
aww!! this warmed my cold dead heart a little. that’s a great memory to have, and even better that it’s with your dad. is that weird to say? my dad couldn’t have been less interested in anything related to my makeup and hair experimenting. wish he had!
That is adorable.
I have a six year old daughter, and a lot of the time… she just wants to do what Mom does. She insists we have the same color of nail polish, if we do our nails together. That we get matching outfits, shoes, that kind of thing. And she loves it when I part her hair on the same side that I part my own.
I do home highlights, and she’s already asking when she can put high lights in her hair.
This, exactly.
I told her she could have highlights when she’s older. It’s tough to know what’s right on these sorts of topics… you go with your gut.
My 8 year old was begging me to straighten her hair. She has gorgeous ringlets. Her is long and she has tons of hair! My hair is bone straight and fine, and she âlovesâ that my hair doesnât get that knotty, especially when I wake up in the morning. So, I finally straightened it with a flat iron, her hair was down to her butt! She loved it but was happy to see her curls after two days. She actually suggested the rule that she could get it straightened once a year, and I agreed. No big deal. I would never chemically straighten her hair and I hope when sheâs an adult she doesnât either. She loves her curls and always gets compliments.
Meh. Non issue. My daughter has super curly hair that would tangle easily and often. She was frustrated with it most of her childhood and often asked me to straighten it so it looked like mine. No biggie. When she got older, she appreciated her curls much more and now in her 20s, happily embraces her curly, sometimes frizzy mop. đ
I think tweeting an opinion about the hair of someone else’s child was out of line, and KK responding to it totally unnecessary, but then I suppose it’s more gracious than the “F%$# off” I would have responded with.
But the fact that it’s being offered as a special treat, like a gift for birthday, puts straightened hair in a “special”, “treat” category versus her regular, curly hair. If it were just twice a year, anytime okay but she is definitely shaping this child’s consciousness to view straight hair as better. I don’t expect any better from KK but still…
Seriously? If anything, itâs telling her that being who you are everyday is just right, but sometimes something different is ok too.
Some little girls are sensitive to having hair that’s different from mom’s. I hope Kim does encourage her to love her natural hair though.
I don’t see any issue with her straightening her hair as a treat. it’s not any different than a girl with straight hair getting her hair curled for special occasions.
I honestly feel like people try to make everything this family does with their kids offensive.
I agree.
I agree, too. And detest her.
Yes, Tracking, I agree. I hope Kim will encourage North to love her curls. My mom had gorgeous, lustrous naturally curly auburn hair, and when I was in the first grade she was always curling my straight, baby-fine blond hair. Then, just before the Christmas holidays she gave me a home permanent, talking the whole time about how pretty I was going to look with curly hair. The day after the perm, I woke up to find that my hair was stick-straight again! I will never forget how sad and ashamed I felt to have disappointed my mom with my stubbornly straight hair.
my friend’s daughter is biracial and the little girl wants straight hair like her mother. Me and her other friends wear fros so she’s starting to embrace her curly hair. I bought her some hair products for children with curly hair and that also helped.
I had straight hair and for special days I had it set and slept in curlers. Not comfortable but I thought it fun to be different. Sheâs just being a girly girl.
Kim has a new face again? those bottom photos looks like another person
Off topic, but Kim is showing on IG the BeyoncĂŠ merchandise she got as gift from Balmain, cause obviously BeyoncĂŠ would never send her anything or even invite her to the shows.
In the picture with sunglasses, North is giving me mini-Malea Obama vibes. Super cute.
She does look like Malia in that photo!
Dude, you’re right!
I feel like this is only a big deal because Kim clearly has body image issues and people worry about her passing that onto North. Iâm not a huge fan of straightening a young childâs hair (because damage) but Kim has access to hair stylists and great products so I donât think itâs that big of a deal
I agree. Kim has made her body a caricature of her idea of glam. Sheâs ruined her figure and I hope that she doesnât pass that on to her daughter.
I’m getting the “Cher on steroids” vibe.
curling your hair is damaging too, but no one seems to day anything against little girls having their hair curled.
also, straightening it once in awhile is not going to significantly damage her hair.
Cant believe this might be a big deal.. little girls love to experiment with hair!
As do adults. This is such an absurd, intentionally inflammatory perspective. Kim is not making her daughter have body image issues by playing with hair or makeup or clothes, ffs people. My mom used to poodle perm my hair. No one thought I was trying to pass as a person of color (as if only people with direct African heritage have tight curls. ..), no one was offended by my dreads when I wore them to school, just like I don’t think my naturally-curly-haired friends are ashamed of their heritage when they straighten their hair. It is a fashion. Honestly, these conversations remind me of some serious Puritanical shit. Only natural hair allowed! No braids unless the “match” your race! What disgusting nonsense.
Sympathyrage, I seriously love your post and agree 100%.
Completely agree…….people sometimes take these things just a little too seriously afaic. đ
EMc, Sympathyrage, and company, you gals are on point. Everyone loves experimenting with their look.
As a black girl growing up in the 70s I wore my hair in plats and puffs until I was about 10. Then I started hot-combing my hair. For you young folk, this was well before the days a flat-iron existed. My mom had to place an iron comb on the stove, heat up the comb, and run it through my kinky hair! And yup I covered my ears with the lid for the hot-comb oils!!! In my mid-teens I started straightening my hair. When I went to university, I put my hair into braids, including the Senegalese twist. I wore weaves and extensions in my 20s to 30s. Now that I’m old (LOL) I just slip on a wig and keep my natural hair in Senegalese twists underneath.
The point is, women/girls/gals/ladies enjoy trying out different looks and styles: from make-up, to hair, to clothing. No need scrutinize or criticize Kim and her family for being just like the rest of us — ORDINARY!!
I can guarantee you that when North has her hair straight, the family probably gives her A LOT more compliments because they are shallow like that. Also, this “controversy” gives Kim attention so…
Is it possible to ignore Kim’s culture vulture ways on this issue? I’m really asking. Because if i take Kim out of the equation, is the concern that North isn’t being encouraged to connect with her African American heritage? Like she’s somehow not black enough?
I don’t see an issue if a five year old wants to straighten her hair every day. Or are we assuming that Kim would somehow try to force her to be more white? Again, I’m super white from a really white state, I genuinely don’t know what the concern is here.
When I was a little girl, it was fun when my mom used curlers, crimper, or a curling iron to make my straight as an arrow hair look different. It was done for parties, dance recitals, and once in a while on rainy days. No big deal. It was fun to play with hair and makeup, and I never thought there was anything wrong about doing it, because it’s just hair
Sheâs a darling little girl and, yes, having flat straight hair all your life isnât the greatest either. I guess we want what we donât have.
Omg the world has gone crazy. If the kid wants to have straight hair on her birthday then it’s up to parents to say yay or nay. Everyone else needs to mind their business!
North is her kid. So what?
Kim makes it everyone’s business by posting the pics and then writing her narrative…she can only straighten her hair twice a year. As with Khloe, if it’s too much for you to take the feedback, don’t post it. God they’re idiots.
O.k., and? Seems this site only exists to criticize others. Her kid, her choice.
@GigiLaMoore, once again, if you put your business out there for consumption prepare for people to have opinions. It’s BS to demand our attention and then tell us we can’t say shit about it.
She didnât have to tell us how often her kid gets her hair straightened. This family doesnât seem to realize that they donât have to share every freaking thing. If you donât want to hear peopleâs opinions, say nothing.
So if this was some random person who posted a photo on their facebook for example of their kid with their hair straightened or curled for some special occasion – does that give me the right to jump on them and say “Don’t do that! You’re damaging her hair!”? Would you still be saying that they shouldn’t have put it out there?
Erinn: You’re not a celebrity. You’re a private citizen. I don’t post pics of my kids ever. If you choose to post pics of your kids with the same narrative as she did, I think most people would bite their tongues. When you are a celebrity, you are giving up a lot of rights, privacy and things we take for granted. It’s almost like you’re fair game. Kim loves controversy and the noise it brings. If stories like hers stopped, so would this site perhaps. It is what it is.
Personally, I wouldnât say that to anybody. But if your feelings get hurt, donât share. The internet is a tough place.
Right @minx. Can you imagine you or your daughter or her friends posting and saying the nonsense she does! Lol. I’m certain there was an outcry (there is for everything nowadays) that she straightened Northwest’s hair. So she did what she did, I only straighten her hair twice a year! Hahaha. She’s so ignorant. To save all the bs. like you said, don’t share!! The tv show, social media, there isn’t anything they won’t tell us. Geez
I was reading this & it just occurred to me this is none of my business. Itâs her kid. As a Black woman- I am not concerned.
Can i ask a question? Will straightening her hair actually mess up her curl pattern? I can’t imagine the girl from the tweet above experienced a change in the curl pattern because the hair grows curly from your head, so the new hair would still be fine.
But could repeated use with a flat iron change the curl pattern of already grown hair? Or is it the same as me repeatedly curling my pin straight hair-it will never actually be curly, just have horrible heat damage?
The hair that grows from the roots will still be curly but repeatedly straightening hair damages the grown out part and can make it not curl as much. So if you want the curl back completely after a huge amount of damage, youâll have to grow it back out from the roots and not touch it with any heat or color basically.
In my (limited) experience though, it takes A LOT to get to that point. Like, it happened to someone I know because she bleached her hair on top of heat damage. She ended up cutting it almost to the scalp and growing it back out to bring her curls back to life.
Yes, it can damage, or mess up, your curls to put heat on it for straightening. It just depends on your hair characteristics (not necessarily hair type) and the method used to straighten. There are lots of horror stories from YT Natural Hair bloggers when they went straight. My coils are so delicate that using a regular wide tooth comb “straightens” or pulls the coils so I no longer have spring curls.
I don’t think heat straightening messes with curl pattern – curls come from the follicle, which heat straightening doesn’t touch. I think the bigger fear is that heat styling (of any kind) is not good for hair, period, and can certainly cause damage. And human hair is not “mature” until around age 10, so altering hair before then is more damaging then after. If Kim is being honest and this is a rare thing, it’s unlikely harm would come to North’s hair in the long term. But at the age, I’d still avoid it.
(My hair is wavy to curly and I have stopped using heat styling because it absolutely changes the texture, but not in a permanent sense.)
Thank you all for the answers!
Remember when hair crimping was a thing? Was that 90’s? Anyway, this whole hair styling thing is getting old. Girls play with their hair and it’s really not a big deal.
I remember crimping being popular in the late 1980s.
This is not a big deal. Kim is not doing anything wrong. As a biracial child whose mother couldnât do my hair I wished for straight hair all the time. Some black moms chemically straighten their daughtersâ hair from a young age but I donât see people wringing their hands over that.
Where have you been @Blu_bb -maybe not in the black community recently, if at all? Because folks are indeed “wringing their hands over that,” if THAT is chemically relaxing your very young child’s hair. I’m black and most of my friends and family know that straightening a child’s hair before puberty is a no-no. More and more black folk period are leaving the crack known as sodium hydroxide(lye) alone. So yea, the hand wringing has been going on.
With the natural hair movement that has taken hold over the last decade or more, people of African descent are embracing their natural hair and learning how to care for their varying curly hair types. In the Americas (and other countries) we had been conditioned throughout history to tame our hair and make it more acceptable and Caucasian-like I.e., in the workforce, and socially to fit in (and yes, some did it as that was their choice and they like straight hair regardless of that) – so in many cases we were ignorant of our own texture and how to wear and care for it.
It’s a new day.
Co-Sign Cleo, the OP comments seem a little dismissive concerning the current discussions of hair within the black community. I would say for the past 10-12 years Black mothers have become more aware of the dangers of relaxers on their young children’s hair. This conversation/argument is very relevant now. It is also generational. For example, my mother doesn’t really get my natural hair and doesn’t get what I am doing to my son’s hair. She complains that Beyonce doesn’t do anything to Blue’s hair. While women in my age group are allowing a return to natural movement for themselves and making sure their children respect and understand what their natural curls look like.
When I was in 4th grade my grandmother brought me to get a cut and a perm. This was MY idea.
You canât tell me that wasnât abuse.
All you have to do is look at my yearbook pictures and it becomes evident somebody hated me.
XD
I too endured this, but it was in second grade. I had long, straight, fine hair down my back and got the frizziest, most horrible-looking perm one could get with hair that was about three inches long. I looked like a nightmare version of little orphan Annie. I used to have before and after photos I’d swipe through for people on my phone and it always made everyone howl with laughter. It really was that bad. Hair trauma is real!
This is isn’t a big deal. Straightening her her twice a year with a flatiron is fine. It won’t mess up her curl pattern and as a curly-haired black woman myself, it’s fun to straighten your hair every once in awhile to see the true length since shrinkage is real.
North is an adorable child, that’s all I’m going to say about that situation.
I have curly hair and when I was kid my hair was even curlier. I think this is a non issue – I used to ask my mom to straighten It for me, and she did – on special occasions.
I donât really straighten my hair any more because damage and I canât be bothered. And I actually love my curls!
What WAS a problem, is when I was at school I was often berated for having âunrulyâ hair and the school repeated that I have my hair âsortedâ (read – straightened). This is of course appalling.
So of course it depends on the context really – I actually hope Kim is being honest about the âtwice a yearâ thing…
Kim Kardashian isn’t honest about much of anything at all, and so this “two times a year” thing makes me think that she’s lying, as usual. On the other hand, she probably is lying for fear of getting reproached and scolded—which she usually is, occasionally over VERY innocuous things, such as this. Therefore, I don’t especially blame her for lying about this—which is such a small and insignificant thing, imo. Girls of *all* hair textures like to change their hair—I have very straight, very flat hair and slept in curlers for three years, during high school, and my grandmother used to curl/crimp my hair for me quite often when I was younger. So Kim’s daughter likes her mom to flat iron her hair on occasion: so what? (Actually, what’s sad about it to me is that I can imagine the only time that Kim pays much attention to North at all is when they’re “bonding” over beauty treatments—the thing that vain, self centered Kim really cares about the most. North probably revels in that rare attentiveness from Kim, that she is allotted only when the two do such things together.)
Is Kim Kardashian forcing Eurocentric hair standards on her daughter? Yes
None of my business but it’s sad that Kim will have someone straighten her daughters hair at such a young age. It will only encourage more people with less resources to do the same.
I’m half Mexican my mother is white. I also prefer my hair straight over curly. It’s more of a American cultural/beauty standard thing than my mother. Blame society not Kim. It’s really not that big of a deal.
Also, curly hair requires hair product and is more difficult to manage. I hate wearing product in my hair it causes break outs for me and I prefer my hair straight even if it’s pulled back in a pony tail for sports because it’s easier to keep it pulled back and untangled. I also personally enjoy the look of my hair straight. Should I wear it curly just to please someone like you?
If ya’ll are pro choice and believe women have a right to make their own reproductive choices – i really hope you believe women should also have a right to pick their own hairstyle lol.
I think you are reading to far into this.
I can read into this as much as possible.
She is a beautiful little girl. I’ll shed a tear when she gets implants, a nose job, lip fillers, cheek fillers and fat injected into her ass in about NINE years.
I know. All these little girls will be pushed into having plastic surgery.
Is it ok? Yes, bc itâs not your child! Kim has said many times that North always asked why she didnât have hair like her mom & aunts. Youâre not a culture vulture when you do your daughters hair like your own!
I think itâs really getting out of hand with all the constant criticism re: hair styles! Canât people try new things? Etc? Does anyone question a non-white person when they suddenly have blonde or red hair??? Aka Bey & her constant blonde lace fronts?!
So leave this child alone! Let her look like her mom & aunts for a damn day & feel good.
Because NOT looking like her mom and aunts makes her “feel bad” ?
Exactly, me.
Feel bad? I said different. Itâs human nature to want to fit into your family, especially when itâs your parents & itâs your physical appearance. Little girls look up to their mothers. Stop trying to make this negative.
Maybe settle down. Why so upset? No one’s calling the child or her mother a culture vulture or a culture slayer. Taking a 400 degree flat iron to a baby’s curly hair can be damaging – that seems to be what some are saying. Kim claims she does it very rarely.
No one is forbidding a mother styling her daughter’s hair the way she likes. Where are you getting that? Stop making stuff up.
Also news bulletin: people of African descent can have various hair colors. Malcolm X had red hair. Riley Curry has sandy blonde hair, as does Vanessa Williams. Beyonce had sandy med brown hair as a child which is why blonde highlights and hair look really good on her. I’m sure you’re well aware that most performers wear wigs and hair pieces not JUST ‘Bey,’ – odd I don’t see you ripping Christina Aguilera’s blonde wigs or Britney’s blonde extensions even though they’re both non-blondes naturally. Beyonce wears her own long hair from time to time and it’s the same color as her wigs and looks just as nice.
Also, get out of the house more- some African Americans have more of a variance in hair colors than dark Southern Europeans Italians, Greeks, Spaniards and Armenians simply because they have more ancestry from Western Europe. So please, do educate yourself.
Just because I’m ‘non-white,’ that doesn’t mean I can’t have hazel eyes, light brown hair and fine blonde hair on my face, legs and arms in the summer. Those are MY genetic traits and you can’t dictate they don’t belong to me, because of your narrow view of what you think black people should look like.
By the way, the above post was directed at ‘MissKittles.’
I never said anything about what black people should look like. I said non white! Thereâs other non white races aside from black.
Also… many people were callin Kim a culture vulture in this thread! Read up
Kaiser, I totally hear you on the super straight hair. I used to put mine in th smallest curlers to be found and within 5 minutes all the curl is gone. My biggest thing with straightening hair that young is the possibility of damage. I’m sure Kim doesn’t do it herself and has somebody who knows how to minimize damage do it.
Meh, we were allowed to straighten our hair for Easter every year when we were that small. Not a big deal. Of all the questionable things Kimmy does, this isn’t one of them.
All the Kaedashian/Jennerâs have really gorgeous hair.
I thought that was Cher.
Not going to lie… when I saw those pics of North with straight hair when they first were published back in June, my initial reaction was to think that they absolutely were trying to change her appearance to what they view as more beautiful and less ethnic.
On the contrary though, I have a theory that now that Kim is the mother of biracial children, she’s actually trying to look more like them… which is also fucking weird. Kim is rocking textured hair and a very unnatural, very DARK skin tone these days. I honestly think that if she could get away with claiming that she was mixed race, she would try to pass herself off as mixed. She’s got a fetish and an obsession.
North is a beautiful girl with her curls and with straight hair. I really hope she gets to enjoy her childhood and misses out on the Kardashian/Jenner family’s obsession with appearances, and I hope that her mother/aunt’s/grandmother’s insecurities NEVER become her own.
Good lord, Nori is pretty.
My mom was constantly trying to perm my straight hair when when I was 6 or 7, this is no different except it was all my mom’s doing, at that age I didn’t pay attention to my hair. No idea why my mom thought it was a good idea. I should ask her. It never worked, no matter what was done to my hair it always ended up stick straight.
she is gorgeous! North is biracial and she should be free to express both her cultures, not just the african american.
I think she is interested in hair more because Mommy is in the fashion/entertainment industry.
I was raised by a barber and a hair stylist so we were very interested in different hairstyles at a young age and enjoyed experimenting with our hair. I actually liked fulani braids when I was little, thought they were beautiful. My parents didn’t let me and let me know that is a style for African American hair , not my hair (i’m half mexican half white).
I then moved onto a Farrah Fawcett hair style obsession. I was all over the map with my hair styles when I was little. đ This required straightening and blow drying my curls. Big deal its basically dress up for your hair.
Straighten your hair as a biracial kid has zero to do with ” expressing your culture”. By that token she should also be curling her hair into a tight afro curls to express the other side of her heritage. FYI her hair is a mixture and that IS her culture. Not her dads kinky Afro hair or her mums straight Caucasian hair.
doing chemical things to a child’s hair is plain wrong. Same for heat straightening.
Children react much more sensitive to toxins – which is why alcohol and tobacco have a much harder impact on them which is why children must not consume alcohol nor tobacco.
I think that allowing a biracial child to straighten her hair only twice a year === equals teachin a biracial child that straight hair is beautiful. this doesn’t seem like a fashion thing to me but Kim is saddling North with caucasian straight-hair beauty standards.
A fan and a brush is enough. I doubt there’s a chemical envolved.
My goodness. Things have come a LONG way from the chemicals that were around when I was a kid, and I’m still under 30. There’s so many hair colors that are just color depositing that wont penetrate the hair shaft now. It’s not going to hurt them the way dyes with a bunch of ammonia would. That said – I wouldn’t put a chemical straightener on a 5 year old.
As far as heat straightening goes -where do you stand on hair dryers? I have fine hair – whenever my mom washed it as a kid she took a blow dryer to it. She didn’t use any protective sprays or anything. She’d brush it wet too – also damaging.
I just don’t think this is some horrible form of abuse. She’s letting her kid change her hair on special occasions. Was my family telling me my hair wasn’t good enough when I was allowed to have it curled for things like Christmas concerts and birthdays? That I was only at my prettiest when my hair had been curled? Using proper heat products and minimal heat isn’t going to ruin North’s hair – especially if it’s only happening a couple of times a year. Maybe it’d be more concerning if you never saw North with curly hair – but I really don’t think this is as sinister as it’s being made out to be.
Maybe North sees her moms hair and wants to have it too, nothing wrong in letting her know her options…
This.
I wouldn’t read too much into this. I’m sure she wants to look like mom, and most girls want what they don’t have (hair-wise) at some point. At my daughter’s wedding recently, as we were all getting ready, I watched a bridesmaid with curly hair straighten hers, while another with straight hair curled hers. So be it.
When you have curly hair straightening it is such a big relief! Itâs sooo much easier to manage, comb & handle. Curly hair is nice but itâs time consuming & high maintenance. I straightened my hair for a LONG TIME with a blow dryer & flat iron. Iâve since stopped, maybe 6 months ago to get my curl pattern back but I tell you, the time I saved in the mornings were beautiful
Does anyone understand why âbirthdayâ and âbirthday partyâ amounts to âtwo times a yearâ?
I just took that to mean that her birthday is one of the two times. My friend blows out her hair twice a year. One is around her birthday and the other is usually when something big at work is happening.
We celebrated my 3yo niece’s birthday on Sunday – big family bbq out on the lake. Her birthday was yesterday and my SIL and BIL had a special dinner at home with just their family. I’m assuming it’s something like that?
North is such a precious little girl!
However her mother fixes her hair, that is one beautiful child.
These people are made of lies. North is a 3A/3B hair type who has somehow become a 2A straightened to a 1. She is chemically altering a child’s hair and scraping it into ponytails so tight it’s no wonder she looks cranky half the time. If you do not understand why straightening her hair is in issue, please don’t assume that there is no issue, just acknowledge that you don’t understand it.
Hair can be straightened with a flat iron and chemicals aren’t needed
I am fully aware of that (as are most people). However, North’s hair was not. Her hair has been chemically altered, her natural curls loosened, and then her hair straightened with a flat iron.
For the ladies who liken this with your mums curling you hair, with respect, I think you need to educate yourself on black hair and how straightening and being told your hair isn’t good or pretty unless it’s straigthened to Caucasian standards has impacted black women through history. It is a more than a look it’s a political and social statement. It is NOT the same as white kids getting curls.
I don’t know anything about this kid and I don’t follow Kim. so I don’t want to judge but there’s a reason people are asking her not to straighten her kids hair.
If you want too look into this, Chris Rocks documentary ‘Good hair’ is a good place to start.
You are a better woman than I am. The deliberate obtuseness is staggering.
her child, her call. end of
Of course, and that was hardly my point. I am simply making a comment because the vast majority of people in this post purely comment on hair as a fashion statement and seem to make no distinction between Caucasian and the politicised history of black hair. It surprises me considering how much politics is on this site and I get the impression people here are fairly socially aware. I am little puzzled that people frame it in the same context as curling a white kids hair.
You’re right – it’s totally different and straightening her hair has more cultural significance than the example you referenced…
Now if Kim handled the situation with ignorance and racism and disrespect to North’s blackness..that is a problem. I highly doubt that because that’s her daughter, she loves her.
But at the end of the day, it’s Kim’s child and North IS biracial and quite frankly, I don’t think it’s a big deal as long as Kim handled the moment / discussion about hair straightening right
@mela
What example did I reference? I am confused. Btw I have no idea why you keep repeating it is her child? I never said anything to the contrary. I have been very clear I was making a general comment on the history of black hair in reference to the comments in this post. Not as a judgement on this celebrity who I don’t follow and know nothing about her kids hair. Black hair has always had more significance politically than Caucasian because of history and oppression. I suggest you look into it if you are interested in hair, it’s quite a fascinating subject. Have a good one!đ
Thank you
My give-a-fuckometer re anything to do with that pestilential nest of leprous clones is at an all time low. If Kanye makes good on his threat to go into politics, however… Biblical wrath would ensue. Imeantosay, can you imagine a less dignified successor to the much missed Obama..???
My nearly 5 year old, biracial daughter just asked me to straighten her hair last week. I used a blow dryer and a flat iron and she loved it. I let her know this is a once in awhile thing, because heat is bad for the hair and because Mama is lazy. She enjoyed it for a week and we washed and de tangled it today.
She wanted a break from curl maintenance. And her mama (me) is black and wears natural hair. Sheâs not being taught to hate herself. She just wanted to play dress up. Sheâll be fine and so will the black community.
I don’t associate straight hair with white people. Asians have the straightest hair after all and hair extensions and weave come from south asia…something kim should know plenty about since her head is filled with weave. Her natural hair is thin and short.
That said, I see curly hair is back on trend again and many are opting out of straightening and looking to perms and curl texturizers.
A bunch of the ultra Christian white ladies I went to church with as a kid used to perm their very young children’s hair because they wanted them to have Shirley temple curls. The results WERE AWFUL. I always felt so bad for those poor little children with fried baby hair.