It seems easy to spend R4000 on a wig, nearly instinctive. You instantly defend it by saying that it's a long-lasting "investment" that will make you appear put together. But investing R400 in natural hair care products? It feels excessive all of a sudden. You begin to doubt each thing in your cart. Is this truly necessary? What happens if it doesn't work? It’s a small amount in comparison, but it feels heavier. That disparity in emotion is not coincidental. It originates from a deeper place.
Both directly and indirectly, we have been told that African hair is challenging. It is characterized as difficult, time-consuming, and uncontrollable. These words are used so frequently that they begin to sound true. Thus, before we even start, we approach our own hair with dislike. Instead of being something we can study and relate to, it becomes something we put off, avoid, and feel we need to "deal with."
However, putting a wig is also difficult when you give it some serious thought. It requires patience, expertise, and time. Your hair must be braided, you need to wait for the glue to dry, it needs to be melted, ensure it was customized, hot combed and straightened, and continuously checked to ensure it seems natural. Making something appear to be growing from your scalp when it is not, requires work. That's work! That takes a lot of time. It is just viewed differently, but it is not any simpler than taking care of your natural hair.
And then there’s the justification that sounds harmless but says a lot: “My natural hair doesn’t fit my aesthetic.” Because the wig "matches the look," it becomes the answer. When you think about it, though, it's pretty odd that what comes naturally to your head doesn't fit your aesthetic, but something that has been added fits. It begs the question, "Where did that aesthetic originate, and why does it exclude you at your most natural? since aesthetics are not impartial. It is acquired, it has a form and it wasn't designed with you in mind if it can't accommodate your personal hair.
The way each is received varies. Wigs, particularly those that imitate looser or straighter textures, are frequently linked to professionalism and neatness. It is usually commended and unquestionably accepted. However, natural hair is still scrutinized. It is believed that in order to make it more acceptable, it must be restrained, tamed, or styled. You internalize that message over time. You start to believe that your natural hair in its raw or even styled state, is not enough.
That is where the hesitation comes from. It has nothing to do with money but everything to do with worth. You are more inclined to put money on something you think will help you fit in than what you've been taught is challenging and uncertain. The beauty industry is fully aware of this. It feeds on preexisting vulnerabilities. It just reinforces them and provides solutions at a cost AND it doesn't even have to construct them from scratch.
Blaming people for wearing wigs is not the point of this. It is something that many of us do and a lot of us like wigs. The disparity between how we treat what is ours as opposed to what we put on is the problem, not the wig itself. It is the easiness with which we invest in changing the way we look, yet we are reluctant to nurture our natural state.
This is not easy to unlearn. It entails challenging long-held beliefs. It entails realizing that what you previously believed to be only a personal choice is actually influenced by more general notions of acceptability and beauty. It also entails being open about how those beliefs have impacted your self-esteem.
Desiring versatility is totally acceptable. Changing up your appearance is totally acceptable. However, when your natural hair seems like a burden rather than an option, there's something to consider. When R4000 is appropriate for anything else but R400 seems excessive for your own natural hair? There might be a problem to consider.
The question eventually shifts from hair to belief. Do you think it's worth the time, money, and effort to have natural hair? Or have you been taught so thoroughly that it isn't?
The actual work is that. Changing your self-perception is more important than simply purchasing goods or adopting new fashions.
I think we still have a long way to go before we can also accept our natural hair as being done, and good looking on its own, especially at functions. This is a great article