The Case for Curl Definition

It is no secret that there is a hair revolution in the black community. Going natural (which is a strange phrase. How do you go to how you already are? but anyway) is the thing to do. Is it a fad or is it here to stay? We shall see. However, people have jumped on the bandwagon and the reality and the consequences of "going natural' smack them dead in the face. Their curl pattern is not like a certain person's. Their hair is not growing any faster. Their wash-n-go is not as sitely as their favorite YouTube guru and their demons about being black and nappy headed come to the surface and it ain't pretty. Thus, the rush for 'curls in a jar'. Black women want to be natural. They concede that relaxers are the devil  but they want to lax their coils just a little bit and be "curly". Thus when you go into any convenience store, Target, or natural product website there is always one or more products for 'curl definition'-a product that will loosen type 4 naps to make it look longer and dare I say more "acceptable". Even the most liberated Black women is not above the good hair/bad hair dynamic and this, curl definition, is its latest manifestation.   Even when category 4 type ladies, where most people of African descent fit squarely into, lament that they can't do wash-n-gos. My question is always, why can't they? They say without saying, it doesn't look right...i.e., acceptable.

But I want to raise the issue because when I braid up my hair every night and try a curl cream, I am not abandoning my heritage or hating me or my people. I do it for a desired look and it is so my hair looks LONGER and thus more appealing. African hair is its own protection creating its own cocoon. It curls and hides very tightly into itself. Curl definition stretches the hair and makes the hair look closer to its real length. I live in a long hair=beauty equation so... a girl has to do what a girl has to do.  A lot of women in the '70s braided their hair up at night and undid them in the morning, I imagine for the same reason, so it looks langer. Curl Definition is Length Definition.