I long contemplated some profound way to explain how I feel. Some creative way to word how being a Black woman, who doesn’t look Kardashian-adjacent, never seems like enough. To catch myself from jumping off the ledge just because Meek Mill, a rapper who isn’t the finest specimen himself, decided he was going to “protest” lace fronts and denounce wigs. My hurt is less about defending wigs and weaves more than it is about how hurtful it is to have to constantly defend Black womanhood and all the things we do to feel beautiful. If it ain’t our hair it’s our attitude. Good Lawd, can we live?
Hair, in the Black community, is one of those things that naturally creates a hierarchy. The longer and shinier and thicker your locks the better. It’s “good hair” and Black women with good hair have always been more desirable than those of us with kinkier, shorter, thinner textures. I often dream about what it would be like to simply take my weave out and walk outside without feeling insecure about the politics surrounding Black hair. To not have to worry about the financial burden that comes along with weave maintenance.
But what is most troubling about Meek’s statement is not his ban on weaves, but the false narrative that he would even entertain a Black woman, at this stature in his career, who didn’t have long flowing locks like his ex Nicki Minaj (who he could have been taking shots at) or the woman on his wish list Lori Harvey. Black women either have to look like Nu Nu or… Nu Nu. Dear Black men, all Black women don’t look like Nu Nu.
For many women, lace front wigs (or wigs in general) is a form of expression. A way to walk through the world and be seen as attractive by a society that values European features and Instagram models. Weaves also function as protective styles that allow women on-the-go to maintain their appearance and natural hair from the harsh elements.
Oddly enough, men like Meek Mill will date women with plastic surgery but have a problem looking at lace wigs? Hmm… Meek must have forgotten all the Black women in lace fronts who were on the front lines screaming “Free Meek?” Furthermore, men, stay out of women’s business!
Here’s how Black Twitter’s taking it:
