Nappy-Headed Woes

"Whenever I start a new job I always wear my hair straight for the first three months until I get health care."  A reader of Danielle Belton's The Black Snob

"The notion of natural black hair as being subversive or threatening is not new."  TIME mag scribe Jenee Desmond Harris in "Why Michelle's Hair Matters." 

And that thinking has its roots (pardon the pun) in sixties/seventies Communist Black Panther radical Angela Davis (no relation)who sported a huge Afro.

Some of my conservatives colleagues find TIME fatuous for running this piece.  More proof TIME mag is up Obama's ass.  But as a white chick who was a news anchor on urban stations in DC, I get it and appreciate the culturual hair issues unique to black women.

Black women, with a coif conundrum foreign to their white sisters, figure they're more attractive personally and professionally if they straighten their nappy, kinky, frizzy - whatever you want to call it - hair. 

Harris observes that America's not ready for kinky First Lady locks in the White House.  Although true, I'm appalled at the sexism and double standard.  No one's made an issue out of Obama's nappy coils.

What are the three words that strike fear into the hearts of men?  Male pattern baldness.  I'll bet TIME's been there, done that.

Michelle Obama's wardrobe may be inconsistent and occasionally ghastly, but thanks to a great hairstylist and in-house makeup artist even applying false eyelashes, from the neck up the First Lady gets an A when she's in full face.  And I don't begrudge the expense.