"The Other Side Of Hair Privilege: Dark Skin With “Good Hair”?"

"My hair was my prize. It made me exotic in some instances and a point of fascination for my peers. From experience, people's surprise was how could this girl—a dark skinned girl—grow 3a/3b hair? As you can imagine, I got many questions, including the "what are you mixed with" or "where are you from?" Of course, the answer to any of those questions about my lineage were, "I'm black, mixed with black," but that didn't seem like enough to satisfy the mystery...

Because my hair was "manageable" and the hair that they dedicated products to, I had nothing to "complain" about because my hair wasn't really "black." I had that privilege, and any positive reinforcement or compliment about the way I looked started with my hair. But none of those women in the commercials looked quite like me. They were lighter, with looser curls. So naturally, as a teen struggling to carve out who I was, I attached a lot of that self-worth to my hair. That was the part people really liked about me, and it helped me like it, and myself, too...

I was attractive in some circles, not pretty enough in others, and other times, a big question mark."

https://blavity.com/the-other-side-of-hair-privilege-dark-skin-with-good-hair?utm_content=buffer549e1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

FB: "My hair felt separate, a personality all her own that I had to police and gel into submission to maintain the right image of natural beauty."