And of course straight hair is not an achievement, it's just the result of an inherited genetic code over which we have no control. From the white side of the hair debate, in the Sixties when I was in my teens the girls wanted to have long straight blond hair like the Mod Squad's Peggy Lipton. My friend Barbara would lay her beautiful wavy hair out on the ironing board and iron away, which no doubt caused damage. I had beautiful long wavy blond hair, down past my shoulders, I look back at the few remaining pictures with misty nostalgia. Now I'm mostly bald on top, no more wavy locks ever, and a little envious of people who still HAVE hair;)

In those days the "liberation" movements were trying to instill that personal acceptance that you are experiencing, "naturals" and "fros" were the standard for black folks and of course we hippies chose to let our "freak flags" fly. What happened? How did processing creep back in? I;m sure you have read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a pivotal read for me in high school. I never forgot his description of his first "conk", the pain and expense and of course the embodied shame. Ever since I have gone natural and tried to accept my body. I had no authorship of my genes, I could do my best to respect the body I had been given