My black is beautiful. The beauty lies within  wavy, curly even kinky texture hair.  It comes with multiple skin tones. Our beauty showcase some any different beautiful shapes. Black is beautiful.  Going to an historically black college university showcases the beauty of the African American race. The perception of beauty for blacks has been skewed by the American view.  Images and thoughts can mess up what is beautiful to black people. But beauty lives within the person’s personality and how they carry themselves.  Black people have over come so much as a people, we are beautiful because of our struggles. Black people are beautiful, therefore black is beautiful.

Beauty is a word commonly described as “in the eye of the beholder.”  After speaking to several people, they believed in the cliche phase. My aunt  believes beauty is a “beautiful person on the inside and out.” She also says “the ugliest on the earth  can be the most beautiful.” Even my grandmother, explains beauty comes from within,  “It is the love for people that makes you beautiful. “ A more mature generation sees  the true meaning of beauty. These beliefs were passed don towards my generation.

It was actually shocking not to hear a shallow perception of beauty from my peers.Beauty to young women all define beauty as something within. One believe it is about personality. Similarly, another thinks beauty is about inner beauty. Another girl  states, “beauty is undefinable.” All of these opinions are valid to the conversation of beauty in the black community. Acknowledging what beauty is in the black community gives a better understand of why black is beautiful.

Even beauty from a male’s view is similar to females’ views.  Beauty to a male is strictly for women. Most males I surveyed believed beauty is solely for women. My boyfriend  says, “beauty is a feminine word, you can call me handsome,” Another guys agrees by saying, “It’s not proper to call a boy beautiful.”  This is, however, a whole separate topic. My guy friend  defines beauty as a mental thing. He says, “beauty doesn’t have to be physical, it’s deep within.” One guy, “outer appearance is the first thing I see as beautiful but personality attitude and how she carries herself.” Male’s views of beauty gives more insight on beauty. 

Beauty within the black community is defined at a young age. In Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair,  it describes how his young daughters believe their hair was not beautiful because it wasn’t straight. Throughout the movie, Chris explains how so many black women wear weave and don’t view their natural  hair texture as beautiful. This movie, along with a few other factors made me decide to stop relaxing my hair.  This was my move towards embracing my beauty, my natural black beauty.

As a child beauty was long, silky hair, fair skin and slim women. But thankfully young women like Victoria,who is 15 doesn’t have the same views I once shared. She believes beauty is, “discovering what makes you, you and loving yourself.”  Victoria said it’s the personality that is most important.  When she was younger she thought beauty was about being pretty or cute. But  just two years  ago this whole image changed.  

The phrase black is beautiful is a saying that has been heard since the 1960s.  It’s even the title of a popular BET television show.  But why is black beautiful?  According to Victoria, black is beautiful because, “we stand out, so many different skin tones and we love who we are as a people.”  Some couldn’t really answer this question.  Yet my grandmother still says, “black is beautiful, white is beautiful, yellow, purple doesn’t matter what color they are, it’s beautiful.” 

Black people do have a confidence about them and a strong other races don’t. Perhaps this is past down because of our struggles in slavery to discrimination and so on. Beauty in the black community reaches deep. It reflects our heritage , our history and our future. Black is beautiful because we are unique people. Our shapes are different, our personalities are different, this is what sets the race apart from most.

An article from CNN “Weaves, Braids May Speed Hair Loss in Black Women” by Keren Pallartio for Health.com

(Health.com) -- Weaves and braids may contribute to a type of permanent hair loss that appears to be common among black women, a new study has found.

More than one-quarter of the 326 black women who participated in the study had hair loss on the top of their scalp, and of those women, 59 percent had signs of central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia, or CCCA, a poorly understood form of baldness that begins at the crown of the head and leads to scarring.

For many years, CCCA was known as "hot comb alopecia" because it was attributed to the use of hot combs to straighten curly hair. That appears to be a misnomer. Neither hot comb treatments nor chemical relaxers, which were used by more than 90 percent of the study participants, were linked with CCCA in the study, but braids, weaves, and other so-called traction hairstyles that tug at the scalp were.

Health.com: Naturally gorgeous hair makeovers

Black women often maintain these styles for long periods of time, and the stress they exert on the scalp can lead to the development of pus-filled bumps, says the lead researcher, Angela Kyei, M.D., a dermatologist and chief resident at the Cleveland Clinic's Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute. "Over time, these bumps can develop bacteria" that can lead to scarring, she explains.

Making matters worse, women who are already losing their hair are more likely to favor these hairstyles because they help disguise thinning hair, the study notes.

Black women should consider refraining from using these hairstyles on young children, and they need to think about the consequences for themselves, Kyei says. "If you start to notice this type of hair loss, get evaluated early," she urges.

Health.com: 15 ways to be a natural beauty

The average age of the women with CCCA was 58. The condition often presents itself when women are in their 40s, but it's sometimes seen in women as young as their 20s and 30s.

It's not clear from the study that these hairstyles are solely responsible for CCCA, however. Women with the condition tended to have balding maternal grandfathers, and they were also more likely to have diabetes. While only 8 percent of the women overall had type 2 diabetes, 18 percent of those with CCCA did?a "surprising finding," Kyei says.

Dermatologist Andrew F. Alexis, M.D., the director of the Skin of Color Center at St. Luke's--Roosevelt Hospital, in New York City, says that more research is needed to confirm a link between CCCA and diabetes. "However, it does suggest that it may be useful for dermatologists to ask their CCCA patients about diabetes and refer them to their primary care physicians for annual screening," he says.

Health.com: Could you have type 2? 10 diabetes symptoms

In the study, which was published Monday on the website of the Archives of Dermatology, researchers asked women from two African-American churches and a health fair in Cleveland about their medical history, family history of hair loss, and hair grooming practices. Dermatologists trained in hair loss examined the women's scalps and graded them on the degree of hair loss and scarring they exhibited.

Raechele Cochran Gathers, M.D., a senior staff physician at the Henry Ford Hospital's Multicultural Dermatology Center, in Detroit, says that the findings, though preliminary, provide good information about a little-understood condition. "I think that the study's excellent because it not only gives environmental factor data, which a few other studies have reported on, but also it's unique in that it's looking at these medical risk factors," she says.

In light of the findings, Gathers adds, it's incumbent upon doctors and hairdressers to make women aware of CCCA and the potential link with traction hairstyles.

http://youtu.be/tZOiDGOiOPY

Embracing Yourself

As a teenager I was bullied. As a child I was bullied. Now I roll my eyes or crack jokes because I don't have time for all of that. In my class a friend presented a topic about bullying. He asked if anyone was bullied in high school for being different. I was the only one to raise my hand out of 25 people. I think people are lying.
The strangest thing is that bullying has made me into what I am today. I pour out a confidence only God can take responsibility for these days. But back in the day, that bullying would drive me crazy.
So today, a person constantly being judged for my appearance, reached out and did something different. I wore my natural hair. And at first it gained too much attention. I didn't realize how important hair was until I went natural. Conversations about how I should wear my hair from people with straight hair, giving suggestions. Sensitive I am so you can imagine my shock from all the retarded attention towards hair. When my hair was shoulder length and straight there was no conversations only "ooh you're hair is so pretty."
Hmm. So I guess the purpose of this first post is to introduce myself as a blogger. I have been vlogging on youtube for over a  year. But I want to expand my message to women  like myself. Women that have been taught straight is great, and you will never be happy nappy ( i just wanted this to rhythm).
Going natural is helping me to embrace myself. I wish women could feel this liberated. LOL
Peace
STAY Beautiful
in2itgirl