<-- Jessica Simpson's Clip-In Hair Extensions
I know that some women with naturally long hair take offense when another person accuses them of having fake hair, when the hair is completely natural. I also know that many women who do wear extensions take offense when someone points it out and teases them about it. However, considering the popularity of hair extensions over the ages, why do people freely accuse others of having a weave and then joke about it? For example, people continuously love to point out the fact that Beyonce, Tyra Banks, and Naomi Campbell all wear extensions. Many people even joke about it, to the degree where they have published videos on YouTube providing proof that they wear extensions. I have even heard women blatantly accuse another woman with long hair of having a weave, as if it were a bad thing (the statement is usually a variation of the following quote: "That isn't her real hair - she has a weave!"). One particular YouTube video attempts to make a convincing argument that "Weaves make [black women] look bad." Several black women with naturally long hair have also published videos on YouTube about their frustration with people accusing them of having weaves, when their hair is actually their own.
The degree of scrutiny over fake hair has led me to this question: Is the word "weave" a dirty word? Specifically, is "weave" a dirty word when talking about a black women's hair? To be honest, I really don't know, but I do know that many people of all races and ethnicities wear hair extensions hoping that people would make the assumption that it is their own hair. There are also people who feel a strange obligation to point out that a woman is wearing extensions, as if to discover a beauty flaw or insinuate that the person is not as beautiful because that hair supposedly does not naturally belong to the woman's body. They have gone so far as to tug on women's hair at public gatherings (e.g. at nightclubs) or quickly tap the back of the woman's head to test whether or not the woman is wearing a wig and/or can feel weave track lines on the back of the head. A lot of black women have had to deal with this issue, particularly in light of the fact that some people have a hard time digesting the fact that black women can naturally have long hair. An unnecessary and ridiculous situation? Yes. But does it happen? All the time.
I personally think people need to leave others alone when it comes to their hairstyle choices. I also think that it is silly to automatically assume that a black woman has hair extensions if she has long hair flowing down her back. And if you happen to like wearing hair extensions, keep rocking your look. If people have an issue with it, they'll get over it. If they don't, it is their issue, and not yours.
