Ok so Andre Walker is Oprah's hair stylist. In the natural hair community is in/famous for making a hair typing chart and making some interesting comments regarding natural hair, which I plan to adress shortly. First things first, to his credit Andre was one of the first to come out with a hair typing chart to sort of give you a guide to managaing your hair and figuring out what products work best with your hair texture. He put the chart in a hierarchical manner that ranged from Type 1 to Type 4. At the top of the list, was Type 1 hair, straight, no curl and ranged all the way to type 4 hair which was kinky or nappy. Ok, now that in and of it self is neither a good thing nor bad thing. It is up to interpretation. Now had it just ended with that it would have been all good but alas, it did not. Mr. Walker went on to say the following, (quoted directly from him in an Elle article) " I always recommend embracing your natural texture. Kinky hair can have limited styling options; that's the only hair type that I suggest altering with professional relaxing. "
Then after all the backlash he went on to say the following in defense of his previous statements which further proves his delusional mind. "So when I say to embrace your natural texture, but consider relaxing kinky hair, am I contradicting myself? I don’t think so! You see, even relaxed hair can still be worn naturally. If you want a natural look, but find that your kinky hair is difficult to manage, breaks too easily, lacks shine and luster, and limits your preferred styling options, I say feel free to consider a mild chemical relaxer, sometimes called a texturizer, that eases your hair to a more manageable texture and allows you to Make Peace With Your Hair."
Now let's look at these oxymoronic statements. First we start off with I always recommend embracing your natural texture, but the next words out of your mouth are that your kinky hair is limited in styling options AND the icing on the cake is that this is THE ONLY hair type that should be relaxed. Ummmm, WTF? Really? And you don't get how that statement would make someone view you as the ANTITHESIS of someone who embraces KINKY/NAPPY hair? Really dude? How much formaldehyde have YOU been inhaling? Get out of here with that ish, seriously. Now the purposes of this post is not to go into the historical reasons behind why Black hair is such a touchy subject, but it is and if you are a Black woman then you KNOW that. So here you have this Black professional basically saying, if you have kinky hair you are out of luck, you can't do much with it and your best bet is to beat them napps into submission. I'm gonna let you marinate on that for a while and see how you feel about the statement. I'm sure you can guess how I take it.
Currently Mr. Walker has jumped on the opportunist train and decided that he is going to launch a product line DESIGNED for natural women! I'm serious y'all, you can't make this shit up. Here is somebody that no matter HOW you slice it does NOT like nappy hair, that is apparent but he is going to formulate some products to help you "DEAL and MANAGE" your hair. NEGRO PLEASE! Why in the nine hells would a natural nappy headed woman come to YOU for hair advice? She went natural to stay away from chemicals as much as possible and your advice is, "Oh sorry dear, you got THAT kinda hair, your best bet is to slap a relaxer on it!" Aww but the opportunist in you saw that for many of us, going natural was no passing fad, it is a lifestyle and a way we can embrace who we are. You also saw how we started using more natural products and becoming educated on what is going into the products we use on our hair and skin. You saw these other companies notice how we used shea butter, aloe vera, mango butter, coconut oil, olive oil, etc and they BROKE THEIR NECKS offering us products that highlighted things we were already using. So you thought, well hey, I'm knowledgeable in hair care, I can package some stuff and sell it to these women and make a fortune,
Well Mr. Walker you won't be getting a DIME of MY money. Going to you for hair care products to care for my lovely kinky, fine, straight, curly, coily mane would be like going to the slave master for advice on helping me embrace my BLACKNESS. Once again I say NEGRO PLEASE. You need to have a Reliant Stadium full of seats.
Boy bye!
