What would you do for straight hair?
Some of us use chemicals or heat. Some of us buy hair and have it sewn or glued onto our heads. And soon, there may be yet another option for those who desire the straight look.
From The Daily Mail:
"Researchers in Australia identified the trichohyalin gene as being mainly responsible for creating curls. Although it was known to play a role in the development of the hair follicle, Queensland Institute of Medical Research scientists have discovered its role in curliness.
Professor Nick Martin, author of the research, said a variation in the gene determined the straightness or curliness of hair. Professor Martin said it may be possible to come up with treatments to make hair straighter rather than relying on heated hair straighteners.
He said: 'Potentially we can now develop new treatments to make hair curlier or straighter, rather than treating the hair directly."
That is straight outta the Jetsons, am I right?
But the advent of a possible straight hair pill also raises all kinds of questions, some of which are addressed by the Black Snob:
"I don't even want to know what the side-effects of this puppy would be. I have a fear of going bald and if ANYTHING sounds like it could make you bald a pill that makes your curly hair straight sounds like one. But what's fascinating (and sad, kinda) to me, is that if this pill is created and works with side effects someone can live with (like say, dry mouth), how long do you think before black beauty salons across the nation would be closing up shop? The perm is the bread-n-butter of most beauticians. You can charge tons for it and you get that repeat customer business coming back every four-to-six weeks. If you customer can just pop and pill and get the straight hair she's always dreamed of won't she just drop you? Folks HATE going to the beauty shop anyway. It takes FOREVER. Your appointment is almost never the time you actually make it. This could be potentially devastation. I'm talking a beauty shop apocalypse!"
Valid point -- in a world where you can alter the texture of your hair by taking a pill, where does that leave the hair relaxer industry? What are the potential side effects of this medical breakthrough?
So inquiring minds want to know -- would YOU take a hair straightening pill? What potential side effects could possibly keep you away? How do you feel about this development in the beauty field?
Comments: (90)
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By: Tafari on 1/29/2010 9:32PM
This is a hot mess but I bet it would sale like hot cakes to black women specifically. I guess it's great to have the option to poison your body from inside or outside in the name of European beauty.
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By: Locprincess216 on 1/29/2010 10:55PM
I agree with you Tafari. This is totally sick. And it's so sad. It's going to drag more and more black women away from loving their natural hair texture. But it depends on the individual's choice and how faithful a spender they will be if this pill becomes a success. I'm glad I got locs and don't have to deal with that anymore. smdh
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By: Watcher Watchmen on 1/30/2010 9:44AM
Amazing how society can impact one's view of themselves for Society's sake.
Going back to the childhood years where unless you looked a certain way or act a certain way, you'd get hell or just shunned completely. Of the many choices in response, most choused to conform with that which makes them more accepting to the bullies, (be they whites or blacks), so that they themselves, wont be further bullied by them.
(In my younger years, I not only confronted them, I tried by best to kill them and YES! Problem solved, Bullying subsided.)
But as for today’s times, the prevailing umbrella that surrounds us all is Europeanism and all that one believes will be BETTER for them, the closer they get it.
COLOR in and of itself is and was NEVER an issue, but rather MADE out to BE an issue, by those without it. MELANIN of blacks and all it god given benefits is a genetic Improvement on the human physiology and NOT a detriment.
The Scientific society has known this for centuries.
Blacks need to Un-Learn what they’ve been media trained to think and Re-Learn what their blackness truly is, from a more SCIENTIFIC point of view rather than from ONLY a social one, per the best interests of whites and all their psychotically racist rhetoric.
HAIR is GOOD HAIR when it’s CLEAN, GROOMED and this can be ANY texture of hair!.
You’ll have two people standing side by side without incident until one of them turn to the other and mocks their appearance. (This “PROBLEM” was induced by an opinion, NOT by nature), Although this can easily be brushed off as just one person who’s isolated in their own ignorance, this isn’t so easily ignored when that ignorance is fundamentally echoed within the surrounding group of people against the one being mocked.
In response, one seeks personal changes to FIT-IN. (or at least think they do).
There’s absolutely NOTHING genetically wrong with Black Hair (if there’s such a term), the ONLY sensations with hair is HOW it’s advertised.
Note how the media portrayed blacks females as B*T*HES, Prostitutes and more.
This PAINTED an impression as a 1st-line of thought when looking at black females, who in term often found themselves under pressure by the people-at-large (all races) who repeatedly approach them through such media trained imagery. But now that white males are more openly being seen with them, same white media that destroyed blacks in general, has since repainted black females with a new kind of elegance that often terminates with them flowing into the arms of a white males.
(Did you get the NEW hidden message?)
The powers BEHIND the media that BE.
There are many very beautiful black people IN THEIR OWN IMAGE.
But as it appears, more whites have the resources to EXPLOIT the best images of themselves than blacks do and he who exploits the most WINS!
Beauty comes is a variety and EVERYONE have their uniqueness in their nature, just as a flowers do. Each has their own unique beauty and appreciated likewise.
It’s all about treatments, NOT RACE!
Whites are ASSUMED treated better solely because they’re white!
This is NOT TRUE by itself, but by a monopoly.
But no one ever seem to want to ask, WHO’S GIVING ALL THE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENTS TO WHITES AND NOT YOU?
Is it Nature? –No
Is it God? –No
If you dig into it, only OTHER WHITES! as the ones.
But there’s a twist to it, because they’re the oppressors, they’re the ones with the most goods! It doesn’t matter how many generations of pillaging they’re done to get it, as long as at the end of the day, they’re the ones with it and YOUR WITHOUT IT!
This gives them the upper and bigger bargaining hand(s).
You see them providing these goods amongst themselves and to those baring ornaments of their image, in the face of those they’ve taken much of their accumulated resources from.
You realize to be apart of that, you must CHANGE your OWN appearance to be more accommodating to them, so that you too may no longer be oppressed and therefore be smiled upon by the hands that does the feeding.
Look around! Everywhere you look you see Europeanism in many forms, along with all the time and money put into maintaining or acquiring the imagery thereof.
Blacks spend more money and time wearing white ornaments than they would otherwise have saved by just being themselves and embrace their OWN beauty.
In other words, blacks spends more time and money in what it takes to look less like themselves than any other race on earth.
Does being accepted by Europeanism means that much to them?
Is there something wrong with being WEALTHY WHILE BLACK?
Look at 3rd world nations now caught up in this nonsense as wealthy racist whites vacate to these countries with a pocket full of money and display their racism as they show favor to those who have lighter skin tones, in the face of those who are darker and seeking work. It must be pleasurable for these whites to express such free-flowing racial hatred (off camera) without any legal recourse for their actions as they would otherwise get if done back in the states.
With lighter toned Africans/Haitians and others being likely envied for having (Flaunting) white wealth that got extended(biased) to them and therefore births a symbolic extension (light skin) of white wealth from the states.
(where before they were the products of black islanders getting rapes by white tourists)
This European institutionalized racism upon the blacks there, encouraged these blacks to seek skin bleaching so that they can get jobs (from the racist whites what setup businesses there) and to make money to but food on the table, or in general, rise above their somewhat impoverished lifestyles.
And all this self mutilation BECAUSE of what?
Is this what’s going around the world?
So sad. To change what god gave them for the satisfaction of appeasing what European media implanted in them.
So sad.
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By: EbonyLeaf on 1/31/2010 5:29PM
I agree too with Tafari. I have chemically processed straight hair and to me that is far enough that I will go to straighten my hair. I did not straighten my hair out of self-hate. I guess hair straightening has became a tradition in the black community. There is nothing wrong with that, I supposed. I can't even remember my first perm because it happened when I was a child. I wore my hair natural for years, I cut it off when I was 15 and at 19 I went back to straightening. I enjoyed being natural just as much I enjoy chemically processing it. However, I be damned if I take a pill just to have straight hair. That is too much. I like the thickness and coarseness of my hair. And for any black woman that will go that far to have straight hair, needs to do some serious soul searching.
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By: roxx67 on 2/03/2010 5:29PM
First of all...straight hair is NOT SOLELY a EUROPEAN ideal by NATURE! Women in Asia, Latin America(of PURELY indigenous ancestry, NOT Euro-Latins), The Middle East, etc...ALSO have straight-straighter hair!
I'm sick and tired of people in my community, the BLACK community, saying that..."straight hair is adhering to the EUROPEAN ideal!", as if ONLY Europeans have straight hair!
STOP saying that, already! It's NOT a correct statement.
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By: shanika maxine on 2/03/2010 11:50PM
good point. tafari :)
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By: marylandman003 on 1/30/2010 12:50PM
negroes have the worst hair ever...can you say pubic hair
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By: Brandy on 1/30/2010 2:59PM
How old are you???? I'm going to excuse that comment because I'm assuming you're a child, right??? Still have a a lot to learn...
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By: T on 1/30/2010 5:33PM
Why are you on Black Voices???? White people have the hair of dogs,rats, and cats.Can't you find your own kind??You cavebeing?????
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By: EbonyLeaf on 1/31/2010 5:38PM
LMBAO ... y'all are just jealous because black people are so talented when it comes to hair care. There is no other ethnicity that can switch between hair textures. To say it bluntly, people of African descent and Melanesians ("Negritos") are pretty much the only races of people that can go from "nappy" (if you will) to straight.
Y'all are haters. That is all there is to it. Get a life and get the hell out of BlackVoices. Y'all want to be us to the point it makes you sickening mad! Too bad, WE are truly made in the image of God. As for y'all, I don't know what to say .... LMFBAO
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