Petting people is inappropriate.

[ceallaighgirl]

I was at Mick Kelly's today eating lunch with Keisha and there were some ladies sitting behind me and I head them get up to leave and heard some mention of "beautiful hair" and all of a sudden they were petting my hair. I didn't even know what to do

Comments

[ideealisme]

Yeah that's weird. I wonder if it's more prevalent in the US - I've read quite a few posts on blogs saying it's a common experience for black women to have their hair touched and petted and it completely drives them up the wall when people do it.

[ceallaighgirl]

Oh yeah, I've heard about that too, because black hair texture is so different than most other nationalities' hair.

I don't mind if a friend wants to play with my hair, that's fine and hey, it even feels good. But for strangers to do that, that's just creepy and inappropriate. Haha, I told my brother about it and he said I should have just yelled, "RAPE!"

Actually, comparing men and women, men have much much better manners concerning hair. Most men I encounter typically say, "Just so you know, I'm not hitting on you, I just want to tell you that you have very beautiful hair, don't ever cut it!" and they're very nice and polite and keep their distance. Women on the other hand either invade my space and while trying to "compliment" me, also manage to tell me all about Locks of Love and how I should cut my hair and donate it to them, an organisation which they obviously know nothing about. I would never EVER cut my hair for Locks of Love.

[ideealisme]

Just looked up Locks of Love. OK, it's an honourable cause - but what a rude thing to say! Perhaps they are jealous of you - long hair is a powerful aphrodisiac. Mr Strange is always saying that older women often cut their hair which takes away from their looks.

[ceallaighgirl]

Well it is . . . kind of. Most donated hair is unuseable due to all the chemicals that most Americans use in their hair. Mine definitely would be, since I dye it. I think they're only really able to use about 10-20% of donations for wigs. The rest are sold for cash. In short, people uselessly cut their hair when they could have found a more effective way to raise money for them. The wigs are typically sold to the children on a sliding scale according to how much they can afford, not simply donated to them. It was only recently that they opened their books for transparency as an organisation, they were pretty sketchy until a few years ago. (And contrary to what most people on the street like to tell me, no, Locks of Love doesn't make wigs for children with cancer.)

So I'm not terribly impressed. If I was to cut my hair for anything, I'd donate it it Matter of Trust because it would actually be used.

I agree with Mr Strange, lots of older women look beautiful when they have long hair. Prime example, Judy Collins:

[ext_129908]

whoa...whatever happened to "body bubbles"? First they rub a pregnant woman's tummy, now they pet hair, when will they stop? Hahaha - I can see it now, Deborah..."step away from the hair, and no one will get hurt". :)

[ceallaighgirl]

I need to start open carrying my gun!

[wittybutwistful]

This happens to me too, and usually with older women. KEEP YO' DAMN HANDS TO YO'SELVES. People act like they've never seen curly hair before. The worst thing is that when this happens, they like, try to run their fingers through it, which breaks the curls and creates frizz! I need a gun too.

[ceallaighgirl]

Oh that's inappropriate. Don't people know anything about curls? I have hair straighter than the path of righteousness, and even I know you shouldn't do that.

Start yelling "RAPE!"

[jadeejf]

This situation happens to my friend karnythia pretty frequently, actually. She is African-American and wears her hair naturally- a lot of the time, white women will come up and just start touching her hair. It drives her crazy, and I totally agree that it's rude. I think she almost took someone out once for doing it when she wasn't expecting it. Ugh. I haven't had it happen in a long time, but... ick.

[ceallaighgirl]

Long hairs and black people should start a Hair Defence Alliance where we start taking out people who grab our hair. Even old ladies. Old ladies really ought to know better. They've been around long enough to learn good manners.

[ceallaighgirl]

I don't mind if people ask first, but people shouldn't just randomly attack people without asking, especially if they don't know them.