What is Good Hair? By: The Tyra Banks Show
This episode brought into question what is meant by 'good hair'. As we discussed in seminar, black women are pushed into a complicated relationship with their hair because of North American euro-centric beauty standards. The show begins with three black women discussing their opinions on whether or not they believe they should chemically straighten their hair, or leave it natural. One of the women expresses how she believes it is self hating for a black woman to try and look like another race. Later in the show, Tyra has several little girls under the age of ten speak about their hair.All the little girls agreed that Kinky hair was the least desirable and called it 'nappy'. One of the girls even said she feels prettier wearing her blonde Hannah Montana wig because she looks more like her white friends. One of the little girls, who was about three years old, had her mother chemically straighten her hair. They showed footage of the process and the little girls acted like she was in pain, complaining about the burning of her scalp. The relationship of mother inflicting pain on their daughters for the sake of upholding beauty standards is reminiscent of the previous chapter on foot binding in Ancient China.