The blessing for me was I grew up a tomboy. I didn’t know what I had and didn’t care. I guess I had good hair because I was threatened with scissors, girls kept pulling my hair, and one girl even threatened to burn it off. I always thought I had bad hair because I could not fashion an afro, I thought my hair too thin to loc, and I was not blessed with an inheritance from my mother of thick hair. No, mine was thin and perming was an adventure in itself.

I never would have thought about hair good or bad had it not been for my undergoing chemo. I’ve lost a lot of hair and as a result, felt no shame in cutting it all off. Upon determining I have a nice head I thought to heck with it, I’ll wear it bald and shinny. Oh but friends said “no, don’t do it.”

I have now entered the world of weaves, quick weaves, wigs, and lace wigs and oh my God it has my head spinning. Don’t get me wrong, I love the wigs but geez, there’s so much involved. Human hair versus synthetic. Indian hair versus Asian hair. Then there’s rhemy and Yaki and oh please stop it I can take no more.

Recently, I watched the trailer for Chris Rock’s Good Hair and I found it hilarious in light of what I have recently learned. When I heard the words “creamy crack” I could not take it. “Creamy Crack?” Wow.

I have not had a relaxer in my hair in years because it takes a lot of effort to get the mess out of my hair. I need laundry detergent to get all of the “creamy crack” out of my hair. It’s too slick, too thin, and if I don’t get it all out it will burn my scalp and take out my hair. Not a good thing and I stopped using it.

I finally decided on wearing my hair as natural as possible, not caring if folks were uncomfortable with it. I can’t tell you the times folks told me to perm my hair, straighten my hair, or wear it any way but the way I was born, curly. Nope, made folks uncomfortable.

What really fascinates me about the conversation on hair, particularly among straight sisters, is they wear their weaves and perms for the benefit of men. Two sentences later you will hear them talk about brothers wanting White women. As far as I’m concerned, any man who rejects a sister because her hair is not what he wants and decides instead to date White women for their hair is another sister saved. Please, help him find as many White women as he can stand because, after viewing one of the videos for Chris Rock’s new movie, I want them to find more White women.

In the following video, one brother talks about how White women love you touching their hair and then he goes on to say “yank it, pull it, swing them around, jump off the ceiling with it, jump off the cliff and hang glide with it.” Excuse me, yes indeed, another sister saved. Let ‘em go. I’m not interested in any man wanting to jump off a cliff and hang glide with my hair. Oh No!!

Oh yes, please, leave the sisters alone.

I don’t know if I’ll actually make it to the theater to watch this film but I do find it interesting. In these past few weeks (or months) I’ve learned a lot from my sisters on hair, what to do, what to buy and yes, good hair versus bad hair.

After chemo and when my hair begins growing again I believe I will stick with my own hair. Like it or lump it, it’s mine and I will wear it the way it was meant to be worn, natural.

Good Hair will appear in select cities October 9, and will appear in theaters nationwide on October 23.  And sisters will be sitting all over the world getting “they hair did” at a beauty shop or kitchen near you.