How Hair Affects African American Girls' Self-Esteem

Taking a cue from Chris Rock’s documentary Good Hair, today’s Tyra examined how black women — including little girls — feel about their hair, and the (at times painful) lengths they go to alter it.

I have no idea what it’s like to have hair that’s considered difficult to manage (aside from flatness), but it was easy to empathize with the little girls on this show because, as women, most of us are subjected to the idea that we’re not measuring up to certain standards of beauty, whatever they may be. And while I could understand Tyra’s outrage over a mother who chemically relaxes her 3-year-old daughter’s hair, TyTy’s stance on the hair issue was confusing, since she’s just about the weaviest person on the planet; in fact, she regularly gives white women weaves on America’s Next Top Model.