Hair.  Many women love keeping their hair healthy and polished.  If their hair started falling out tomorrow for an unknown reason, they would most likely hit up online hair forums asking for help.  When Person A sees past the surface, realizing how hair is affecting the community in a negative way, and it starts getting a little too deep beyond Person B’s understanding, Person B (the one who can’t handle the truth) will pull out the “It’s just hair!” card, and feel that what Person A is saying, or doing, is way too extreme.

I was told that hair was “just hair” because it’s a substance, and it doesn’t determine whether or not someone is a good or bad person.  But the person failed to realize that it goes past that in society in general.  What hair needs to be seen as in society, and what hair is seen as in society are two completely different things  It’s mistaking what’s ideal, as to what’s real when it comes to hair in general.

Right now, there’s someone laying on an exotic island somewhere, with a glass of lemonade, with an umbrella in the cup thanks to all the money that they’ve made in the beauty industry.  Someone will be able to put their children through college thanks to all the money they’ve made in the beauty industry.  (Heck, one will probably see their child stanky-legging it up on MTV’s Sweet Sixteen at their $10,000 party!)

There’s hundreds upon hundreds of salons.  There’s hundreds upon hundreds of hair books.  There’s whole aisles dedicated to just hair products in stores.  There’s even whole stores dedicated to hair products.  If hair was no big deal no one would be making hair products, and people wouldn’t be making money off of it.

Someone is burning their little two year old girl’s scalp to a pulp right now because they felt she needed a relaxer.  Someone’s husband or boyfriend is putting them down because they decided to go natural.  Someone is getting laughed at right now because of how they’re wearing their hair.  Someone’s peace is being interrupted by a “Why is your hair looking like that?”

One can live in their “It’s just hair bubble” all they want to, and say that their hair doesn’t define them, but there may be times when they’re forced out of that bubble against their will, as “hair” affects everyone, whether they realize it or not.  We’re not God, and we’ll never have 100% complete control over our lives.  (If that we’re the case, we could have any job we wanted, and we could live on this earth forever if we wanted to.)  Sure, your hair shouldn’t define you, but it’s not going to stop others from doing it.  So now one is probably thinking “What other people think about me doesn’t matter.”  In most cases they’re right…it doesn’t matter because not everybody is relevant, and one shouldn’t feel guilty for what’s on top of their head.  We should be able to wear it however we please.

The right way to word it is that what other people think about us  “shouldn’t matter” because sometimes it does matter.  There are people out there who will deny one a decent job simply because of their hair type.  Would it be “just hair” then?  Could we say that hair doesn’t matter then?  A person was  denied a job for goodness sake, and they need food in their mouth, clothes on their back, and a roof over their head.   If it’s “just hair” we should be able to get a job no matter how we wear our hair.  We shouldn’t feel the need to change it to get one.  People would be able to get jobs as lawyers while wearing neon pink-colored mohawks, as far as I’m concerned.

“I fix my hair because it looks good,” or “I  got my hair done this way because I wanted a change.”  Why? If it’s just hair, why does it have to look nice for you, or anybody? What made it so important to even feel a need for a change?  Why even think about your hair period?  So you say that taking care of your hair is no different than wiping your ass as a means to keep good hygiene?  *News flash.*  That in itself goes to show that hair can affect many things.

Hair can also be an indicator of good or bad health.  Lets say that Sally is losing unusual amounts of hair, and it alerted her, driving her to go to the doctor. The doctor diagnoses her with a serious condition that causes hair loss like diabetes, lupus, or malnutrition.  Guess what?  Sally’s hair may have saved her life because otherwise,  she wouldn’t have known that she had a condition that she needed to treat, and she could have died.

If one does anything to their hair, those simple actions alone show that hair isn’t simply hair because they’re maintaining it in a way that they feel would make them look good, or keep them in good health.  If it were just hair, we would all be walking about with free form locs as a result of neglect because we wouldn’t even care to touch it.

“What if you were to lose all your hair to cancer treatments tomorrow?”  When people ask they question, they are automatically assuming that I live for my hair.  I never said that hair is everything.  I am just pointing out the fact that hair affects many things, and just because it’s involving hair types, does not mean that these issues shouldn’t be combated, or brushed off.  Brushing any serious issue off like it’s no big deal doesn’t solve anything.  It just helps keep the problem alive, since one feels that it isn’t a problem to begin with.

It’s not just hair. It’s our hygiene. It’s an indicator of good or bad health. It’s how others perceive us. It’s how we perceive ourselves. It’s rejection. It’s acceptance. It’s someone’s source of income, while it’s making someone else go broke. And you want to tell me that it’s just hair?

There are many things that are far more important than hair.  But it is impossible to say that “Hair is just hair,” and have that be a valid fact.  I don’t understand how one can make such a huge generalization (after facing reminders everyday that hair isn’t just hair), and think nothing of it.  Why is it so hard to reword it in a way that would make it a fact?  Instead say “I don’t value hair as much as I do other things,” or “There’s things that are worth more than hair.”  Then it would be a valid statement, and no one can argue about that.