What Happen to Our Cultural Boundaries?

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

I find it quite amazing how boldly white people think they have evolved with their education of Black people's hair. Shit some of them are even wearing Black hair.

Just the other day my manager asks how do I wash my box braids. Now yall know she didn't use the words "Box braids" it was more of a pointing in the direction of my head with something that sounded like "How do you wash those/that/thingy's" until she safely landed on the word hair. "Do you have to take them out every time?" Hmmm now I quickly caught myself catching an attitude because how dare she even assume that my hair isn't real. In fact the reason I paid an extra $250 for the good hair is for even Black girls to have to second guess. So for my white manager from Wyoming to be calling me out- I really wasn't feeling her so I told her,“ I wash my her like you wash yours” and smiled to cover up my attitude. But man do I miss the days where you could come to work on Mondays with the short Halle Berry hairdo from the 90's

and then show up Tuesday with hair down your back

and white people just say, "Wow did you do something different with your hair?" Genuinely not having a clue. However are we to blame for their looking glass into our world? Or maybe just VH1 for their non stop reality shows that expose our weaves and extensions? Business all out in the streets. Now I come from my grandmother’s school of thought which is there is no need for anyone to see a woman’s “Process.” I hate it when men come into the beauty salon to wait for their wives and girlfriends- I'm like damn seeing my kitchen. Therefore you will not catch me in the street looking like this

However, my girlfriend has no shame rocking her removable hair piece bun at any given moment.

Just the other day she almost left it in a cab and I had to be like, "Girl, seriously. You can't be just forgetting your hair." But she just has no shame. In fact in prepping for her weekend ski trip to the Swiss Alps, we went shopping in the city for a helmet and goggles. We approach this white sales guy to ask his suggestion for the best helmet. He brings over a couple of different options for her to try on. Looking at the size she says, “Can we start with a large, I have a big head complex and can’t take my chances on this not fitting over my head.” The white sales guy insists that the medium should fit if she were to just take down her bun. Now what he meant was to just unwind her hair from the bun to the assumed ponytail. Unfortunately this bun doesn't come with that option- it's either bun or no bun. Sure enough not having any shame in her game she removed the entire bun and in fact asked him to hold it as if it were a bag of potato chips. He didn't seem to have a problem, in fact looking as if he had done this before for other Black girls who had to remove their hair pieces to try on gear for their ski trips. Moments later, viola, whadda ya know the helmet fit and we were off to picking goggles while she clipped back on her bun.

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