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Why Black Women Wear Weave and Not Their Natural Hair

Brandi NoBarExam West
6 min readOct 25, 2020

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1. You become a product of your environment.

Black women wear weave when they are around other black women that wear weave. My mother wore wigs all her life. She never left the house wearing her real hair. My mother had hair damage from a perm somebody did and her hair fell out and never grew back. If my mother wasn’t in a wig she would wear a head wrap covering her whole head.

She wanted her hair to grow back, but it never grew back. Her hair grew in certain areas. But she had many bald patches with no hair. It wasn’t cute. For my mother, she was forced to wear wigs or walk around with bald spots. So a perm damaged her hair. This means she was relaxing her hair and never wore her natural hair texture. My aunts wore wigs as well.

I started wearing weave in 5th grade. I had gold and black weave. My mother said I was too young for gold hair. But I convinced her to let me have it anyway. By high school — I was wearing weave regularly. My sister wears weave. However, she wore her natural hair down sometimes. Now her daughter wears weave. My niece is always texting me about some weave and hairstyles. I think she should wear her own hair.

2. Natural Hair Care Isn’t Taught At Home or Practiced Professionally

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