First The New York Times, now mainstream broadcaster CNN.com has an article on afro hair (take note UK press!)
Called ‘Can I Touch it? The Fascination with Natural African-American Hair’ the article tells of a woman just about to leave a restaurant when a middle aged white woman tried to touch her natural hair, styled in twists:
"She missed by mere seconds, she was actually going to grab my hair as I walked past her," recalled Winfrey Harris who runs the blog What Tami Said. "I turned around and she said, 'Oh, your hair is neat.' It just floored me because who does that, just reaches out and touches strangers?"
Good question. And Winfrey Harris is not alone, the articles tells of countless others who’ve been asked the rather bizaare question: “ Can I touch your hair?’
As children a lot us us had our white friends asking, and sometimes not even asking, to touch our ‘cotton wool hair’. Now we get less requests but will never forget one black lady asking if our shoulder length hair was real. It was but she didn’t believe. Cue her hands feeling around for the tracks!
Have you ever had strangers asking to touch your natural hair?
Read the full story here.
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