

To The Gabby Hair Haters:
Shut It!
Ahhh yes, another Olympics and what are some focused on?
Michael Phelps domination in the pool?
Kerry Walsh Jennings and her new beach volleyball partner?
The Williams’ sisters?
NAH….. While all those those world class athletes are putting years of practice so they can perform at peak on the world stage, some are focused on…. GABBY DOUGLAS HAIR!
WHOA.
Because… THAT is what is most important.
*eye roll*
As an African American woman who only within the last decade learned to TRULY LOVE her hair, this story and the people flapping their lips about it, are very distressing to me.
Related: Ask Rene: My Husband Hates My Hair
Hair is a big, damn deal to women.
It’s an even BIGGER, DAMMER deal for African American women.
Hair could be thought of as the curtains on your house; it it’s not together, what on earth will we see on the inside?
Throughout my career, I have spent years and years and YEARS trying to make my hair behave and act in a way that wasn’t natural.
For years and years and YEARS I used heat and chemicals to achieve a look that would be acceptable to my TV bosses.
For years and years and YEARS, a good day could instantly become a bad one depending on my hair.
And I absolutely HATED the inordinate amount of time I had to think about it.
I ran from the rain.
I wouldn’t swim.
Wearing hats was tricky and so on.
I hated the regular chemicals I put on it.
I hated that my once health mane was dry and brittle. I hated that the ends kept having to be chopped off.. so much so that hair that at one time been shoulder length was barely chin length.
Related: One day, after a brief hospitalization, I went to the salon to get my hair relaxed as I had been doing for more than three decades.
Only this time, it broke off and fell out.
In March 2009 I made a big decision; I cut off the remaining bits of hair which by this time felt like straw, and I started on a journey of self discovery and self love with my own, natural hair.
You can read more about that here. But this is not about me, it’s about her.
This is not new to Gabby, she dealt with this nonsense 4 years ago.
I know it because I wrote about it then too.
People. People, people, PEOPLE! Hyper critical folks of any color, this is for you: I’m pretty sure that, for this young woman who is representing America in front of the world, for a second time (and getting gold for a second time), the absolute last thing on her mind is her FRICKING HAIR! She’s worried about sticking landings and not busting her butt on the beam not whether her edged are laid.
RUDE.
Okay your turn.. is criticism of Gabby Douglas hair fair?
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