Rockin' My Fro

Yesterday I channeled Pam Grier's Foxy Brown and wore my hair out, big and free. I loved it!! There is something about having big natural hair that makes me feel like I'm on a whole nother level of cool. But more than that, there is something about rocking a large and in charge fro that gives me the feeling of realness that I don't get when my hair is styled in other ways.

My afro got me thinking about pictures of my mother with her hair picked out and the stories she told me about wanting to have a big fro, but her hair lacking the texture needed to really rock one. She and her sisters would tightly roll their hair up at night and pick it out in the morning to achieve the look that all of the down black people were wearing back then, you know, in the late sixties and seventies.

I couldn't help but wonder what happened to that natural mentality that so many black people had back then. What happened to being as black as you could be from head to toe? Why is it that the very same people who wore huge Afro's back in the day, don't any more? When did women stop with the big, bountiful fro's and begin straightening their hair again and why?

I'll have to call my mother up and chat with her about this, but I thought I would share it here first to get your take. Do you believe that the embracing of natural hair was a phase to a lot of the people involved, a way to be cool, something to do? Had it to do with cultural expression after years of conforming? Or was it something else? What are your thoughts?