Joy Bryant Takes On Tyra “Real Hair” Banks – Joy Bryant says “Hi, my name is Joy, and I’m a weave-a-holic” and wants all the women out there who are proud of their weave to wave their hands or their new batch of zig-zag curly in the air.Bryant did a very interesting blog post for Essence called “The Tracks Of My Weave” where she confronted Tyra “real hair” Banks for her real hair day.Joy Bryant wrote:
Ouch! My tailbone really hurts when I sit on hard surfaces or slouched down in a chair for too long. That’s what I get from busting my butt from too much snowboarding. It makes it really hard to sit in a salon chair for hours on end getting my weave hooked up.
But oh, how we suffer for beauty…I must bring a pillow next time.
As the threads of the grown-out tracks were being snipped, I broke out my laptop and began my ritualistic daily web search. I go from news of the day to articles/blogs about the news of the day, ending up on entertainment/gossip/fashion stuff.
But that day, something caught my attention and trumped all of the glowing reviews of President Obama’s health care speech:It was Tyra’s hair.
National Real Hair Day? I missed that one…In fact, on National Real Hair Day, I was calling Extensions Plus in L.A. to make sure they had enough of the 20” “relaxed roots” texture hair that I love oh so much (and that keeps selling out like crazy!), and making an appointment to get my hair, I mean, my weave, hooked up.
So Tyra, while I didn’t take part in your observance, I just want to say: “WOW!” You are such a brave woman for breaking the chains that bound you since your teenage years! What courage that took, for you to expose yourself to millions of people! Such fearlessness!
Oh, how I wish I had the guts to do that. I guess I’m much too much of an insecure, self-loathing Negro for all that self-acceptance foolishness.
I’m glad we got down to solving the mystery of what’s under your lace-front, though. I mean seriously, it was “THE” question that has perplexed the world over. And now we see that there’s a beautiful head of hair underneath it all, hair that was surprisingly relaxed and ready for the world. Whodathunkit?! If I had the same length and fullness of hair that you have, I might take my weave out too.Ha!!!! I’m just playing! Even if I DID have your “real” hair, I’d still be wearing a few tracks or clip-ons up in there.
Why?
Because I’m straight weave fo life, kid!!!
Ima ride ride wit this weave, die die with this weave!!
Let me break it down for you:
See, I loooooove taking new hair out of the bag, combing through it with my fingers, holding it up with my two hands, and burying my face in it. Mmmm, mmmm, mmm! Nothing like a new batch of zig-zag curly to get your self esteem out of the dumps!The feeling of getting my hair, I mean, my weave done over. I feel human again. I feel sexy. I feel powerful. It makes me feel…it makes me feel…it makes feel like a natural woman!!!
I can be whatever, whoever I want to be with the stroke of a sewing needle…
With long brown tresses and a tan, I’m Pocahontas, ’cause I got Indian in my family. With easy waves, I AM bohemian rhapsody goddess personified. And now that I got blond highlights! What!? I know I look like Beyonce! You can’t tell me nothing! Uh oh, uh oh…
And then I looked up from my computer, and caught a glimpse in the mirror of my head minus the long weavy locks. I looked crazy! Awww hell naw! I looked over at the new batch of hair sitting off to the side waiting to join forces with me. Damnit, I’m trapped, I thought to myself. I can’t let it go. I am powerless over it. Just when I think I’m done, it pulls me back in!Now I guess I can get help for my self-loathing addiction.
I can learn to accept myself in my entirety. I can emancipate myself from that which keeps me locked-up. I can embrace the natural state of things.Yup, I can do all of that…
But don’t hold your breath!
Hi, my name is Joy, and I’m a weave-a-holic.
Are you on Joy “Weave” Bryant or Tyra “real hair” Banks team?
Team Bryant all the way! hahaha Tyra’s an annoying hypocrite.
haha I love her! Tyra is annoying as hell she always says something stupid! How are you gonna have one day of recognition of your real hair when every other day of the year you got fake weave in. I LOVE Joy Bryant, she’s so real! Realness comes from within not from a physical appearance because that can be altered alot.
LOL…Loved it. : )
Way to go Joy my black are proud to wear weave! i love it… but if joy really new of her black history she would feel really dumb about what she just said. Try and understand the point Tyra was trying to make, although we love wearing weave and we look damn good wearing it we as role models need to show the world especially our young black women that we could just as beautiful with our natural hair just as we are with weave as we strut around like it’s our own. In my Women studies class at spelman college that teach that during slavery the white men and women would remind us over and over again how ugly we are with our nappy ass heads, therefore long after slavery is over we still believe to this day that long hair is beautiful hair. that in order to fit into society and live up to the American ways we have to become or portray ourselves as something we aren’t that’s all Tyra was trying to say ladies read your history get knowledge into those pretty little heads of yours and think again about being a weaveaholic
To each his own. Im on Team ME. Team Do What Is Best For Me. I am a natural. I wear my hair in locs. It is its healthiest and most beautiful in this God given state. I have been natural for the past 2 and a half years.If you dont like the way you look with your hair in its natural state then by all means do what you want with it, hide it, weave it, whatever. I wont look my nose down on you. But I was dissapointed in Tyra when she “revealed” her relaxed hair as “natural” hair. False advertising, that was not natural as we think of it. It was still altered, it just didnt have a pound of weave added to it. I wont lie and say that I dont hope that all black women can one day be comfortable with their own hair in its natural un-adulterated state. But (sigh), like Joy said, some just cant let it go. Again, to each his own.
Haha Joy is hilarious! I’ve never worn a weave before, and I have been natural for about a year or so, but that’s just my style. I can’t handle salons and relaxers every month, however I do know how to appreciate a girl when she has an amazing weave and amazing perm. SO, I’m going to have to go with Apple here, I’m TEAM ME.
I think Tyra makes a valuable point about leaving the weave for a while and embracing her real hair length; that’s cool and I definitely agree with Joy here as well. There’s nothing wrong wearing weaves, and I think it was kind of wrong for Tyra to act all high and mighty cause she is rocking her hair without extensions. But I do understand, that that wasn’t Tyra’s intention. She just wanted girls to be able to be more comfortable with their hair length–and ’embrace’ it, but the truth is that not every girl has the same advantage as Tyra–with access to amazing treatments, and professionals that could give amazing blow-outs, so there’s really nothing wrong with girls using weaves to make their hair beautiful. Every girls has their special go-to thing and embrace their hair in different ways. Doesn’t matter.
It’s like a girl deciding not to paint her nails, and is all like–“hey look at me, i’m embracing my nails. I’m revealing my na-tural color.” lol Um good for you, but many other girls prefer to paint their nails red, pink, black, blue, brown….and rock it however they please. To each their own.