Member-only story
White Skin, Black Hair
A friendly word of advice for anyone who happens to find themselves caring for a Black or Multiracial child; if you know nothing about curly hair, do find out. Ask your friends, watch some YouTube videos, something, anything. Trust me, it will save you, and your child a lot of grief in the long run.
I could write an entire book, perhaps a trilogy, on the frustration that my hair has given me over the years. I came into the world with a thick head of jet back, smooth straight hair. That hair was the pride of my parents when I was an infant with others often remarking at how, for a baby, it was so thick and full.
That ebony smoothness was not to remain, however. As I began to walk and talk, my hair began to change. It began to curl, softly at first, and to show tinges of red. My mother feared I would end up with red hair and later told me she prayed, actually prayed, every day during this time that I wouldn’t turn out to be a redhead. I didn’t. By the time I was 3, I had an enormous mop, well more like an afro, of frizzy, thick, wild brown curls. I was a little pale-skinned girl with Black hair.
