(ThyBlackMan.com) Hands up who’s tired of black women arguing about hair? Now I’ll put it out there from the get go, and admit that I am a lifelong natural and proud of it. I don’t think relaxers are the greatest thing going, but I have respect for woman doing what they want to do with their hair. I’m not the follicular police force, and it’s not my job to arrest woman who have relaxed hair and revoke their ‘black’ card. Thankfully, that’s not anyone’s job. I get it. Natural hair isn’t for everybody. It’s the same way I feel about brown skin.
Some people just can’t handle it, me included. I mean, I tried for a few years, but it just became too much. Constantly having to moisturise when you came out of the shower looking ashy, was just so much more time consuming than 
when I had paler skin. Plus, it just didn’t really suit my general vibe. I’m not really into the whole ‘Kunta Kinte’ look.
Not to mention the fact that I work in a corporate environment, and I just felt that brown skin wasn’t appropriate. It’s not my place to make a statement all the time. I mean, I appreciate those who wear their brown skin proudly, and if it suits their style, then more power to them, but I don’t work in the arts, and brown skin doesn’t fit in. Plus, I’m not convinced that it looks professional. How seriously would you take a CEO of a major corporation walking in to a boardroom with dark brown skin? It doesn’t give off an air of competence, and projects that you’re treating your employment with a casual attitude. It’s not prejudiced, it’s just life – we’re judged by our appearances, and we change our clothes according to the setting, so why not our skin?
When our ancestors were in Africa brown skin was necessary for coping with the climate and was acceptable for the majority of people living there, but now that we’re in a different climate and a different era, it’s important for us to adapt. Integration is about give and take, and the exchange and interchange of cultural practices and even physical features between races. I don’t see why bleaching brown skin is any different – sure it’s a bit of a dangerous chemical, but so is everything nowadays. If you get the right skin care specialist and the right brand, you can have perfectly healthy bleached skin. I do, and I know plenty of other woman who do too. So let’s stop acting that women with brown skin have the monopoly on healthy skin. I’m fed up of women who prefer brown skin being self righteous and acting like everyone has to choose to look like they do. Just because that’s how I am naturally doesn’t mean I can’t switch it up sometimes.
I think everyone should be free to be themselves without being made to feel they are race-traitors, Uncle Toms, or self hating, just because they want a change of skin tone now and again. Black women are always having to live up to others expectations, and skin is simply just that – skin. Nothing more, nothing less.
Does this remind you of anything?
Staff Writer; Shade Henry
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