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AALBC.com's Thumper's Corner Discussion Board » Culture, Race & Economy - Archive 2006 » Black Hair' -- Documentary Reveals Korean Domination of Black Hair Care Industry « Previous Next »

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Robynmarie
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Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 01:56 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Movie Review by Kam Williams:

African-Americans spend billions of dollars every year on their hair, whether on wigs and extensions, moisturizers and relaxers, curling irons and hot combs, sheens and gels, scalp and follicle conditioners, shampoos and lotions, or cocoa butter and other oils. In fact, although blacks comprise only 10% of the U.S. population, it is estimated that they consume over three-quarters of the country’s hair care products.
Apparently, the untapped potential of this lucrative market was not lost on Koreans who, as far back as 1965, began petitioning both the United States and Korean governments for economic incentives to help them enter the lucrative hair care business. Over the intervening years, while most folks thought of these industrious immigrants as only operating fruit stands, they methodi immigrants as only operating fruit stands, they methodically set up shop right in virtually every ‘hood from coast to coast, gradually gaining control not only of the retail market, but the manufacturing and wholesale distribution as well. Who knew? As a consequence, the Black-Owned Beauty Supply Association (BOBSA) finds itself at the mercy of the Asian entrepreneurs, who now outnumber blacks in the business by about 10 to 1. For once the Koreans developed a monopoly, they reportedly began refusing to ship merchandise to any African-American stores, bankrupting most in the process.
And when no church, political, or grassroots movement was organized to challenge the ethics of the Koreans’ exclusionary and predatory practices, the situation deteriorated to the point where today 90% of the hair care stores are owned by outsiders who don’t live in, invest in or give back to the black community. This development is a tragedy, given the high unemployment rate in the ghetto, which keeps the bulk of African-Americans in dire financial straits.
All of the above, plus plenty of additional equally informative and fascinating background material, is the subject of Black Hair, a disturbing documentary by Aron Ranen. To his credit, the peripatetic director did his homework, crisscrossing the country to interview both merchants and customers, and Koreans and blacks in such cities as Oakland, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, and Los Angeles. Invariably, he found the same sorry state of affairs everywhere he went, disgruntled and displaced African-American merchants, with well-to-do Koreans currently catering to their former clientele.
A riveting, 21st Century microeconomics lesson in supply and demand, namely,
Koreans control the supply, so they feel free to demand that blacks find another line of work.
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Shemika
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Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 02:23 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

This is a shame. I get sick seeing all the Korean/Asian hair care stores around here and not one owned by blacks. I don't know if it's the same but here is another documentary exposing the takeover at the website below begining with the second documentary listed. After opening just click the blue lettering to play each segment of Aron Ranen's black hair documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=17A3A906ED60CE5D

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Abm
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Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 07:49 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Robynmarie: "In fact, although blacks comprise only 10% of the U.S. population, it is estimated that they consume over three-quarters of the country’s hair care products."


I think the above is AS unfortunate as the Korean takeover of the Black hair care market. Black foks - ESPECIALLY Black women - expend too much gotdayam time, energy and MONEY beautifying themselves.
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Robynmarie
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Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 09:34 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Amen, Abm. Check out this out:
"The Trouble with Hair"

Hair and working out may seem unrelated to those outside the black community but sisters know only too well how to avoid “messin’ up our hair.” Some women simply will not work out on a regular basis because of the trauma (a burnout perm) and drama (“will the new beautician do a good job?”) of maintaining beautiful, manageable, straight hair. Touch-ups, nappy roots, and “kitchens” are facts of life for black women. The texture of our hair that “goes back” or reverts to its nature state with sweat or moisture means making regular visits to the hairdresser. And these appointments are as important as putting gas in our cars. Because of the designs we like and our other unique hair care needs, keeping it straight can be a lot more complicated not to mention a lot more expensive than simply applying over the counter hair goods.

One coed told me “I can’t afford to sweat out a press every week, and I don’t have the time to get it done on the regular.” At forty dollars a pop, a weekly press and curl to straighten hair can be expensive. For middle-class working black women who like wearing their hair straightened, it is a question of time more than money, how to sandwich lengthy, frequent hair appointments in between jobs and family obligations. Or, depending on where we live, sometimes it’s difficult to find a quality hairdresser we can trust with our tresses. For these and other reasons, many women forgo regular exercise to keep their hair looking good.

One sister took extreme measures. “I had to cut mine all off,” says Loni, an African American college administrator who sports a close-cropped ‘fro and is committed to being physically fit by jogging and playing golf. Loni resides in a predominately white neighborhood and says not only are black hair care products not available within close range of her home, but the nearest black hairdresser is also a distance from where she lives. To save time and aggravation, Loni has given up wearing her hair straight through presses and perms and keeps her hair naturally short.

African American women are taught from early in life that hair is not only her "crowing glory," but also her validation in a world obsessed with the outer self. Around the time we outgrow hopscotch and Double Dutch we also want to get rid of girlish plaits and barrettes and desire more grownup (straight) hairstyles. Since back when we discovered chitlins, the length and texture of black hair has been a source of classism, political identity, and mainstream acceptance. As slaves, black women covered their hair with "do rags" or cut it off or wore plaits while working the fields. However, when a white slave-owner fathered a child by a black woman, that newborn’s hair often was more straight than nappy. Thus, Caucasian type hair gradually came to be considered "good" hair (like white) while tresses that were naturally tightly curled or "nappy" were labeled "bad.”

Unfortunately this kind of thinking still exists in the black community, influenced not only intraracial prejudices but also by the Eurocentric mass media that equates beauty with looking white. As a result, many black women press, perm, or weave their hair straight in order to be considered attractive and conventional.

Black women who work out regularly tend to opt for natural styles, braids, wigs, twists, and dredlocks--which are perfectly fine if you own your own business or work in education or the arts or other professions that require less conformity.

However, in corporate America, those who fit into the company culture are considered valuable employees. Black women working in a conservative environment are less inclined to want to risk rocking the boat by wearing their hair naturally, which might be considered too “Afrocentric” for a company’s image. Blending in without drawing attention to your hair--no matter how qualified you are--could mean a promotion or a raise in pay. Even today, cornrows and French braids raise eyebrows in some quarters and are called unprofessional.
The urgent health crisis, however, begs the question: does a black woman have to choose between being in shape and looking beautiful? Faced with the current obesity predicament, isn’t it time we viewed things through a different lens, adopting a new vision of beauty for African Americans and all women that relies less on superficiality and more on physical and emotional well-being? Being healthy--whether thin or full-figured, nappy or straight--means loving and accepting who you are, while reaching for improvement and happily resisting an arbitrary standard of beauty imposed on us by others.

excerpt from HUNGRY FOR MORE by Robyn McGee
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Shemika
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Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 11:01 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I don't know what has happened that all the progress blacks made in accepting their natural hair has gone down the toilet. For a while there natural black hair was in and people wore it proudly. But I think the problem is that bw don’t have bm who esteem their natural blackness anymore.

And bw, naturally looking for approval from bm especially, take their queue from all the white obsessed bm. As a result we've allowed blackness to be reduced to a fashion fad, where our natural hair is treated like a fad considered no longer in style anymore. Because our people haven't stayed on top of ensuring we are accepted in full we have lost ground because when whites see us discriminating amongst ourselves based upon looking too black they feel at liberty to follow suite on a broader level by returning to the old standards we fought to overcome.

So its no wonder blacks are trying to eliminate themselves by breeding out. In reality you can’t love being black if you hate the markers that define you as that. Many color-struck blacks keep pretending that’s not the case by attempting to disassociate such characteristics with blackness, but they are sadly in denial. I guess we need to go back to some sort of "I'm black and I'm proud" or "black is beautiful" campaign. Only now we don't have any bm who care enough to vocalize such sentiments and mean it.
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Robynmarie
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Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 12:29 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Please, please, don't turn this into a black male
bashing thread.

It's about ecomomics and how we as black people need spend and retain dollars in our own communities, to build wealth, the same way everyone else does.
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Mzuri
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Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 03:02 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

It's not all hair care products - it's the weave hair, extensions and wigs the Koreans have cornered the market on, right. Why can't BOBSA get their members together and start manufacturing those items themselves. They can contract a factory in China just like everyone else does (to keep costs down) and then they won't be at the Koreans mercy anymore. Then advertise to make consumers and hair salon operators aware that we should be buying from BOBSA and not the Koreans. How hard can that be? But instead they'd rather get together and commiserate about how the Koreans have put them all out of business. What else is new?
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Abm
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Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 05:27 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Haven't A LOT of previously Black-owned beauty companies sold their interests to other, mostly White-owned, companies over the last 20 years? If that is true, then how the hell can Black foks expect to be able to control ANY part of an industry they have scant actually OWNERSHIP of?
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Tonya
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Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 05:44 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Robynmarie posted:

Hair and working out may seem unrelated to those outside the black community but sisters know only too well how to avoid “messin’ up our hair.” Some women simply will not work out on a regular basis because of the trauma (a burnout perm) and drama (“will the new beautician do a good job?”) of maintaining beautiful, manageable, straight hair. Touch-ups, nappy roots, and “kitchens” are facts of life for black women. The texture of our hair that “goes back” or reverts to its nature state with sweat or moisture means making regular visits to the hairdresser. And these appointments are as important as putting gas in our cars. Because of the designs we like and our other unique hair care needs, keeping it straight can be a lot more complicated not to mention a lot more expensive than simply applying over the counter hair goods. . .

Tonya:

BUT here's the thing...the thinner you are, the better you look with short natural hair. Black women are way too concerned with American beauty standards to TAKE ADVANTAGE of their natural beauty, which makes some loose out on the very thing they're looking for, IMO.

Partly because I work out everyday, I have a thin frame, humongous boobs--(can't get rid of them but that's okay!)--and shapely athletic legs. So guys view my fro as part of a sexy package. When they're telling me how much they are digging it, make no mistake, they are digging it because of the way it looks with a nicely toned body. When you're keeping it tight, working out - ect., a natural do can look quite sexy.
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Tonya
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Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 06:30 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

And Shemika girl your post was on point! And if this thread is one complaining about the fact that black folks - ESPECIALLY BLACK WOMEN - spend too much money on hair care products, how on earth are you going to avoid discussing the main cause? And what makes anyone think that they can BASH black women for making poor financial decisions, without getting to the root of that problem? When discussing certain issues there are bound to be some things that some people don’t like; but if that’s the case, why bring the issue up???
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Abm
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Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 07:29 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Tonya,

Go on and say it: It's the Black MAN's fault that Black women are expending RIDICULOUS sums of money on hair care and make-up.

There now. Don't that feel much BETTER?
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Tonya
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Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 08:04 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

...amen brotha! hallelujah!!! LOL
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Ntfs_encryption
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Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 10:55 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

ABM wrote: Go on and say it: It's the Black MAN's fault that Black women are expending RIDICULOUS sums of money on hair care and make-up."

Of course it is! Hey, it's not as if black women have free will to make decisions about such things on their own! Don’t be silly. Did you think for one second that black women were degrading themselves with these ridiculous outrageous weaves and wigs on their own involution? Pleeeeeezzzzz.....get real! You know disgusting pathetic black hateful nigger men are choreographing this entire aesthetic and cultural debacle! E’nuff said…!!!



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Ntfs_encryption
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Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 10:58 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

ABM wrote: Go on and say it: It's the Black MAN's fault that Black women are expending RIDICULOUS sums of money on hair care and make-up."

Of course it is! Hey, it's not as if black women have free will to make decisions about such things on their own! Don’t be silly. Did you think for one second that black women were degrading themselves with these ridiculous outrageous weaves and wigs on their own involution? Pleeeeeezzzzz.....get real! You know disgusting pathetic black hateful nigger men are directly responsible for choreographing this entire aesthetic and cultural debacle! E’nuff said…!!!



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Abm
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Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 11:42 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Ntfs,

Indeed.

Though, if I recall correctly, wasn't it the Black FEMALE (and lesbian?) Madame C.J. Walker who created or popularized Black hair straightening and perming? (And Walker became America's FIRST Black millionaire in the process.)

But then, Walker couldn't POSSIBLY have done such of her own volition and capitalistic desires. It surely MUST have been some evil Black man who FORCED Ms. Walker to reap this hair straightening madness upon all the innocent, helpless Black women.
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Tonya
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 04:41 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

The BLACK FEMALES were trying to look like the black MULATTOES that all the BLACK MEN were CHASING and a black woman, Madame C.J. Walker, capitalized on all of it, yes.



Go on and say it, ABM: Too bad a Black man didn’t capitalize first as well.

There now. Don't that feel much BETTER?
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Abm
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 08:12 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Tonya: "Go on and say it, ABM: Too bad a Black man didn’t capitalize first as well...There now. Don't that feel much BETTER?"

Unlike your INCESSANT vilification of Black men, I do NOT rag on ad infinitium about any Black woman making her money, even if it is MORE than what has been earned by Black men.


Tonya: "The BLACK FEMALES were trying to look like the black MULATTOES that all the BLACK MEN were CHASING and a black woman, Madame C.J. Walker, capitalized on all of it, yes."

Just couldn't help but blame it on brothas. Couldjah?

Well. Again. If you feel that EVERY evil that is reaped upon Black women is perpetated by Black men, why even bother with us? Why not just get you some non-Black man or woman and live Happily Ever After?
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Robynmarie
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 12:10 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Tonya said:

BUT here's the thing...the thinner you are, the better you look with short natural hair. Black women are way too concerned with American beauty standards to TAKE ADVANTAGE of their natural beauty, which makes some loose out on the very thing they're looking for, IMO.

Partly because I work out everyday, I have a thin frame, humongous boobs--(can't get rid of them but that's okay!)--and shapely athletic legs. So guys view my fro as part of a sexy package. When they're telling me how much they are digging it, make no mistake, they are digging it because of the way it looks with a nicely toned body. When you're keeping it tight, working out - ect., a natural do can look quite sexy.

Robynmarie said: I agree we black women don't appreciate our own beauty, especially since women of other races want to look like us, our hair, our lips, our butts.
I think natural hair, well groomed, looks great on every woman, large or small.

When will we claim our own greatness?
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Abm
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 12:15 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Robynmarie said: "I agree we black women don't appreciate our own beauty, especially since women of other races want to look like us, our hair, our lips, our butts...I think natural hair, well groomed, looks great on every woman, large or small...When will we claim our own greatness?"


Probably somewhere right after many of you STOP blaming everything on Black men while hypocritically eschewing how YOU have and are contributing to MUCH of that which you lament.
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Tonya
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 02:31 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

ABM:

If you feel that EVERY evil that is reaped upon Black women is perpetated by Black men, why even bother with us? Why not just get you some non-Black man or woman and live Happily Ever After?



Tonya:



Love you ABM but listen.

We're not bothering y'all. We're just telling our story and it just happens to involve y'all and we make no apologies and we don't care if y'all whine nor do we care if y'all jump off a cliff...We love y'all though :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
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Cynique
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 03:46 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

If we are African AMERICAN women, who is to say that we can't adopt American standards of beauty? The American standard of beauty does, after all, reflect a combination of many ethnics and all ethnics in this country aspire to look like this "hybrid" type. You folks act as though all white and Asian and Hispanic women are perfect and beautiful. They are out there trying just as hard as anybody else to achieve that "American" standard. Being the vain creatures who they are, woman have the option to emulate whatever looks glamourous and desireable. IMO.
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Tonya
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 03:49 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

"You folks act as though all white and Asian and Hispanic women are perfect and beautiful."



They are perfect and beautiful..just as they are. And so are we.
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Cynique
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 03:58 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Obviously they don't think so; if in their natural state they ain't pullin the men, trying to convince themselves that they don't need any "improvements" doesn't keep their company on a lonely Saturday night. And, yes, that's letting men define women, but it works both ways. Women are just as choicy when it comes to men.
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Abm
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 04:04 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Cynique,

Perhaps the crux of the issue is whether and the degree to which that AMERICAN beauty standard is the product of inate WHITENESS (or some close & reasonable fascimile thereof) and how one's relative proximity to such affects one being considered eligible for admiration, love and marriage.

Most reasonable people would agree that there has long been and still remains a preference for the fair beauty. Where the argument gets muddled is the degree to which such exists and the effects of such.


Lastly. I often wonder if it would be better for Black women - ESPECIALLY darkskinned and nappier-headed sistas - to decidedly ABANDON many Eurocentric beauty regimens. Because it seems to me that perhaps the very BEST way to accentuate Black Beauty - in all it's myriad shades - is to profoundly distinguish it from all other manifestations of human female beauty.
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Cynique
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 04:15 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Fair skin is not the paragon any more. The tanning salons are doing booming business because the "IT" girls all want a bronze finish. Just like they all DYE their hair blond and add EXTENSIONS. They get BREAST implants and work out to develop bigger BOOTIES even as they aspire to wear a SIZE 2. And, of course, plastic surgeons are also doing a booming business.
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Abm
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 04:32 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Cynique,

Are you talking fads or permanent changes to what are perceived to be beautiful? Perhaps only time will tell.

And perhaps when I see legions of White, Asian and Hispanic girls spending over $1,000 and 200 hours per annum getting semi-afros, well then maybe I'll REALLY believe the beauty worm has turned.
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Cynique
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 05:45 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I am talking about the evolution of beauty by virtue of the fact that it is merging into a concept that embodies the best of all ethnicities - in America. Forget the nappy hair. You'll have to be content with the full lips and ample ass that is the contribution of African American women to the beauty equation.
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Abm
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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 06:03 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Cynique,

Well, again, I think the jury's still very much OUT on the relative permanence of this whole "evolution of beauty" concept you're espousing. But, assuming such is the case, I guess long as the full lips and ample a$$ (and at least some semblance of color) is in the mix, Mother Africa is still representing.

I just hope we still at least can DANCE (for Goodness Sake!).
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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya

Post Number: 3016
Registered: 07-2005

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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 06:38 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Who gets to choose this new "evolution of beauty" and why are they the experts? And I don't remember anybody asking me if they can put my a$$ in the mix. What makes them think they can just take what ever parts of me they like without so much as hinting for my advice?
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm

Post Number: 5055
Registered: 04-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 08:52 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Tonya,

I only include chicks who LIKE Black men within my consideration of the "evolution of beauty".

Sorry...
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Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya

Post Number: 3017
Registered: 07-2005

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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 09:25 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Well I guess I have to start liking black men now, huh? Or is that "sorry" final?
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique

Post Number: 4835
Registered: 01-2004

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Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 11:25 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Evolutions just evolve, Tonya. Nobody plans them. You do wear American-style clothes, don't you? Or do you wear colorful wraps and headdresses and hand-made jewelry and go barefoot.

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