Essence Mag and Instant Locs.

[aquababie19]

why does it always seems that does who don't have locs find 'instant locs" so great?? i really can't see the point in having instant gratification. people always want a shortcut.

btw great letter finallyfree!

[Sunchild]

Originally posted by CurleeDST+Feb 22 2004, 12:05 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (CurleeDST @ Feb 22 2004, 12:05 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Originally posted by MuthaErth@Feb 22 2004, 03:44 AM

Originally posted by marissasensei@Feb 21 2004, 07:26 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-ChocolatChaud

@Feb 21 2004, 06:07 PM
That&#39;s like wanting a garden and instead of sowing the seeds and waiting for the vegetables and fruits to grow, you go to the store and buy some produce and then arrange on the soil... :lol

:lol I like this analogy.

:app me 2 :lol :lol

Or a similar analogy which I think many can relate to, instead of cooking your food from scratch (which takes time, extra effort and patience) you frequent fast food, eat frozen foods and prepare "instant" meals like Uncle Ben&#39;s 5 minute rice (what a travesty).

But I bet everyone has indulged in the "quick" way to prepare food on more than one occasion eventhough it directly affects your health, weight, heart and overall well being.

Nothing wrong with eating fast food because reality is, many do not have the time to cook food the "right" way which is from scratch so why sweat those who are interested in transitioning to locs in a more "instant" fashion?

I don&#39;t see what the problem is - they are loc&#39;ing and over years will have a head full of healthy locs God willing. Back when I was first interested in locs many transitioned with braiding the hair with yarn. I tried it for 6 months and lost patience and wanted my hair "loosed" so I took it out. Whatever works man. [/b][/quote]
This is the loc board, not the health board. We are not talking about fast food.

[Sunchild]

Originally posted by aquababie19@Feb 22 2004, 12:48 AM
why does it always seems that does who don&#39;t have locs find &#39;instant locs" so great?? i really can&#39;t see the point in having instant gratification. people always want a shortcut.

btw great letter finallyfree!

Exactly people WITHOUT locs.

[silkgirl2]

I just don&#39;t understand why, we as black people can&#39;t be happy with our own beautiful natural hair. Everyone is looking for the "easy" way out. I shook my head when I read the article.

[ChocolatChaud]

Originally posted by QueenLena03@Feb 21 2004, 11:16 PM
I for one think the idea of having fake locs is crazy but hey that&#39;s me. I do know of people who are concerned with vanity and would love to have instant locs down their backs. It is profitable to advertise those methods of loc extensions and since Essence puts many ads in their magazines for relaxers or whatever is popular I do not expect anything more from them. For those who have grown their locs and went through the rough stages so to speak having fake locs is not respected. Some women with relaxers desire the natural look and get weaves just the same. Either way there&#39;s nothing like the real thing.

ITA :app

[expecting]

Originally posted by aquababie19@Feb 22 2004, 04:48 AM
why does it always seems that does who don&#39;t have locs find &#39;instant locs" so great?? i really can&#39;t see the point in having instant gratification. people always want a shortcut.

btw great letter finallyfree!

I don&#39;t think it&#39;s about people without locks finding instant locks "so great." I first had locks back in 1994, probably well before many of you, and I have been natural since around 1992, and I felt the same way then and feel the same way now about the issue.

[elani75]

Well, well, well... Essence has done it again, I see. Can&#39;t say that I am surprised. Their touch-and-go profiles on natural styles always did upset me from the jump. Sorry to say, but the fake locs article isn&#39;t the first or only time Essence has been insensitive or neglectful to the group of black women who are natural. It&#39;s just sad...

I was disappointed four years back when they did a piece on "getting to the root of our hair drama" for ONE issue. All it did was expose the roots of Essence&#39;s shallow content editing that continues to be a problem.

My problem with the effort from four years ago was two-fold. One, it boggled me that Essence would attempt to get to the root of black women&#39;s hair drama in only one issue with a few pages. Needless to say, the package just did the gloss-over and totally took the easy way out by mostly focusing on relaxed hairstyles. I was much more sensitive to it because I had just gone natural the month that magazine came out. It would have been nice to see the hair drama as an occasional series carried throughout the year or however long it took to actually get to the root of it.

The other problem I had with it was the lack of care shown to black women who are natural. There was one tiny piece on natural hair in the spread and there was something about it that just irked me (can&#39;t remember just what but if I find the issue I&#39;ll be more than glad to share). However, there was a whole profile piece on a late-night hair salon somewhere&#39;s up north where folks can go get their hair relaxed in the wee hours of the morning or something of that nature. The whole effort fell horribly short and to me just added to the hair drama that we go through.

I was really insulted that I didn&#39;t see myself in the magazine for black women and that a magazine for black women could just barely touch the surface of a topic that is so important to so very many black women. I canceled my subscription about a year after.

A friend of mine remarked to me once that she was tired of seeing magazines such as Essence and some others treat natural hair like a flavor of the month or something "exotic" to do when black women are tired of their relaxed hairstyles.

For many of us, this is not a hairstyle, but a way of life. Natural hair is not a fad for many of us but if one had to go by Essence, it wouldn&#39;t appear that way. Now, four years later, they&#39;re printing ish on fake locs. I&#39;m not surprised, but what&#39;s next? Really....

It&#39;s just adding insult to injury. First, they don&#39;t focus enough on natural hair, and now they want to serve up the Mickey D&#39;s version to growing locs. It&#39;s just callous and disrespectful. Honestly, I don&#39;t expect more from them. :rolling :smug


-e

[expecting]

Elani,

I see what you&#39;re saying, but I think your argument would be more valid if Essence had NEVER shown a head of natural (non-weaved, non-extensioned) hair in the magazine before. They have. They have shown authentic locks, braids done on natural hair, twists, TWAS ... and they have offered the rudimentary steps on how to achieve such styles.

If Essence is supposed to represent a certain strata of black women in America, it cannot be presumed that they all wear natural hair all the time. Many of them relax. Some wear weaves and extensions. Others are natural. Essence could not possibly cater to every hair type in the limited amount of space they even dedicate to hair in each issue.

[blufaerie]

Originally posted by expecting@Feb 22 2004, 09:37 AM
If Essence is supposed to represent a certain strata of black women in America, it cannot be presumed that they all wear natural hair all the time. Many of them relax. Some wear weaves and extensions. Others are natural. Essence could not possibly cater to every hair type in the limited amount of space they even dedicate to hair in each issue.

I was a little disappointed with the article myself, but you make a valid point Expecting....

on a another turn, its a good reason to start a natural hair care magazine. The problem I think with that is advertising. How many of us "natural heads" use many products? The relaxer industry uses all these chemicals that kill the hair and in turn they produce more products to "fix" it. The african american hair care industry is just that- industrial, and capitalistic. A lot of people think natural hair care is a quick way to go broke.

Just my $0.02
:bubble

[Jessy55]

Originally posted by blufaerie@Feb 22 2004, 04:40 PM
The problem I think with that is advertising. How many of us "natural heads" use many products? The relaxer industry uses all these chemicals that kill the hair and in turn they produce more products to "fix" it. The african american hair care industry is just that- industrial, and capitalistic. A lot of people think natural hair care is a quick way to go broke.

I think you hit it right on the nail. There is also a whole money-making industry based on fake hair, whether synthetic or human, and many of them advertise in Black magazines and make money out of black women. There are also many salons who make money out of complicating hair styling for black women and they would lose money if black women really learned how to do and style their own hair. Even though they seem to promote an "easy way out", you have to go to their salons and buy fake hair to get it done, as opposed to growing your own locs or natural hair at home. $$$$$$$

That being said, in all fairness, Essence has had articles on growing natural locs. I do believe they are trying to be all things to all people, so they cover all sides of hair issues. We really can&#39;t expect them to cater to only one segment of the black population. Besides, they are only showing something that has been going on for years with many "loced" celebrities (Lisa Bonet, Ericka Badu, etc.)