When you look at (the physical) Tyra what do you see? Honestly the very first thing I see is the joyful spirit beaming through her eyes and smile. She’s always telling the models on her show to allow their true selves, their inner beauty to shine forth in addition to “YOU wear the clothes, don’t let the clothes wear you”. And unmistakably the models who heed Tyra’s wisdom seem to be the ones who win (or at least be amongst the top 5!).
After I ‘take in’ Tyra’s joy, THEN I see her hair and outfit. And almost each and every time the words that come to mind are “absolutely stunning”. Now I know Tyra is a huge weave/wig fan BUT she accepts a lot of young women who choose to wear their hair naturally, throughout her show…and the stylists who work with the models are fierce!
Viola Davis was the woman who stood out for me as I watched the 2012 academy awards ceremony on TV. I first saw her joyful spirit illuminating her smile that seemed to not have a care in the world. She looked celestial in closely cropped golden-brown locks and a beautiful green dress designed by Vera Wang.
Another one of my favorite celebs confirmed my thoughts about the role of hair in a woman’s appearance. On a reality music show he told the women’s group “all I see is hair” as he tried to coach them about their overall appearance. I thought, “Yeah, you really can’t see their beautiful faces! “ Although their hair, weave or not, was fabulous it seemed to be the focal point instead of their talent as singers.
It seems as though many women, especially those of us who are chocolate, think that having long hair will make up for other limitations like our skin tone…too many of us believe we are ugly for it. Hey we won’t even get in the damn water and enjoy nature because of our hair issue.
You know growing up I was called every black spot, spook, dot, pan, snake my brothers and others could think of:
I actually thought my complexion was the exact same color a black crayon until one day, in my fifth grade art class, we were instructed to draw our faces with colored chalk. I drew an oval-shaped head with hair that looked like Medea. Then I drew some lips and colored them with red chalk for lipstick. I drew my eyes and a poor rendition of glasses. Then I picked up a stick of the darkest chalk and proceeded to color my face in the charcoal-black color, leaving the whites of my eyes covered by glasses. The art teacher walked around examining each student’s artwork, and exclaimed how great they were doing. When she stopped by my desk, there was momentary silence and then she graciously asked me if I really thought I was that color. I was startled. Without waiting for an answer, she invited me to look into the floor length mirror in the back of the room. After studying myself for about a minute, I immediately went back to my desk and redrew my face using the most appropriate shade of brown available.
- Excerpt from, Validation Denied Grace Bestowed:somewhere between the ghetto and God was something called foster care…. (p. 27-28)
~ Quelyn
FOR APPEARANCES, BOOK SIGNINGS & TALKS CONTACT:
Validation Denied Grace Bestowed is available at
iUniverse.com, (812)330-2909 or (800) 288-4677
….and bookstores everywhere!
Copyright©2012 Quelyn Purdie
