MAN IN THE MIRROR

I know by now you have all seen MJ`S accident with his hair on fire.......it brought tears to my eyes because the reason why he was burnt so badly was because he was wearing a jheri-curl, the hot hairstyle of the 80`s for black people.
I hated it then, I hate it now and if he didn`t have all that goo in his hair it might not have been so bad...look at the picture when he gets up with his scalp totally bald, it was just as if his hair had disintegrated which it did.
This style had so much grease ,I can`t even call it oil, that if you sat down in someones car you would leave a major oil spot on their head rest.
You would see the track marks sorry head marks of where a jheri curl wearing person had been.
It was a sad look...and if the weather changed and it threatened rain, your hair rained ....it dripped until the weather dried out- sad, sad, sad but black people loved it as it gave us the curls we always wanted and it lightened our thick coarse hair.
To see this man spinning to save his life and nothing came of it but a pain killer addiction, is mindboggling to say the least!
In 1984 I was 32 years old and a top hairdresser - that word doesn`t exist these days everyone is a stylist - anyway when the accident happened I knew right away that it ended up badly BECAUSE he was wearing a jheri curl......it has two potent chemicals,one to straighten it and then another to curl it.....put that with all the goo to keep it moist and curly......and there you have it, a recipe for disaster!
Just as how Michael`s father told him he was ugly because his nose was big, black people were all brainwashed to think our hair was the ugliest thing, how often I have had to correct people when they say I have 'good hair' because my hair has a natural, softer curl instead of a tight, kinky curl. Michael asked us to see the 'man in the mirror' we all had such low esteem that since it was so hard to keep our hair straight we thought greasy curls made us look better..........
Michael you need to know that in 2009 I`m wearing a huge afro, as it was called back in the day -it's called a natural now - and black people are running behind me to touch it and every where I go they tell me how fabulous my hair is.....God bless us!