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Taste of Chapter Two Out of Our Culture My interaction here is unique and different from the rest in this book because I was at Walmart in Indianapolis, Indiana USA and simply eager to interview the first woman I saw wearing different hair. I saw a couple shopping, greeted them and presented myself. I explained to them what I wanted to accomplish. I added that I was researching reasons why women love wearing wigs. I then asked the husband permission per my culture to ask his wife some questions about the hair she was wearing. He agreed but wanted to answer my questions in place of his wife. I asked him if he could tell me the reasons his wife wore different hair, if he could think of good reasons why she wore her hair differently, and if there might be any known facts regarding her not wearing her natural hair? He began by saying that he knew his wife well. He then said that they were out of their culture. He reflected on their culture and how everyone wore their hair in a certain way, so they grew up doing that. The concept of natural hair was foreign to them because the females in his culture wore their hair like that from childhood on. So, for the women in his culture, her hair piece was natural. It was the way they always wore their hair. They never knew any other way. As I listened to him with interest and passion, I wanted to know more about what he had to say. I looked at him with my blinking eyes, signaling that I was not completely getting what he was saying. Therefore, I did not want him to stop halfway through his point of view, so I was very cautious not to drag him from his train of thought, especially when he talked about being out of culture . I did not quite fully comprehend his views. I wanted to know more about what he meant by out of culture . He interrupted me right away; I can't speak for all women, but I can speak for this woman, he said, referring to his wife. Since my wife was little, her mother straightened her hair, so it has become normal and natural for her. By natural, he was referring to the way the hair grows naturally, and by normal, he was referring to what society believes women's hair should look like. It is what we see on television and in magazines every day, he added. How women's hair is being presented in the media is natural. He went further and added, My daddy, my daddy's daddy, and my uncles, all the people around me, the people I look up to, the people who look up to me, and everyone in between wore their hair a certain way. Moreover, my son wears his hair like this, and he did not ask me to wear his hair a certain way. I wanted to make it clear that no one should tell you how you should wear your own hair. The way you choose to wear your hair is totally up to you and your beliefs. It is related to where you are from, what your belief and your culture are, and how you view hair . He continued on and said, Different people have different ways of wearing hair. If you see Indians, Chinese, Mexicans, or Africans, you'll notice each of these people wear their hair differently with different styles. It is how their grandparents used to wear their hair. I went deeper into our discussion and explained that, for me, it seemed like women didn't feel confident about their natural hair. I used the words confident because I wanted to stretch out the pride women felt in wearing their natural hair and how they felt about themselves regarding natural hair. My assumption was that if women loved their natural hair, it would grow as they wished by taking necessary care of it and using the right products to maintain it. As Dr. Phoenyx Austin stated in her book titled If You Love It, It Will Grow: A Guide To Healthy, Beautiful Natural Hair published on Amazon.com, There is a great interconnection between how women feel about their hair and how they feel about themselves. Read more of this interaction in the book.

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