I had a black boyfriend once, who got his hair done and wore a scarf to bed. Weird, when a short cut would be easier and look better - like Barack O., only maybe a bit longer. (Not a fan of the shaved head look...)

Saw a pic of Barack and Michelle in Africa, I think it was on Huff, and her hair was natural, sort of tied back - a good look, by me.

Black people have influenced music, style, speech...POLITICS! Maybe it's time to stop processing and start influencing hair styles. Let white people use chemicals and hot rollers and stuff, to get curls. Oh, wait a minute...we actually did that in my youth, before we discovered natural and messy... (I keep thinking a lot of the white hairstyles I see on TV would simply not have cut it in my youth.)

And all 'o that jive..

I say

bring on back

The 3 feet stacked

Beehive..

I didn't care about her butt, and I don't care about her hair.

...either.

OK - I'm Caucasian. Left to its natural inclinations, my hair would be gray, hang completely straight, and fall in my face constantly. Every month I pay $$$ to have it colored, cut, and highlighted, and every day I wash it and dry it so that it looks presentable. I work everyday at an executive position, as did and does Michelle Obama. My point is that there are socially acceptable ways to look -- she presents herself in that manner. I don't wear my hair "naturally" and neither does she -- so what? We both wear our hair in a way that befits our position and what we feel looks attractive. She's African-American -- I doubt any of us will forget that (nor will she) regardless of how her hair is styled.

Hairstyles aren't really my thing. I don't judge people by their hair. (I wouldn't be qualified in the first place.) But I have to say that African-American hairstyles attract my attention sometimes, because 1) they look good, and 2) a lot of things that African-American men do with their hair could not be done with my own hair. Trying to be creative with hair like mine (straight, fine, receding) would be rather pointless. But African-American hair allows a lot of creative possibilities. I've often thought that African-Americans spend a lot of time on their hair just because there's so much they can do with it, and the results look good.

I don't mean to sound envious, but I hope you understand the reason for my curiosity. I hope that my curiosity does not seem invasive or inappropriate. In my experience, there's one good way to express my interest: when I notice that a woman has just had her hair done, it's alright to tell her that her hair looks nice. I think that's probably universal.

I suppose that Sasha and Malia will give us a chance to see African-American hair in all its wonderful variety. But I don't like the idea of giving a role like that to couple of kids who would be a lot better off if they were shielded from the spotlight. If scrutiny is unwelcome for most people, then we should probably leave the girls alone.

Oh my God, what next? Her lips? Her teeth? Her toenails? Is there even one square inch of this woman you will not be scrutinizing?

And really, you don't need to pour so much money and effort into your hair if you'd rather not. Society is not making you, it is your choice. Plenty of black people do not go through these rituals and plenty of white people insane amounts of time dying, bleaching, curling, straightening, etc. their hair. Some people consider this a worthwhile way to spend their time, but it really is optional.

I just don't get this lady's angle

Sayin' black hair's

In a tangle...

The author asks would she wear her hair differently so that 'she looked more like the black person she is?'

This question is problematic. Michelle IS the black person she is. She can look nothing other THAN the black person that she is. The author writing that is like suggesting that women should dress in skirts so that they look more 'womanly' or that Jews should attend synagogue if they are to be 'real Jews'. (Both experiences I and my husband have had.)

What the author is REALLY saying is that Michelle could change her hair to look more like the author's definition of a black woman. Which seems to have something to do with untreated hair and a defining of herself against the hegemony of straight, caucasian, hair. The whole question is corrupt and the kind of thing any sort of minority should run so far, so fast, away from.

Michelle's identity as the black woman SHE is (as opposed to the kind of black woman the author is for eg) has been formed by so many different forces. The fact that she has been impacted by these forces doesn't make her any less black, it just makes her who she is. There is a difference.

Martin Buber wrote about this vis a vis the Jews all the time.

ie (to paraphrase) 'I am really Jewish and therefore everythign I do is what a real Jew would do.'

To say anything else is just another bid for power, another way of telling someone else what they should do.

Articles like this make me glad that Mrs. Obama's twat is not publicly visible, lest it also become the subect of Ms. Kaplan's scrtiny.

If I were to remark

This is a stupid kind of scrutiny..?

As a white girl with weird, curly, one-more-humidity-point-and-it's-clown-time hair, I've followed the black hair issue with great interest. I've found myself in the "ethnic hair" aisle looking for product that might tame the frizz -- and wondering whether relaxing might be an option. Hmm. "Good" hair is an omnipresent worry for women. It's more politically charged for black women, but put me in the Anne Lamott challenged-white-girl school of hair. It's not trivial. It's how you look in the world. It's how you present yourself. If you can't control your hair what else can't you control? The implicit question in the hair issue -- and having grown up in the white, wealthy suburbs, I can tesitfy that there is a terror of "ethnic" hair, that black hair is considered alien, other, etc. So, I've been watching Michelle and the girls' hair with great interest -- because it *is* one of those taboo topics. We don't talk across the racial divide about hair, but it's something we all think about.