In the few recent years, there has seemed to be an uptick in a number of trends that have predominantly involved the black community. One specific trend is baby hairs, or more formally known as edges. For those who are confused about the term, baby hairs are hairs located near the forehead and the start of the hairline that are significantly shorter than the rest of the hair on a person's hair, these short hairs can also tend to be more unruly than the rest of the hair.
Now baby hairs are not distinctive to the black community, women of all races and ethnicities can have baby hairs, but the recently popularized trend of “laying” one's baby hairs IS distinctively black. The process of laying one's baby hairs is when someone takes hair gel, or edge control, and a small brush (or an old toothbrush if you know what I'm saying) and uses them to stick the baby hairs down in whatever pattern the person chooses. The act was meant to not only help black girls add more creativity to their everyday styles, but also to help tame the unruly hairs that shape our face into something more presentable.
In the last two to three years though, this trend has blown up, and had even been seen on runways in the likes of New York Fashion Week, which was seen as extremely controversial. With the new trend of laying baby hairs has come more just creativity but have also brought along controversy. It has brought on the debate of WHO should really be laying their baby hairs, and since the trend was started to help keep hair that continuously looked unkempt many in the debate are saying non-blacks, specifically Caucasians, should not partake in the trend just because it is popular, since their hair has mainly and historically been straight, and therefore there is no need for them to partake in the laying or baby hairs.
Other controversies that have followed are whether it's okay to cut and lay baby hairs on wigs, if baby hairs are allowed to be long, and should people who don’t necessarily have short or unruly baby hairs that are part of the black community be able to cut themselves baby hairs out of their longer strands.
Now as a black girl myself I know it took me quite a while to get on with and get good at laying my baby hairs, but not every black girl wants to go through the effort of laying their baby hairs every morning, and maybe some don't know how just yet. For my black girls who aren’t really into baby hairs, there's still good news, YOU DON'T HAVE TO LAY YOUR BABY HAIRS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO!
Just because other black girls are doing it and you're not, it doesn't make you any less black than them. Hair is all about expressing your individuality and rocking what makes you feel good so whether your baby hairs are layed or not as long as you look good and feel good with the hairstyle you're wearing, it really doesn't make a difference.
