LOVE HER!!

Solange[gorgeous in this pic] was on the Oprah Show last week as part of the discussion with Chris Rock on his new movie, Good Hair. It was the first time I was seeing Solange sans her lace front [weave] in anything other than pictures. It was also the first time I got to hear her speak, intelligently no less, about people's priorities. She spoke of how terribly wrong it was for world atrocities to be less tweeted about than her new hair cut and folks' personal opinions about it. Truth.com (love you Frogger ).

I'm clearly biased. It's not that I believe all Black women need to do what Solange has done, but I have worn my hair shorter than she is now and know the freedom of not having to do my hair as well as the shocking introduction to my EXACT face...and finding that I liked it better in all its exposed fullness. I loved having my head rubbed and caressed [a lot and as much as those doing the rubbing and caressing]. I loved being able to touch my scalp. I loved not being able to hide behind my hair, forcing me to truly own the honest emotions that get transcribed across my face for all to see. I loved changing men's opinions that women look better with hair, converting many who've been mad at me since growing my hair back. Chris Rock told Solange that she was cute before but he'd never looked twice at her before she cut her hair, and he's now able to see that she's actually beautiful. My sentiments exactly. Before the cut, I couldn't see her from beneath the pounds of added on locks. Now I can see that she's a striking young woman, far more beautiful to me than her sister, in my opinion. That could simply be because no one's ever actually seen Beyonce in all her truth. I honestly don't care if I ever do, but that's personal as one of the few who openly admits that Beyonce, nothing about her or her music, moves me.

I'm thankful to have been introduced to Solange's beauty, after being intrigued by her boldness in going against the grain in putting out her album Sol-Angel & the Hadley Street All-Stars. It cuts out the assumptions that my biases have completely swayed my opinions. Prior to Sol-Angel, I quietly assumed she was going to be one of Mama Knowles' clones in her aesthetic and one of Papa Knowles' in sound. Before the move to go natural, her 3rd according to her most recent interview in Honey Magazine for October, it was her music that let me know she could have my support. She rejected what most would assume is a patented formula for success stirred, brewed, packaged and sold by her daddy, turning her back on more dollars than I'm sure she's pulled in as an "individual." Permed or pressed, weaved or extended, short, braided, twisted or bald, Solange is the more interesting sister to me and I'm watching her move.

P.S. sorry for the small pic. the larger one was....well, too large. check out the October edition of Honey if you want to see this picture and the rest. the line at the grocer's checkout will suffice if you don't want to purchase it. i know how y'all do...LOL!!