Rihanna--Nappy Hair Don't Care!?!?

I love Rihanna and I love her single Man Down (it's generally playing on repeat in my living room), however I actually was not a fan of the cover art for the single. I realized I was not alone when a "fan" tweeted today that Rihanna's hair looked nappy in the picture. What did Rihanna have to say about this? Click here and find out! How do you feel about Rihanna's reaction?

Nappy Head: Can you get a comb through that?

“Your hair is thick and nappy! Can you get a comb through it?” This statement was made by a 10 year old girl I happened to be speaking with one day. She also took the liberty to inform me that she had her “Just For Me” perm touch-up done the day before as she preened herself in the mirror.  Even as I type I’m honestly not sure how I feel about the word nappy in the context of describing hair.  If you follow me on twitter you might have witnessed my confused reaction to this statement. At first *blush* I felt as if the word was disparaging and offensive. I wanted to explain to this young lady that my hair wasn’t “nappy,” but instead was what I would like to call “kinky.” As the words for my rebuttal were beginning to formulate in my mind I paused for a moment and wondered: what was the difference? And more importantly, why was I responding to it so negatively?  My response to her was “…I love my hair the way it is…” and she proceeded to draw a picture of me depicting my “nappy” hair.  After she had gone I felt her words still stinging my ego, so I did what anyone self-respecting kinky haired woman would do, I Googled it! Here are a couple of definitions I found for “nappy” that I found:

• Miriam Webster Dictionary : (1)chiefly Scottish: Liquor: Specifically: Ale ; (2) a rimless shallow open serving dish; (3)chiefly British Diaper; (4) Kinky
• The Free Online Dictionary:  (1)Having a nap; fuzzy: a nappy carpet;  (2)Often Offensive Tightly curled or coiled. Used of hair.

The image search proved to be even more interesting with most of the images on page 1 having to do with babies and diapers.  There were, however, about 5 exceptions: an image of Don Imus, an image Lauren Hill and an image of group called Nappy Roots, an image of the book entitled Nappy Hair, and this image:

After I concluded my mini research project, I still cannot say that I fully appreciate the word’s actual connotation. Is it in fact a negative word that us naturals have accepted (like the N-word for  some people of color or perhaps the term “coolie” for some  people of Indian decent). Should I embrace it? Should I defend it? Should I loathe it? Should I correct a person who uses it? I would love to hear from some of my naturals about their thoughts on this… especially those of us in the 4abc category that might be called “nappy-headed” on any given day!

My Portrait ;- )