Good Hair Page #5

and its name is weave.

I don't remember

the world without weaves.

Back in your mother's day,

there was wigs, right?

The weave is like

a graduation from the wig.

At least a weave is

like an extension of reality.

Maybe her mother's mother

was an lndian or something.

It's about big hair today.

I can't keep up.

I'm like, ''Peps, you got to get

this hair bigger, you know?''

They just want

a little fullness, a little thickness.

They want their own hair,

but with some drama.

Like, they want to go like this.

Like in the movies

in the 1970s or something.

Like Farrah Fawcett.

Those images are stuck

in everybody's head,

and they ain't lettin' them go.

Chicks be wantin' to be

blonde or something.

When I first started going

to Extensions Plus,

which is where

I get my hair from in L.A.,

they used to have

a back entrance,

and going in Extensions Plus

was like a scene

from a James Bond movie.

You have dark glasses,

and you pull up to the door

and you run in,

and it's like,

''Did anybody see me? Okay.''

You know,

when I started doing it,

women weren't

as free to discuss,

''No, this is really my hair.''

No, it's not. It's really not.

So in the early days,

everyone was lying?

For the most part, yeah.

Back in the day,

a weave was kind of like

you was in a secret weavy society,

and it was like,

we vow to weave together,

and we have

little special weave sayings.

I don't know.

It was like a special little world

that literally I had white friends

who were like,

''Your hair grew overnight!

''A foot!

How did you do that?''

I mean, like, you know,

they used to have these dolls

in the Toys ''R'' Us

that you could make their hair grow

by pushing a button.

I swear to God,

they think black people

had a little button

at the small of our back

where you just pressed

the button and the hair grows.

Hair that grows,

hair that goes

To here, to there

You know, it was considered

our beauty secrets

that we just don't discuss.

And now it's like,

women stop other women

on the street,

like, ''What kind of hair

is that that you got?''

And we share our secrets.

The weave words

and the weave culture,

I wasn't in it for very long,

but you have

to get indoctrinated quick.

So they teach you a lot.

You know

how you're in the desert,

and you see, like,

the tumbleweed going by,

the scene in the movie?

Well, if you're

on 125th Street in Harlem,

or Hillside Avenue

in Jamaica, Queens, where I was,

or any number of places

in Brooklyn

or Crenshaw or wherever

you are in this country

in a black neighborhood,

occasionally you will see

the tumbling tumbleweave

blow down the street.

It's a ball of hair

that's flying out of a door

after they have done the weave

and swept up the hair.

They sweep it outside,

and it goes tumbling

down the street.

And I call it

the tumbling tumbleweave.

I love it.

Every time I see it, I'm, like,

there goes the tumbleweave.

The tumbling tumbleweave.

I think the horrific part

of the hair

was when I really started

to find out, you know,

what they was doing.

You know, because

it was a mystery early,

and then I was like, ''Okay,

if it's a wig, do they take it off?''

They're like, ''No.''

How's it stay on? Glue?

Sometimes, and they sew it.

They sew it to what?

Then I was getting

more and more information and stuff.

It was like a secret society,

a hair society of what's

really going on and stuff.

It's very interesting.

Do they have classes?

I don't know, but I'm starting it.

So you're like a weave scientist?

Yeah, l'll note myself

as a weave scientist.

You're a weaveologist.

So what's in your hair now?

A few things.

This hair, underneath the other hair,

is thick hair.

This is a weave right now.

This is a weave.

It's my edges and everything.

I have pieces that are...

...kind of, like,

you know, like, extensions.

Right now,

I have clips in my hair.

- I've attached...

- ...two pieces here because...

- I want a little more...

- ...fullness.

Mine is all one unit.

Like that.

Oh, God.

It's like Dr. Frankenstein.

''It lives! It lives!''

There are a couple

different ways of doing it.

You could do tracks,

where you just take a cornrow,

and you attach the track

onto the braid and sew.

It you have a full weave

like myself,

my entire hair is braided up,

and then there's a very thin net

that protects my hair,

and then the tracks

are actually braided onto the net.

The thing

about a successful weave,

and as we say in our industry,

''You got to know your weaver.''

Know your weaver, baby,

'cause you got to be able

to do it and cut it.

She's got to know

what she's doing, right?

I'm from New York,

but I live in Colorado.

You flew from Colorado

to New York?

Yep, to get my hair done.

Yes, I did.

How long is the flight?

The flight is 3 1/2 hours.

There should be

a weave airline.

Sometimes you got

a long flight,

and you want to pass the time.

If you could get your hair done

on the flight...

Would you take that airline?

Yes, I would.

Every black woman in the country

would take that airline.

And when you land,

your hair's done.

Depending

on who your hairdresser is,

I mean, I've been in the chair

for six to eight hours.

Black men have to become

very, very patient.

It's like jail.

And I remember it took

a good five hours.

It was a very intricate piece,

and I was very particular.

I don't like weaves

that you can see the tracks.

I don't like weaves

where it looks like weaves.

I don't like hair

that looks like that waxy hair.

If it looks waxy,

it needs to look shiny,

'cause you put grease in it,

not because there's

extra pieces of plastic in it.

I'm very particular

about my hair.

Okay.

I get serious, right?

You're really serious

about your weave.

I love my weave.

I do. I love it.

I embrace it, yes.

Do you have a pet name

for your weave?

No! Money.

B*tch costs money.

I paid a lot of money for this,

but this is an investment.

The black hair business

is a $9 billion business.

Sixty percent to seventy percent

of the business is the weave hair alone.

The margin is 125/, 150/.

How much is this hair?

$1,000.

$1,000. For just the weave

or the weave--

Just the weave, not the hair.

The hair was more.

Let me tell you,

them prices can go up.

One of these

can run you $5,000.

I'm famous

for switching out my weaves

once every month

'cause I get bored.

ls that $18,000 for the year?

Yeah, about that.

- Throughout her whole life?

- Oh, my God!

Probably about 150,000.

Over. Oh, yeah, about that.

I change my mind a lot.

So some people

have a wine cellar.

You have a weave cellar.

1998, this was

a good year for weaves.

How much does this cost?

That's $1,000.

This is $1,000?

Yes, it is.

You come in--

It's a maintenance.

You got to come in

every two weeks or once a week

for wash and condition

and every six weeks,

you have to get it retightened.

Wow. This is amazing.

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