Statistics fascinate me. I’m sure that a lot of you probably don’t share my enthusiasm for the mundane but I do need your help in clearing up something. I recently wrote an article in which I stated that over 60% of black females still use relaxers. This figure came from an article on Ebony’s online mag (their figure is 65%).
Doreen wrote in saying that she was surprised that the figure was still that high, what with the natural movement in full swing and all. I have to say she definitely has a point. Natural hair blogs definitely outnumber relaxed hair blogs at the moment, of that there is no doubt. But is that evidence enough to show that there may have been a shift in the scales away from relaxed hair in society in general? I doubt it.
It could be that the internet savvy among us, you know the ones who google EVERYTHING, having discovered the online natural hair community and may have abandoned relaxers as a result. This makes more sense to me because even though I see quite a few ladies rocking their natural these days, majority of the ladies that I see on day to day basis have relaxed hair.
I have done a bit of researching to see if there are any up to date figures on this but unfortunately I have been unable to find anything but mere conjecture.
Please help me in figuring out what the current split is by answering the question below. It has the added benefit of helping me to write for the right audience in the future!
Poll closed. Results:
56% – Natural
17% – Transitioning
25% – Relaxed
2% – Don’t know