I’ve never much been a fan of Essence magazine, primarily because I have never really been a member of their target demographic.  Sure I’m a contemporary, “young” Black American woman, which is supposedly their market but… Well, I’ve never been “trendy” and that’s who this publication caters to mainly.  I could give a care less about the products their paid advertisers push and I’m not trying to duplicate whichever flavour of the month celebrity’s lifestyle they’re trying to push so, in short, I’m just not that into them.

SIDENOTE: I’m really not into any pop-culture style magazines so this is nothing personal on my part.

I remember back in the day when my  mother had an active subscription to Essence and there were actual articles that spoke directly to the average Black American woman’s lifestyle platform.  As a young girl I would flip through and read said features and formulate opinions or educate myself on what was considered important to my particular subset of society because it was an honour, in my opinion, that a publication would dedicate itself to broadcasting the Black American woman’s agenda to the world.  I think this was back when Susan Taylor was the E-I-C back in the early eighties.  I can’t exactly remember at what point in time it was that Essence took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and began pushing the focus on convincing women that lives should echo that of pop stars and actresses instead of building wholeness by learning to accept and nurture themselves, but I do remember refusing to have any part of the magazine around the age of fourteen.  Over the years I’ve picked up a few issues here and there when I was bored at a doctor’s appointment or waiting my turn to get my hair fried but never returned to placing any real stock in Essence because I ceased seeing me within the pages.

Since I transitioned and natural hair has once again become a national “trend” I’ve noticed Essence taking a stab or two at covering the phenomenon.  Not surprisingly, each and every time they tried they failed at going any deeper than the surface.  They’d rehash old politics or do a spread on the latest singer/actress/cover model who took the plunge.  In their pages and on their Website they’d post picture upon picture of “must have” styles (usually those only achievable by a stylist) or advertise the latest product formulated for “nappy hair” (usually only those high end brands celebrities swear by) and create the illusion that they were really taking an interest in supporting women’s decisions to forgo chemical processing and return to their roots.  But of course it was all for show.  Typically the only “nappy hair” represented was on the heads of women with loose curl patterns, the products were way out of economical reach for the average consumer, or the articles published were lightweight op-ed pieces that never got to the heart of the matter.  They really don’t care, especially when you consider the large amount of money they receive from Black hair companies that push perms on every other page in the magazine.  So with all that being said, when I saw the cover of the November 2010 issue of Essence and my eyes took in the big, bold “Love Your Natural Hair” near the top, can someone tell me why I felt compelled to shell out $3.99 or my hard earned money for it?  Quite possibly I assumed that this time they were going to actually break past the surface of talking to celebs or celeb stylists and hit on some points that are worthy of note.  Maybe this time I thought they would have taken the wave of disappointed virtual groans from readers after each failed attempt to treat natural hair as more than just a passing fad, and were finally going to present some meat with the pop-culture instant potatoes.  Perhaps I was hoping they’d give me reason, even a small one, to feel good about this publication that purports to be a voice of the Black community.  Maybe I just wanted something to rant about since I haven’t done so in awhile. *lol*  Whatever the reason, I picked it up, handed my cash to the cashier and dove into the pages searching furiously for the feature.  I seriously deserve to be bitch slapped for that.

For those who have not had an opportunity to see the issue, or have not been graced with it via your subscription plan yet, I would like for you to prepare yourself for extreme disappointment.  Not even is there no meat present here for you to sink your teeth into, they didn’t use enough water in the instant potatoes!  For as large as the font was on the cover you would expect at least a full article or three to four pages of features, right?  Well aside from pictures, what has been published there would not have even filled a quarter of a newspaper page, and it was nothing more than regurgitated style spotlights that you could find on any of today’s natural hair Blogs FOR FREE!!!  Not only am I pissed because I’m out of four dollars for the equivalent of someone copy and pasting something I, Curly Nikki, Afrobella, the forums at Nappturality.com or any other hair/beauty/style Blogger have probably already covered years ago… I’m pissed because I was sucked in by them using a hot button, personal topic to get me to do it!  Strike one for their marketing execs because it’s so they’re getting to the point that they know if they slap the term “natural hair” on any issue, or place enough pictures of “natural hair styles” anywhere close to the magazine’s name and it’s guaranteed views.  Remember when they jumped on the bandwagon on Twitter Natural Hair Day only after the day was half gone and we every day ordinary people had spent the whole day tweeting about it?  And even still the “feature” was scant and full of links back to their half-baked “natural hair” articles.  They don’t get the point that for many this is not just a fad or a trend or a way to get attention, and we deserve better than smoke and mirror articles or a flash in the pan “spotlight” if they want to use our lifestyle choice to sell issues.  So ladies, and gentlemen if you happen to be reading, Essence has gotten it wrong yet again when it comes to giving us Napturals a fair shake when it comes to putting our unaltered tresses in the spotlight.  And while many are thinking we should be happy any mainstream media  source is even taken the time to mention the topic, what they fail to realize is the topic has been mentioned repeatedly for the past decade or so, if not longer.  It’s past time for the mentions to become more than just blurbs to sell magazines which only tell the “glamourized” part of the journey.  Or maybe I’m expecting way too much. *Kanye shrug* Hasn’t been the first time.

Just my buck fiddy… since I would be able to get my three ninety-nine back.

Healthy Hair Wishes…