"Can white people chemically straighten their hair?"

In my Site Meter, I discovered that someone had searched in Google for an answer to the question, "Can white people chemically straighten their hair?"

Many people whose skin color group would be considered "whites" in the United States, nonetheless have wavy, curly hair that may even suggest aspects of their ancestry of which they are unaware, but which DNA genetic testing could easily confirm.

Here in Brazil, and perhaps now more than ever before, white people and Black people--everyone--seems to be straightening hair. One television commercial even declares that, "You have a right to straight hair," and then of course suggests a product which can make that right a reality.

My step children play with a girl who would certainly be considered white in the United States, based on skin color and long wavy mousy-brown hair. But long and wavy isn't good enough anymore. She straightens her because she wants it to be as straight as that of the Japanese and Hawaiian women whom we see on television.

Based on my personal observations, the same caustic lye and formaldehyde that will straighten Black women's hair will also straighten the hair of white women. And many white women are taking the bait like bluefish swallowing hook, line and sinker.

The reader who posed this question found an American Journal of Color Arousal article entitled, Do Some People Who Straighten Their Hair Need Psychiatric Treatment?

I think maybe they do, and I'll tell you why based on personal experience: Two or three months ago, my step-daughters began using chemicals to straighten their hair. Since then, they have both begun to sneeze constantly, but with no symptoms of cold or flue, no headaches, no change in apetite, no wait gain or loss. Why are these TWO girls sneezing constantly and does the correlation with hair perming prove causation?

In addition, my wife has begun going to the sink and blowing out of each nostril in turn as if she had an insect stuck in her nasal system. The sound is raucus and can be heard from neighboring houses. (I know because our neighbor does the same thing.)

If you became convinced that your two daughters constant sneezing was the result of perming their hair, would you forbid them repeatedly use of those chemicals? Or would you select constant coughing as the inevitable price of pretty hair?

If you believe that pretty hair today is more important than protecting your lungs for the lifetime you will need them, then maybe you should see a doctor. If your lung specialist says to stop using lye and formaldehyde, but you find this socially and politically impossible, then I suggest that you see a psychiatrist or a community activist who can help you to free your DNA-determined hair from the grips of cultural and economic insanity.