There are many reasons for women desiring to wear weaves, wigs, and extensions. Those reasons can stem from having a bad hair day, avoiding hair maintenance and cost, to a medical lost of hair, damaged hair, thinning hair due to age, wanting a different look. None of these reasons are wrong reasons for wearing hair that is something other than your own; however, it becomes a wrong reason when you truly believe that the unauthentic hair you purchased and desire to wear is better, prettier and more valuable than you are or when it becomes apparent that your basic personality, your character, (who you really are) is or has become as unauthentic as your purchased hair.

As a woman who enjoy wearing her fair share of make-up, I am realizing that unauthentic hair has become just as popular and meaningful as the make-up we choose to enhance our face, eyes and lips. I must admit that when I was younger, I used to put my make-up on much thicker. My reasons are still the same. As a black woman, who is considered, multiracial, I have always felt a little disadvantaged and insecure in wanting, to be a bit more tanner.

I've finally come full circle and in facing many of my insecurities, I realize that it is alright for me to like my make up, as long as I don't depend on my make-up to aid in my liking myself. As women, we like to buy things to enhance our beauty; there is nothing wrong with that, but we must be aware that we would all feel and look much better if we were to remember to put on our beauty from within.

There are many wonderful, resilient, courageous, strong, intelligent and successful women who wear weaves, extensions, wigs and dye their hair upon made-up faces. They have no problem with self esteem, or issues of self hate or denial. This article is not about those women. It is more about the women who hide their true nature and character beneath its fakeness. It is about the lack of authenticity of the hair and what the significance of that lack is saying as it pertains to many of the women today that seem to be wearing this hair at all costs. Does anyone like short hair any more? It seems that fake hair, especially long fake hair is everywhere!

To be honest, I'm confused. I love my hair, my daughter's hair, my son's hair, my grand daughters hair and I would hope that those women who feel the need to hide their natural hair, would love their hair too. All of our hair is very different and all of our hair is unique. It is the head of hair that God gave us. I'm sure our heavenly father is proud of his work. The King James Version of the Bible (KJV) Psalm 139:14 says 'I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well'

I question the women who are broken and hope they can learn to love themselves, but for those who aren't broken, I question their believe in God's masterpiece and his work. We are all the result of God's craftsmanship. I feel that we should be proud and thankful for whatever God gave us. Our uniqueness, our implausible strength and odd beauty, our extraordinary and unusual differences are what make us so great and wonderful. Today, we are looking alike and offer no real creativity that would have been added gifts to the world. We offer nothing in our long drawn out wigs, hair pieces and cover-ups. We should let the differences in the textures of our hair express our unique styles, talents and creativity, and those talents shine, glow and be seen,especially, in our natural state; however, my opinions are just that, my opinions.

There is one thing that we have in common and that is that we want to be loved, pretty, desirable, sought after and important. When I look at the amount of make-up I have, the playful wigs, the clothing that I buy, the hats and scarfs, and when I listen to many of my male friends, none of these things seem to matter. From what I read and hear, most men like women better in their natural state, with a personal temperament that is natural, honest, happy, free, positive, godly, loving and pure.

In asking the question, what does a woman's hair say about her, one could say that a woman's hair puts her in a self-selected class of her own. The information that she offers about herself could be clearly in her hair, whether it be its authenticity, its style or its length. We all know that a woman's hair is an important factor in evaluating her overall appearance and could send the wrong or right signals. We must also be aware that judging one's character by one's hair can be tricky.

Could desiring someone else's hair be a way for us to aline ourselves with some fanciful, fictitious segment of what we conceive as another personality buried within or are we simply recreating ourselves in light of a modicum of artistic talents that lye within our subconscious minds. Whatever it may be, it doesn't seem to be or to look natural. According to a book I read called, Adult Development, authors Allyn and Bacon wrote, 'A theoretical approach to explaining babies' fascination with mouth objects might suggest that infants derive more physical pleasure from mouthing objects than from manipulating them with other parts of their bodies. Such an approach would most likely belong to the family of psychoanalytic theories, a school of thought that originated with Viennese physician Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Psychoanalytic theorists believe that developmental change happens because internal drives and emotion influence behavior.' This could explain why many women may desire to wear wigs, weaves, extensions and other unauthentic pieces to cover their natural hair. Could it be said that most of what we do is behavior driven?

I believe that in many cases the pressures that comes with being needed, loved, desired and sought after, in combination with some, social, biological and emotional factors could lead to that which is considered an embellished version of the real you. I feel that it is rather easy to get lost in a world of make believe if you do not adhere to our inner beings. What do we really think of ourselves? Are we pretty without the make-up or the fake hair. It all goes back to what we consider to be beauty. I believe that beauty come from within and is maybe enhanced from what we embellish on the outside of our person. I believe in the old saying that beauty is, what beauty does.

Women who feel overwhelmed in their lives, women who may be depressed or unhappy are continuously seeking help from their individual problems. Women who feel good about themselves, who are successful and enriched and may not be fulfilled in some facet of their lives, are too, seeking help from different individual problems; It's just the way life is. There is a small window of women who interweave and intertwine, where permanent loyalties are formed and this seems to be the case in the world of unauthentic hair. Where does the real beauty lie?

In determining that beauty is skin deep and in determining what is best for women, one would have to almost consider giving birth. Our authenticity is rapidly becoming extinct when we measure the number of lip injections and breast implants. Things have gotten to the point where the line has become unclear as to how we determine what is real and what is not real. Could all of this fakeness be forcing its way into our personalities? Are any of us real people? Have we lost sight of who we are? Are we hiding more than just our hair? We could all take a hint from the soulful songstress, India Irie when she sings that "I am not my hair. I am not my skin. I am the soul that lives within."