00:00Now when you say braid, do you mean like cornrow?
00:03Do you mean like literally take three strands and you know put it together?
00:06Because I can do that.
00:07I cannot braid hair.
00:09I cannot braid.
00:10Bitch, can I braid?
00:11I can braid.
00:12Like I am, like I am the family braider.
00:16I will say that even with twist outs though, like that is for me something that I'm trying to master.
00:24I can two strand twist.
00:26I can flat twist.
00:28I can loose twist.
00:29I can flat.
00:30I just can't cornrow.
00:31You can revoke my black girl card.
00:32I can't cornrow.
00:33I can't braid.
00:34I just can't.
00:34I'm very good at cornrows.
00:36That's my specialty.
00:38I can braid.
00:40I was that girl at the sink just like screaming my head off.
00:44Every summer my mom would be like, it's time for braids.
00:47And I'd sit between her legs and then she'd put on Lion King and she would braid me for
00:52hours and hours, what felt like.
00:54I have such a love-hate relationship with those memories of getting my hair braided because
01:00my butt would get tired and I'd be sore and like I didn't want to sit there for hours.
01:05I was all so tender headed so you yank me this way, you yank me this way.
01:08My head down, I can't see what's on the TV cause you gotta have my head going this way.
01:12I think that I've just inherited the trait of not knowing how to braid from my mom.
01:18My mother didn't know how to do my hair.
01:21My grandma didn't know how to do my hair.
01:23It was always a thing.
01:24I used to walk out the house and it would be all over my head.
01:27I would have afro, puffs, all of that.
01:30Between like the ages of like three and twelve, my mom would keep my, my mother would keep
01:40my hair and just four braids braided to the top.
01:43Just one, two, three, four.
01:45That's, that was the thing.
01:46My auntie had a bucket of beads and I would just sit through them.
01:49I want this bead.
01:50I want this bead.
01:51And then I would run outside and my hair would flow behind me.
01:55The process was definitely strenuous but like the final result, couldn't tell me nothing.
02:01I mean the confidence level was on ten.
02:04Like it was, it was on one when I had my hair braided.
02:08I got a little pep in my step because I got my straight back.
02:12Braiding and black motherhood go hand in hand which is exactly why before I have any kind
02:17of babies of my own, I am going to learn how to braid.
02:19I need to have my child in between my legs braiding their hair.
02:22I have to.
02:22I don't feel like you have to know how to braid in order to be a black mother.
02:26Come on now.
02:27Braiding, I do believe is a huge part of black motherhood.
02:30I don't think that it's synonymous anymore.
02:33I think at a time it probably was because we probably didn't have a choice.
02:38You know, we didn't have that much money, didn't have that many resources.
02:41You had to do your baby's hair.
02:43We have the means now, which is a great thing to send our children to beauticians and send
02:49them to places where other folks can braid their hair.
02:54And it's creating a different experience for the black woman in motherhood.
02:58There is something like an art form to it.
03:01And I do think it's a part of our culture.
03:03If I knew how to do hair in general, let's just keep it a stack.
03:06Do you know how much money I would save?
03:08I want to cornrow for my own purposes.
03:10Like I wear wigs now.
03:12So I have to literally pay someone to cornrow my hair, which just seems a little bit wasteful
03:17more than anything.
03:18I always question like, why do I know how to do this?
03:21And why is it so hard for me?
03:23You know, because people make it look so easy.
03:25I wish that there was a braiding class or like someone who had enough patience to sit
03:30and like just walk me through that .
03:32When people ask me, how did I learn how to braid?
03:34I legit do not know.
03:36I think I was self taught.
03:38One of my first memories of me braiding another human being's hair.
03:43I was seven and my sister was five years old.
03:47I would part her hair, you know, that blue magic grease.
03:49I put some blue magic grease on it and I just started braiding it.
03:53And I'd give her a little singles.
03:54Like I'm actually on a quick timetable because I'm about to be an auntie any year now.
04:00Girl, if you can't braid, you can still be fly.
04:03Hello?
04:04Go get you one of them heads, right?
04:06If you want to learn how to braid and you're instructing like,
04:09I can't, I don't know how to do my hand.
04:11Like practice on yourself.
04:13Watch the YouTube tutorials.
04:14Whatever you have to do, we have to learn.
