Survey Analysis for Hair in the Black Community

The survey process for my topic of Hair in the Black Community was somewhat difficult.  After posting the link to the survey on Facebook and Twitter, it took a couple of days before people started filling it out.  In fact, it took for my aunt to also post the link for any responses to come in at all.  I thought that I would have responses pouring in since so many people have been talking about the issue of hair especially since Chris Rock’s film, Good Hair, came out last year.  Though the survey only contained ten questions (seven short answer and three multiple choice), it took for me to continuously post the link day after day to get my full amount of responses.  I was surprised by the fact that many of the people who took the survey were older black women, and not younger black women like I assumed.  I know this based off of some of the short answers.  For example, when I asked “What do you think of women wearing their hair in its natural state,” one of the responses was “I love it I have been natural for 16 years.”  If any younger black woman were to be natural for 16 years, then this would mean that they made the personal decision to go natural at around six years old.  I highly doubt that situation.  Another surprising thing that I noticed was that most of the respondents considered the “normal” thing for black women to wear were weaves.  They didn’t even predict the state of the hair under the weave.  Weaves are indeed a common preference among black women because of its convenience and protection of the hair.  However, a woman can wear a weave whether she is relaxed or natural.  I was super excited to see that the respondents did not judge women harshly based on their hair.  One of my questions asked what they thought when they saw a woman with her hair in its natural state.  Eighty-one percent of the respondents thought that if they saw this then they would think her hair looks nice compared to 18% who thought to each their own, but they wouldn’t do it.  Luckily not one of the respondents thought that a woman wearing her hair in its natural state needed a relaxer.  Overall I was happy with the results because this survey proved to me that women in the black community are changing their views.  These women seem to hold their own opinion pretty well, and don’t allow much control from the media over their opinions.  If I could change something about this survey, then I would have added other questions or changed the way that I worded them.  Some of my respondents thought that the survey was too black and white since it only catered to women with either relaxed or natural hair.  I forgot to suggest those women who only get their hair pressed with a hot comb so these women had to join the category of natural hair.  I don’t think that was such a bad thing because natural women can use heat as long as it isn’t an excess amount.  This goes to show that even the mere definition of natural hair can make the debate a tough one.  My own personal definition may not have fit that of my respondents.  Additionally, it may have helped to narrow down my respondents by having only those women who considered themselves relaxed or natural to take the survey.  I pretty much took the route of being broader just to get an opinion from any woman in the black community.  All in all, I think the results were very helpful to me.  These results changed my own way of looking at the issue, and will be extremely important to the overall product of my research paper.