On the May 28th segment of the popular talk show, “Dr. Oz,” the host of the show, Mehmet Oz, decided that he would get into the hair “revolution” that appears to be appealing to many black women by inviting a hair specialist and a member of the audience to go for the “big chop.”
Oz introduced Marie Simone Smith, owner of one of the first natural hair salons to demonstrate how women should go about getting rid of that hair that has been damaged by relaxers and chemicals and get back to your natural hair.
In his show, entitled “Style Your Natural Hair,” Oz then brought forward Sonya, a member of the studio audience, who claims that she is sick and “tired of the cultural stigma of nappy is tacky and straight is great,” and want her own natural hair back.
With the assistance of Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, which hardly qualifies him to be doing revolutionary treatment on women’s hair, Marie the hair specialist gathers Sonya’s hair into a tight ponytail on the top of her head and promptly chops off the top part.
The studio audience erupts into an enthusiastic round of applause, as if something great had just happened in front of their eyes. Then Oz holds up the chopped off section of hair so that all can see the difference between the healthy hair that is left on Sonya’s head and the damaged hair they have removed.
In the second part of his show, Oz demonstrated other methods of determining whether or not your hair has been damaged from too much chemical use.
However, even though the studio audience seemed to enjoy the show there have been several negative comments after it was aired. One commenter wrote that they wanted to know who was this Marie Smith that was supposed to be such an expert on African-American women’s hair? They continued that after searching StyleSeat, Facebook and other resources, they couldn’t find any mention of her at all.
Another commenter asked that since Oz was a cardiothoracic surgeon, what did he know about women’s hair, specifically black women’s hair? They added that he was after all a man, a white one at that, and he should maybe stick to what he knows best, hearts and lungs.
Maybe Oz and his network should stop chasing the money and let black women determine their own destiny. This may have been a push.
