Note to Angelina: Zahara's Hair Needs Help

She may be the world's most fabulous mom, with her beautiful multi-ethnic brood and the world's hottest babydaddy, but here's one thing Angelina Jolie clearly doesn't get: black hair. Photos of 4-year-old Zahara sporting dry, untamed hair show that Jolie is clueless about why and how black mothers style their kids' hair. If she wasn't, she wouldn't allow her adopted Ethiopian daughter to go around with a head that's basically a "hot mess," writes Allison Samuels. Neat hair isn't just about style, "it’s about pride, dignity, and self-respect."

"Any self-respecting black mother knows that she must comb, oil, and brush her daughter’s hair every night," Samuels writes in Newsweek. "This prevents the hair from matting up, drying out, and breaking off. It also prevents any older relatives from asking why you’re neglecting your child and letting her run around looking like a wild woman." Black bloggers and commenters are outraged, she adds, saying Zahara will know, when she gets older, that her mother failed her.
(More Angelina Jolie stories.)