What Hazel E and Teairra Mari Can Teach Us About Friendship – blogged by: @proudlylauren

If you watched Love and Hip Hop Hollywood this week, then you witnessed the on-again off-again friendship between Teairra Mari, and Hazel, explode yet again. This time their friendship took a left turn when Teairra found out Hazel was doing business with Princess Love, the fiancée of her ex Ray J. Ray J and Teairra had a tumultuous relationship, that ended badly, and has now translated into drama and physical fights between Teairra and Princess. So it would seem a bit shady that Hazel would want to have any ties with someone who’s had such recent beef with her best friend. However, this type of drama appears to be rather normal between the two; as Teairra Mari decided a year ago, to do business with a man Hazel E was involved with. Now, I’m the type of friend who wants nothing to do with someone if they have current drama with my best friend.  Furthermore, I wouldn’t do business with a man who felt comfortable enough to disrespect my best friend the way he did, for a single that never got released. Just like I wouldn’t do business with a woman my best friend fought a week ago.  So you can imagine my disbelief while I’m watching on Monday, as Hazel E and Teairra argue, unlike any best friends I’ve ever seen, and Teairra exits with a “I hope you die tomorrow”. Now obvious ex best friends, I’m pretty sure they couldn’t teach us a thing about allegiance, respect, or anything regarding loyalty, but one thing is for sure, these women can definitely teach us a few things about the fundamentals of friendship:

1 – Any man your best friend has dealt with, is off limits: No Hazel and Berg weren’t in a relationship, however Teairra knew how invested her friend was in that “situation”, even giving her advice on him. If your friend has had emotional ties with a man, you should never, unless he is saving your life, deal with him, not in a business way, friendly way, or any way. If she has cut ties with him, so should you. There are millions of other men in this world, and I’m sure you have enough of your own dysfunctional ex’s to go back to, leave hers alone.

2 – If you don’t feel you are wrong at least hear them out- When Hazel confronted Teairra about Berg, Teairra immediately shut Hazel down, hearing nothing. Teairra felt she was right so she wasn’t down to hear her friend out, or understand where she was coming from. I don’t think she was right, but if you’re ever in a situation where you feel that you aren’t wrong, at least apologize for the impact of your actions, and explain what your initial intent was.

3 – Retaliation is not going to make the friendship better– If you and your friend get over a bump, and mend a friendship, what good does it do to retaliate? Hazel knew Teairra would be pissed, but didn’t care because of the Berg situation. If you’re going to sabotage your friendship anyway, don’t even bother wasting time to fix it.

Realistically there’s not many lessons I would advise the public to pull from Love and Hip Hop, but how not to be a friend, is definitely one. Contrary to it’s popularity throughout the seasons, being a good friend is not that hard. As long as you have the fundamentals of trust, loyalty and respect, the above points won’t even be an issue.