Raine 054-
Thanks for the picture. Wow…You were blessed lol
Long therapeutic story-
I can think of one AA woman I met some years ago with long MBL + hair IF I am restricted to think in terms of Black Americans. Since I don’t make the distinction between AAs, DRs, Haitians etc. I could add many, many, many more to the list. In fact, her parents were JA but she was born and raised in the US- does she count? And now, I’m thinking of another one who was born and raised in the US from a Haitian mother. Her hair recently became long because she started caring for her hair (maybe secretly found out about LHCF)?
I was born and raised in Haiti (AA parents- long story) and I know TONS and TONS of longhaired women. My desire to have long hair today is, in part, because I felt like I was never beautiful in their (my friends and others) eyes because my hair just wasn’t long or beautiful enough.
I was asked to be in a hair commercial with 3 other girls. I had the shortest hair and the thinnest hair of the group. One had auburn BSL hair (here hair is still one of the most beautiful heads I’ve even known), another short (bob) dark, thick and shiny hair and the other SL thick dark brown hair with a hairline to die for. I never did the commercial because I just couldn’t see what I could add. I was surrounded with beautiful hair at school and at extra-curricular activities classes, social life etc.
However, when I came to the US on holiday I never saw AA girls with long, healthy hair and got hated on quite a bit with the girls I played with on the block in BK. Not pretty enough in Haiti but too pretty in BK- how confusing for a young girl! One day as I was walking with my mother this one girl stopped me and asked ‘Do yo momma do your hai (no ‘r’)?’ I could barely understand her question!
The hair care techniques in Haiti were not different from the DR culture of hair care practices. It is customary to go to the salon every week and getting a DC every week. Most people had perms although today they are much more accepting of natural hair (can’t wait to go rock it when I go back to visit!) Every one (ethnic group) went to the same hair salons (white, black, Latinas, Lebanese, Jewish etc.) There were 4-5 major ones that I could remember. The Lebanese hair salon had the best reputation for getting hair super straight and of course I never felt good enough to go there. In fact, I remember the first time I went to Cleopatra (the name of the salon lol), he asked me ‘who cuts your hair?’ The cut was not up to his standards and I was so embarrassed. The blow dryer was so hot, that the place would get very smoky. My regular salon was the Dr. salons, much cheaper. Hey, mom made me J
Most young girls with no perms had presses. I remember getting my hair pressed on special occasions. So, having a good moisture balance may have contributed to the healthy heads I knew.
In Haiti, we all used Pink Lotion and several other no-nos from this board but the one thing we always knew about were, DCs and rollersets.
PS- I hope to be one of the elusive WL’ers in 2010….
ETA: Young girls have presses on special occasions. But for an everyday style, it's plaits and bows etc as well...