Where do I begin? I am about to vent. I have truly been traumatized by hairdressers, and I'm not going to lie; if I didn't find this website and "virtually" meet you ladies, I would have remained a tormented soul.
I have sisters, and my hair is the tightest (nappiest, whatever you want to call it). When we were younger, hairdressers (except for my first hairdresser, who was old and eventually retired) ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS complained about how difficult my hair was to do in comparison with my sisters. It gave me the worst complex about my hair and my beauty as a Black woman for so long! My younger sister's hair is naturally curly, and my older sisters is naturally curly/wavy, but both have really soft textured hair that easily relaxes or blows out if natural. I suffered so bad y'all because of this, and I can't even write the demons I had about my hair for years and years. Also, because of this, their hair was always longer than mine. Again, this caused a great deal of issues. Thankfully, our mother never made me feel ashamed of my hair being nappier than my sisters when she did it. I used to always tell her "why did God give me bad hair?" She and my father hated to hear this, and did everything they could to reassure me that my hair was beautiful too, but I just couldn't believe it.
Another hairdresser told me that without relaxer, my hair would never grow, because it was so unmanageable. She also told me that I needed to relax every 4 weeks, and I don't have hair like my sisters. Thankfully, I have gotten away from those hairdressers, many who I now realize were the ones pulling out my hair. I have more stories, but I don't even want to speak about them, b/c they still cause pain just thinking about them.
To this day, I am always afraid to go to new hairdressers (which I will actually be doing on Saturday). I haven't been to a hairdresser in a year, b/c I'm so petrified of them screwing up. It looks like I've gotten a lot of growth, and I really don't want someone to come in and screw it up.
Before I close ladies, I just want to tell you all two last things. First, thank you for giving advice, listening to venting and just helping me learn so much about my hair. It has helped me externally, but more importantly, it has helped me in other ways you couldn't even imagine.
Second, for those of you with daughters, especially if you have more than one and they have different hair textures. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE teach them about their hair. Tell them their hair is beautiful. My mom made me touch my hair so I could feel for myself how soft it was. A hairdresser (crazy) tried to put a relaxer in my hair when I was 8 without my mom's permission, because she hated my hair so much. Thankfully, my mom came back to pick us up and stopped her. I know that's extreme, but some of these hairdressers and other people are planting seeds of self-hate in your children, and it's so important that you stop that! No one's hair is bad, unless they don't know how to do it. Later on, a hairdresser who loved my hair taught me that my hair is a tight curl, fine-textured and very soft, but tightens up/coils/shrinks a lot. I have really learned to love my hair, whether I wear it natural or relaxed!