With all the Advancements in Haircare (books, internet, products..etc)...

[MizaniMami]

Why is it that our black youth/children's hair is seemingly getting WORSE?! Our poor youth!

I can't barely stand it. I was in FL last week and they are in school. We went to the mall and those poor teens. They hair was a mess.

It's especially like this in Cincinnati. Most of them barely have enough hair to slide it into their infamous side ponytail.

Is it like that where you are? Do the teens and youth seemingly have less and less hair? I don't remember it being like that when I was in Jr High/high school.erplexed Why?

 

[PaperClip]

Two words: LAZY PARENTS!
And the results go farther than just bad hair. This laziness affects schooling, discipline, crime rates, poor health, etc. I'm tired of all of it. I'm trying to suppress a serious rant today.

 

[leleepop]

Its like this in my area too. I dunno if its because I am so into hair that I observe EVERYONES hair. I saw a relative yesterday and the first thing I noticed was how chewed up her hair was. A Hispanic girl told me that my hair was the longest she'd every seen on a black girl. She's from the Dallas area. My hair is not even armpit yet.erplexed I heard another girl say this on another board and its sooo true. LHCF is mindblowing!!

 

[~*~ShopAholic~*~]

The main problem is parents are too darn lazy to comb the childs hair on a daily basis. When I was a child my mom combed my hair every morning b4 school and when I was older I went to the BP on a regular and my mom would roll my hair up at night. It wasn't until I was really good at doing hair and starting doing others hair (hers included) that I was allowed to do my own hair. Today I see parents tell the 7 or 8 yr old to take out the 3 or 5 yr olds hair, , can you imagine all the ripping going on using the smalliest end of the comb. Once they become a certain age, their really on their own making them side ponytails every day using gel and what not to slick em down looking a hot mess, and they don't use combs neither they just brush what's on top.

 

[GoGoChik]

I noticed this too. Especially at the Junior High School where I tutored. There were about 2 black girls there TOTAL who had hair at their SHOULDERS. The rest were darn near bald. I think these little girls are trying to relax their own hair. My mom relaxed my hair until I was 18.

 

[dynamic1]

I see this all the time and I get really sad. Some of the pre-teens I see are practically bald from traction alopecia, poorly applied relaxers, etc. I was helping a dance team and 2 of the girls were natural. As we stood in the back of the room observing, one of the parents/coaches had the nerve to to call one of the naturals out and say she needed to do something with her hair (along with some other derogatory statements). I couldn't let that one go, so we discussed her comments outside of the room. There was nothing wrong with her hair. She had 2 very neat french braids.

 

[breezy]

Where I'm from all the little girls have beautiful hair until about six or so, when Mama just has to relax the hair. Then it goes downhill from there, and you can see it get worse and worse every year until they start wearing weaves at 11 and 12.

My baby is three and I just realized her hair is waaaaaay longer than mine and very healthy. I plan to keep it this way by washing when needed, keeping it in plaits or twists, and not putting a relaxer near her hair!

It makes me so sad to see these little girls with terrible hair b/c 9 times outta 10 their mothers stay in the salon with a fresh hair do!

 

[MizaniMami]

Where I'm from all the little girls have beautiful hair until about six or so, when Mama just has to relax the hair. Then it goes downhill from there, and you can see it get worse and worse every year until they start wearing weaves at 11 and 12.

My baby is three and I just realized her hair is waaaaaay longer than mine and very healthy. I plan to keep it this way by washing when needed, keeping it in plaits or twists, and not putting a relaxer near her hair!

It makes me so sad to see these little girls with terrible hair b/c 9 times outta 10 their mothers stay in the salon with a fresh hair do!

Exactly!!!

I don't know what I would do if my child's head looked like some of these girls. Personally I don't think these mother even techer their girls how to even groom well.

You have to work extra hard with young girls, teching them how to groom. Be walsking around musty, like some little boy.... Don't get me started.

 

[leleepop]

Its a mentality and its gonna get worse before it gets better. My son says alot of the girls at his school were wearing weaves and hes in 7th grade. When I was in 7th grade a weave was something elusive and for bladheaded ppl. Somehow we as a culture forgot that we have some hair and it doesint have to be strick str8. If you see movies from the seventies black woman had more hair....Sparkle,Foxy Brown movies,Even Austin Powers had the era when black woman had afros and needless to say hair.

 

[Cooyah]

add in the purple, blue and magenta, phony ponies, 1B asian silky glued in tracks on hair that's that (*snaps fingers*) long, mini-mini side pony tail. Mom looks noo better either. I just smh because they won't listen.

 

[JustKiya]

I also think it's nutritional, as well. I mean - think of the hair vitamins we take, how aware we are of how much protien we are taking in, making sure we are drinking enough water, etc, etc. If your body doesn't feel like it's getting all the nutrients it needs - your hair and nails are going to be the first things left to the wayside.
Lord KNOWS, 80% of the crap that folx call food AIN'T food - it's just a collection of sugar and flavoring and a lil flour to hold it together - and I'm sure those babies ain't hardly ate right a DAY in their life - so it doesn't suprise me to see their hair looking tore up. Disappointing, yes (esp, when I see them cutting they eyes at my nappy crown and muttering - and they ain't muttering compliments, neither), but am I suprised? Nope.

 

[FAMUDva]

Why is it that our black youth/children's hair is seemingly getting WORSE?! Our poor youth!

I can't barely stand it. I was in FL last week and they are in school. We went to the mall and those poor teens. They hair was a mess.

It's especially like this in Cincinnati. Most of them barely have enough hair to slide it into their infamous side ponytail.

Is it like that where you are? Do the teens and youth seemingly have less and less hair? I don't remember it being like that when I was in Jr High/high school.erplexed Why?

That's sad. I find the complete opposite where I live. Dekalb County, GA- Atlanta suburb. Up here it seems that good hair care in teens/pre-teens goes hand and hand with socio-economics. If you go to the poor area schools, you see more homemade weaves and girls with broken looking hair. From day to day walking through Lenox Mall or Perimeter Mall, I see so many young black girls with beautiful long hair.

So, I can't figure out what's going on it the other regions? Do you think socio-economics factor in?

 

[FAMUDva]

Where I'm from all the little girls have beautiful hair until about six or so, when Mama just has to relax the hair. Then it goes downhill from there, and you can see it get worse and worse every year until they start wearing weaves at 11 and 12.

My baby is three and I just realized her hair is waaaaaay longer than mine and very healthy. I plan to keep it this way by washing when needed, keeping it in plaits or twists, and not putting a relaxer near her hair!

It makes me so sad to see these little girls with terrible hair b/c 9 times outta 10 their mothers stay in the salon with a fresh hair do!

Growing up, my moma was the opposite. She was like if I'm getting my hair done, so is my child. She mainly kept my hair braided and when she had something coming up I went to the salon for my press and curl . But I know exactly what you are talking about because when I lived in S. FL, it was just like you mentioned.

 

[kitchen_tician]

I just went to a high school football game this weekend and I was amazed at the heads I saw. I really felt sorry for them, because just about all of them had broken overprocessed hair, that wouldn't even hold a curl if you paid them to. I think it's a result of perming too much and too much heat.

 

[Cheleigh]

I think the problem does lie with the parents. If the parent does not know how to comb their own hair, how will they know how to comb their chid's hair? For example, my SO and I went to a festival on Saturday. There was a significant number of black folk there, so I did an informal survey of the women's hair in my head. I estimated that 70-75% of the women there were not wearing their own hair. I'm including braid extensions, weaves, and phony ponytails. The remaining 25-30% had relaxed hair (most of it in texturizers or short precision cuts to shoulder length) and natural hair (twists, afros). There might have been a handful of women with long hair that was their own. Even being generous, I'd guess that at least 50% of the women not wearing their own hair had jacked up hair disasters under the fake hair.

Now, I grew up with long hair, and lots of girls with whom I grew up either had long hair, or healthy shorter hair, so I was never of this mindset that black women's hair doesn't grow long/healthy. Nowadays, it seems when their child is a baby, parents pile on products they use on their own (often jacked up) hair. Then, when the child loses the "baby hair," they're at a loss of how to comb it. Back in my day, a clueless parent got a press and curl for their child (which doesn't touch the scalp mind you). Now, that same clueless parent would grab a box of Just For Me and slap it on, then blow dry and hot curl everyday. I would guess that most very young girls' hair and scalp cannot handle harsh chemicals and constant heat manipulation (some can), and on top of that, most people do not properly moisturize their own hair, so add a child's activity level and sweat, etc.?

Then you have broken hair and jacked up hairlines. Then the parent runs to the hair salon, where a lot of stylists don't know how to do anymore than relax more often, deep condition under the dryer, gel it down with protein, or trim/cut.

It's a vicious cycle. The sad thing is, black hair care isn't really that hard at all if it's done right-those of us on hair forums showcase that fact. It's easy to get it wrong though, and then it goes all bad.

 

[FAMUDva]

I just went to a high school football game this weekend and I was amazed at the heads I saw. I really felt sorry for them, because just about all of them had broken overprocessed hair, that wouldn't even hold a curl if you paid them to. I think it's a result of perming too much and too much heat.

What side of town were you on? Stephenson HS is right behind me and I see alot of the girls walking home from school with gorgeous hair.

 

[MizaniMami]

That's sad. I find the complete opposite where I live. Dekalb County, GA- Atlanta suburb. Up here it seems that good hair care in teens/pre-teens goes hand and hand with socio-economics. If you go to the poor area schools, you see more homemade weaves and girls with broken looking hair. From day to day walking through Lenox Mall or Perimeter Mall, I see so many young black girls with beautiful long hair.

So, I can't figure out what's going on it the other regions? Do you think socio-economics factor in?[/quote]

I don't know, but you may be on to something.

Cheliegh girl you brought up some very interesting points. All of you have.

 

[scoobygirl]

I think the problem is too many young girls trying to be grown with their hairstyles and not knowing what they're doing. When I was a kid my hair was rarely "salon" styled. I got a press three times a year (first day of school, picture day, and easter), other than that my hair was in twists or puffs, the occasional french braid, and usually braids in the summer. I didn't start "styling" my hair until high school, when I got my first perm. But by then I had read alot on how to take care of a perm: leave-ins, deep conditioners, minimal heat, silk scarves, etc.

I don't see how a small child can possible understand how to take care of a perm or weave when her mama is struggling to understand herself.

 

[breezy]

I was thinking, and I think a part of the problem is that these girls think their hair has to be super straight and plat to be cute, so they use so much heat on a daily basis, and they relax every four weeks. I'm just thinking this based on my little cousins, who are 14 and 15. Every time I see them they tell me I look like I need a perm. I heard them one day talking about their friend wh has natural hair and presses it. Her hair is about APL, maybe a little longer. My cousins have ear length hair, but were talking about her "naps" and how she neededa perm. I just shook my head, thinking that''s why that girl has healthy, pretty hair, and y'all damn near bald!

 

[bluediamond0829]

its the parents...i mean they dont take the time out anymore like they use to...u have young parents that are irresponsible having kids that some of them dont know two squats about being a parent and trying to raise a child....

back when i was growing up...it was myself and another girl that use to have beautiful head full of hair where i grew up at...everyone else had okay hair....but i believe her and i stood out the most because we had a lot of hair....my mom took care of my hair...and she took care of my sisters hair...if you look at my album under the weightloss pics my sisters pony tail is past her shoulders....

but nothing like it is now...these teenage girls have these different arrays of crazy ghetto hairstyles...it all depends on where you are also too...

okay heres a quick little story....down south in Miami they have flea markets where you can go get ur hair done at...i tell people this story especially the ones that believe in putting weave in their daughters hair...and i use to get my hair done sometimes when i was back in college at the flea market bcuz it would be cheaper but if anything that involved weave i would always bring my own hair...never never used hair they had laying around...i never let them put a relaxer or wash my hair at the flea market...but i always would end up anyway coming out with hair sores because they didnt santitize their combs and use them in the same people hair...okay but back to the story... even today u can go there and see roaches, spiders or anykind of bugs crawling around...okay so the lady took her daughter to the flea market to get her hair done in this hairstyle had to have been a weave that they stuffed synthetic hair in the middle...they had this synthetic hair laying in a drawer...so the little girls came out looking really nice...but the next day she kept telling her mom that she felt sick and that her head hurt...but the mom just kept saying oh ur just faking or its nothing wrong...and she didnt want to take her hair loose because she had just spent that money on a hair do for her daughter....so i forgot how exactly how it ended up happening but i think that the girl kept complaining and went to school and complained to one of the teachers and finally the teacher just took the girls hair down...and come to find out their was a spider in the synthetic hair that had eaten thru the little girls scalp because the spider couldnt find a way out...the little girl ended up dead because of this...so i dont know if this really happened but i did hear about this awhile back...

 

[leleepop]

its the parents...i mean they dont take the time out anymore like they use to...u have young parents that are irresponsible having kids that some of them dont know two squats about being a parent and trying to raise a child....

back when i was growing up...it was myself and another girl that use to have beautiful head full of hair where i grew up at...everyone else had okay hair....but i believe her and i stood out the most because we had a lot of hair....my mom took care of my hair...and she took care of my sisters hair...if you look at my album under the weightloss pics my sisters pony tail is past her shoulders....

but nothing like it is now...these teenage girls have these different arrays of crazy ghetto hairstyles...it all depends on where you are also too...

okay heres a quick little story....down south in Miami they have flea markets where you can go get ur hair done at...i tell people this story especially the ones that believe in putting weave in their daughters hair...and i use to get my hair done sometimes when i was back in college at the flea market bcuz it would be cheaper but if anything that involved weave i would always bring my own hair...never never used hair they had laying around...i never let them put a relaxer or wash my hair at the flea market...but i always would end up anyway coming out with hair sores because they didnt santitize their combs and use them in the same people hair...okay but back to the story... even today u can go there and see roaches, spiders or anykind of bugs crawling around...okay so the lady took her daughter to the flea market to get her hair done in this hairstyle had to have been a weave that they stuffed synthetic hair in the middle...they had this synthetic hair laying in a drawer...so the little girls came out looking really nice...but the next day she kept telling her mom that she felt sick and that her head hurt...but the mom just kept saying oh ur just faking or its nothing wrong...and she didnt want to take her hair loose because she had just spent that money on a hair do for her daughter....so i forgot how exactly how it ended up happening but i think that the girl kept complaining and went to school and complained to one of the teachers and finally the teacher just took the girls hair down...and come to find out their was a spider in the synthetic hair that had eaten thru the little girls scalp because the spider couldnt find a way out...the little girl ended up dead because of this...so i dont know if this really happened but i did hear about this awhile back...

I heard this story before too. Where id this happen?

 

[2cute2B4gotten]

That's sad. I find the complete opposite where I live. Dekalb County, GA- Atlanta suburb. Up here it seems that good hair care in teens/pre-teens goes hand and hand with socio-economics. If you go to the poor area schools, you see more homemade weaves and girls with broken looking hair. From day to day walking through Lenox Mall or Perimeter Mall, I see so many young black girls with beautiful long hair.

So, I can't figure out what's going on it the other regions? Do you think socio-economics factor in?[/quote

I do... it seems like the better of kids are financially (well, their parents), then the better there hair looks... at least this is what I have noticed. They just seem more "groomed" overall.

 

[MizaniMami]

I think it's about knowing what to do.
If a mother don't know how to do her own hair how is she going to know how to do her daughters hair. It's also about money LHCF ladies buy a LOT of products. A lot of poor people can't spend their money on hair care products because they have to buy things like food.

My mother didn't know how to do my hair.
So at a young age i HAD to learn how to do my own.
Now that I know some of the dos and dont's to black hair care I can teach my lil one what i know so she don't walk around looking like a HAM.

But that's the thing.

A lot of us LHCF ladies make it do what it do with the cheapies. I think it is about learning to work with what you got. I think healthy hair can be acheived no matter what the budget is.

Who says 'Mama Shaniqueeta' can't go to the store stack up on some Suave, some Hot 6 oil, and some Herbal essences and can't have her kids hair looking decent? I think it is very possible.

if they got money to be speanding on a relaxer every 4-5 weeks I am pretty sure they got a little something.

 

[breezy]

But that's the thing.

A lot of us LHCF ladies make it do what it do with the cheapies. I think it is about learning to work with what you got. I think healthy hair can be acheived no matter what the budget is.

Who says 'Mama Shaniqueeta' can't go to the store stack up on some Suave, some Hot 6 oil, and some Herbal essences and can't have her kids hair looking decent? I think it is very possible.

if they got money to be speanding on a relaxer every 4-5 weeks I am pretty sure they got a little something.

ITA. I'm as broke as it gets, but I stay moiturizing with my BB castor oil.

But while I understandwhat plove meant about the poor families, the kids I'm talking about have in expensive clothes and shoes, and their mothers actually go to the salon. I think they just need to be better educated.

 

[leleepop]

But that's the thing.

A lot of us LHCF ladies make it do what it do with the cheapies. I think it is about learning to work with what you got. I think healthy hair can be acheived no matter what the budget is.

Who says 'Mama Shaniqueeta' can't go to the store stack up on some Suave, some Hot 6 oil, and some Herbal essences and can't have her kids hair looking decent? I think it is very possible.

if they got money to be speanding on a relaxer every 4-5 weeks I am pretty sure they got a little something.

ITA I dont think its money.....not saying I'm rich but I also got into that spiral of relaxing my hair every 4 to 5 weeks. I alway used Keracare,PaulMitchell,Design Essentials,Alterna,NExxus,etc but my hair still suffered. I forgot my hair could grow also. I t wasnt until I becamed involved with LHCF(and it blew my mind) that I realized my hair could be back to what it was when I was a youth. Now I can get cheaper fixes because of LHCF and I'm happy....IMHO Its the knowledge.

 

[SignatureBeauty]

BLEAUDIAMOND0829! Oh my Goodness! If that story is true that really hurts my heart.

At my daughters school all the girls now have broken off hair due to Over Relaxing & Lack of Hair Care, & They are combing their own hair, Now my Daughter is in 5th Grade But I keep her hair Freshly Braided Weekly or maybe 2 if it will last that long, But I see the Moms and there hair is really no better, But I didn't know about proper hair care either but my mom kept my neat and combed even though I was greased down.

But Some just don't know, I have seen One Little Girl that my daughter knows, her hair has been the same length since Pre-K & I Kidd you not,You can't even curl it on a Perm Rod, I just want to do her hair so bad, I just want to shampoo it and deep condition it, But her mom has a stank attitude and the little girl is so sweet, Maybe I can have a "Girls Hair Day" or something and invite her over. I don't know but it is sad.

My Neice gets her hair braided so much that her sides is completely Gone, it looks like her hair starts by her ears.

 

[MizaniMami]

BLEAUDIAMOND0829! Oh my Goodness! If that story is true that really hurts my heart.

At my daughters school all the girls now have broken off hair due to Over Relaxing & Lack of Hair Care, & They are combing their own hair, Now my Daughter is in 5th Grade But I keep her hair Freshly Braided Weekly or maybe 2 if it will last that long, But I see the Moms and there hair is really no better, But I didn't know about proper hair care either but my mom kept my neat and combed even though I was greased down.

But Some just don't know, I have seen One Little Girl that my daughter knows, her hair has been the same length since Pre-K & I Kidd you not,You can't even curl it on a Perm Rod, I just want to do her hair so bad, I just want to shampoo it and deep condition it, But her mom has a stank attitude and the little girl is so sweet, Maybe I can have a "Girls Hair Day" or something and invite her over. I don't know but it is sad.

My Neice gets her hair braided so much that her sides is completely Gone, it looks like her hair starts by her ears.

This is VERY true. My little cousin who just turned eleven is combing her own hair now. I think her mom just gave up on her (in general too,but that's a diff. story).

Her ends are so dry that they are red and when you scrunch them they sounds like a bunch of dried up leaves rattiling. I almost wanted to put her in a choke-hold and slap some conditioner and a baggie on them ends. But she waaaay bigger than me so she may gimme a run for my money.

But she she is doing "her own hair" you can't tell her nothing.

 

[breezy]

This is VERY true. My little cousin who just turned eleven is combing her own hair now. I think her mom just gave up on her (in general too,but that's a diff. story).

Her ends are so dry that they are red and when you scrunch them they sounds like a bunch of dried up leaves rattiling. I almost wanted to put her in a choke-hold and slap some conditioner and a baggie on them ends. But she waaaay bigger than me so she may gimme a run for my money.

But she she is doing "her own hair" you can't tell her nothing.

oMG, not leaves rattling though?!

 

[bluediamond0829]

I heard this story before too. Where id this happen?

im not sure of where it happened at i mean dwn in South Florida is the only places i know where people can go to the flea markets and get there hair done and ive seen hair that has been stashed away in drawers that stylist have used and will reuse for different hairstyles on different clients hair....so i figure it happened down here..but that was awhile back..because i heard it when i was back in college and that was about 7 years ago....

 

[yourleoqueen]

I have 2 neices, and they both have two 1/2sisters. ALL of them had beautiful hair (my neices are a 3b/c) til they ig'nit mamas started perming their hair. All of them went from healthy APL/BSL to over-processed barely shoulder length in bout 2 years. When I asked how often they get perms and how they mamas apply, I heard every month root to tip EVERY TIME!! I went OFF! I told them to tell they mamas to READ the back of the bucket or box of perm. Cuz on the back of EVERY bucket or box of perm, it says CLEARLY(often in bold letters): "Apply relaxer to new growth only, being very careful not to overlap." I mean DAMN! How you can be slapping chemicals up side your childs head and NOT reading the directions?!

Oh, and forget about deep conditioning, only wash once or twice a month. I gave them both a hair lecture, but I doubt it will do any good. THEN the younger one had the NERVE to weave-check me at the dining room table, and my hair ain't even that long. And talk about flat iron crazy! Me and the older one almost exchanged some blows over her desire to use my ceramic flat iron EVERY single day.