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

[MizaniMami]

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.

Them poor babies didn't even have a chance. I know that when i have a little girl this will NOT be the case.

Now, watch GOD give me 5 boys and not one girl.

 

[leleepop]

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....

I'm gonna ask my momma. She said a little girl with those crochet braids had spiders in her head. My son was in Pre K at the time

 

[plove]

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.

I deleted that post because I had to rethink about it and I don't think it's about money anymore and ITA with you it's about what is Important to that mother because I See a lot a mothers walking around looking well groomed and their kids looking like a HAM. SO you are right

 

[kitchen_tician]

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.

It wasn't in the atlanta area. It was out in the country, a couple of hours away.

 

[lnhair]

Growing up i didn't get a relaxer until the age of 13. I had to beg my mother for it. My sisters were natural until they were out of high school. I think that the reason i wanted one was because everyone else had one at school. It is the same way now. My niece is 8 years old and all the kids that are around her have one and she wants one. Also alot people that are not stylist have dropped off from learning how to do cornrows and twists hairstyles and i feel young children are not ready for the maintenance that comes with relaxers. I don't even see little kids hardly ever wear barrettes and beads!!!! I use to love that when i was young. Some Parents sometimes think that once a child gets a reaxer that they can take care of their hair all by themselves. SOme parents are allowing children to get to much of an adult hairstyle: like those homemade wigs and experimenting with different kinds of colored tracks. Some kids' hair be looking like a circus or zoo.

 

[Poohbear]

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

not really getting worse...it seems the same now as it was back when I was in grade, middle, and high school for children and teens where I live.

 

[yourleoqueen]

....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...

My mother told me a very similar story about some girls she went to school with who had beehives. Not saying what you say didn't happen, but I have heard this in regards to other hairstyles not jus weaves.

 

[yourleoqueen]

Them poor babies didn't even have a chance. I know that when i have a little girl this will NOT be the case.

Now, watch GOD give me 5 boys and not one girl.

Girl, same thing I said. What did I have, a lil boy who cuts chunks of hair out his head whever he can get his hands on some scissors.

 

[tenderheaded]

You read my mind! My nephew and I were out to dinner and saw 2 girls - 1 had beautiful natural BSL braids, the other had over relaxed THIN hair It looked so bad I wanted to direct her to the nearest wig store!!!

I see a number of very young girls with overprocessed relaxed hair - so thin you can read thru it. What happened to the beautiful corm rows?
My mom gave us neat well greased braids for daily wear and a press and curl to Easter. Now all the little girls are relaxed And moisture is NOT something that's been discussed!!!

When you add in stylists who don't know about basic haircare then you have an epidemic!!!!

 

[caribeandiva]

i live in fl and as u saw for urself: it's baaadd! sometimes i just walk around shaking my head at some people's hair. it seems some of their heads have never touched water, much less shampoo and conditioner. this gurl at my job actually had the nerve to tell me that conditioners is only for white people.

 

[peacelove]

Great question, Mizani. I think a lot of it has to do with time and the fact that today's society is about doing 20 things in 10 minutes and multi-tasking. We want everything done now. And so many people are not taking the time that they used to. Every black girl I know remembers spending saturday morning in front of the Tv (watching Soul Train usually ) getting their hair braided, or pressed etc...Now we have a culture obsessed with lace fronts and phoney ponies and who cares what the real hair is doing. Just slap in some weave and keep it moving. That is the idea of black haircare - just like Sally's advertised!

 

[shiningstar84]

It's hard to eradicate ignorance. I wish there was a basic hair care class for pre-teens. It's the weaves that make this situation 10X worse than it needs to be. I didnt get my first weave till i was 15. That ish broke my hair off Common sense got me told me to stop wearing weaves and I did for the most part. My weaves since then have been few and far between.

When lil girls start wearing weaves at an early age, they probably dont notice the breakage, and continue wearing them until they wake up bald head. Then they wonder wtf happened to their hair. their only option is to continue putting in tracks, and the cycle continues.

 

[vaqtea]

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.

RelaxerRehab please rant .....

You always have such insightful posts

 

[PaperClip]

It's hard to eradicate ignorance. I wish there was a basic hair care class for pre-teens. It's the weaves that make this situation 10X worse than it needs to be. I didnt get my first weave till i was 15. That ish broke my hair off Common sense got me told me to stop wearing weaves and I did for the most part. My weaves since then have been few and far between.

When lil girls start wearing weaves at an early age, they probably dont notice the breakage, and continue wearing them until they wake up bald head. Then they wonder wtf happened to their hair. their only option is to continue putting in tracks, and the cycle continues.

In addition to the physical trauma, there's mental/emotional damage as well. The thinking is that "I don't look good unless my hair is long and it is done up". And the girls w/long hair get more attention and I think we all can agree that there's one thing that all females (regardless of age) wants: ATTENTION!!!!!!

So unless that attention is received in healthy ways, e.g., words of affirmation, high self-esteem, self-control, self-discipline, parental involvement in the girl's school and life, healthy boundaries, spiritual involvement, healthy body image, well then the DOWNWARD SPIRAL continues through generations.

 

[Syrah]

You're getting into something that has nothing to do with hair, and everything to do with people - parenting.

Why are kids walking around in white t-shirts?
Why are young girls walking around in thongs?
Why do some kids succeed in school while others do not?
WHy do some kids succeed in sports while others do not?

We could do this all day - parents.

But just think, the more folks that come here to LHCF and boards like it, the more we can help OUR generation of children, cousins, nieces, nephews, friends and relatives.

It ain't all lost.

 

[chocolatesis]

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!

I agree with this. I went to HS in the 80's, and like 70% of the black girls in my school had at least shoulder length hair, and like 40% of them had hair that was longer. I really think the young girls today are much too "grown" and are trying too hard to be "cute". When I was in HS, most of the girls got their hair done about once every two months, and in between they just greased and curled their hair. Also, where I grew up people didn't have much money, but you were "dogged out" if you left your house not looking well kept. People took much pride in their appearance (sometimes too much!) and made sure they looked well groomed. But today, what the teenagers consider well groomed sometimes . I just get imbarrassed for them.

 

[secretdiamond]

It's all about EDUCATION. On LHCF we eduate ourselves and EACH OTHER on proper haircare. In the black community, this chain of transferring hair education is often broken. The way that money and socioeconomic factors are associated with this is that those of higher socioeconomic status are usually more educated and tend to SEEK education more. Therefore, knowledge of proper haircare is continuously transferred.

Now this isn't only limited to people in higher classes. Transfer of hair education also often occurs in families where it is passed down and learned from generation to generation. I find this to be the more common link than SES alone. However, unfortunately, in the black community, this is rapidly diminishing and the treatment of hair and advice from "stylists", and the need to fit into their surroundings only further worsen this plight.

 

[caribeandiva]

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...

oh my goodness!! i heard something similar back in my country (Haiti). it was this lady who got braids (plaits) and never washed them. she got sick and felt something moving on her scalp. It was a caterpillar!! i don't if that's true or not but it kept my mom and me from getting braids or fake hair put on our heads.

 

[nomoweavesfome]

she got sick and felt something moving on her scalp. It was a caterpillar!!


fainting

 

[glamazon386]

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?

I noticed this too. I saw so many tiny broken off ponytails pulled back with rubberbands lately it was a shame. What happened to mamas taking care of their babys hair?