My Sisterlocks are well known at my school, more amongst the students than the teachers. In class, I get to educate the students about my hair, natural hair, types of locks, and especially the care and maintenance. Boys and girls alike of all races ask lots of questions.
We had picture re-takes this past Thursday and on Monday night, I called myself shampooing, oiling (this Texas weather is crazy) and bantuing my locks to have a nice snazzy style for my pics and to have a good 6yr photo. Well, I got tired/lazy and only bantu'd the front. I didn't take a picture of what it looked like, because my camera is dead, but the kids immediately noticed the curls up front. As usual, my AA boys and girls, mostly, "Ms. E., your I like your hair!" They love, love, love, when I curl my locks or do something different other than free style. I don't blame em. I guess looking at me could get a little boring day after day with little or no changes other than wardrobe.
Two of my female students walked by looking in amazement commented how different my locks looked. I swear, only the front 4 inches back were curly. The back was pulled up into a pony tail, that oddly looked awfully long down my back that day. One said, "Would you cut off your locks?" I said, "I've thought about it and I might." The other jumped in, "Don't cut off your hair! They're so long!" This one rarely talks, but had something to say about my pondering of cutting my locks. Mind you both girls have perms, which they actually keep up and pulled back in ponys nicely.
But, there's something about long hair. And I think as well, there's something about knowing that the long hair a black girl/woman sees as real, meaning that person's hair, is amazing. I'm not going to lie, when I look at pictures of my locks or see the back in the mirror, I am truly amazed. You have to understand, I've had hair care drama my ENTIRE life. Even before I knew what hair meant to me as a little black girl, I found out the hard way.
If you see how my hair looked straight, or with a bald fade, or with my Q-Braid extensions, you'd know it's been a journey. From Day # 1 with my Sisterlocks to today, has been quite a journey. So those of you who have daughters, neices, cousins, friends, don't preach, just model before them the love you have for your locks and having natural hair. Show them you can be sexy, confident, educated, accomplished, and beautiful with your hair in its natural state. And even if I decide to cut my locks one day, I do have the confidence to know it will indeed grow back as long as I want it to.
Those of you who teach or are around young children, especially girls, what has been your experience with them and your locks? Please share.
Showing posts with label girls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label girls. Show all posts
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Turning the Titanic Around- Black Hair Care
Since teaching at a school with such a high concentration of black students, I'll be doing some research over the holidays to find websites and videos to share information about black hair, hair care, natural vs. relaxed, and the industry for my kids, especially the girls to check out.
We have a lot of store front Asian owned hair supply stores in Waco as most small and large cities do as long as there is a decent population of blacks to fork over their hard earned money to. And yes as the videos below display the community in which these stores serve are often poor, depressed and economically disadvantaged.
I know when I was a hair care junkie, whenever I went into, and still if I did today, the beauty supply shops, there was a low interest from the staff in giving me products to help my hair, but instead a high interest in them selling me whatever. I will say that when I lived in Houston, my favorite hair supply store which was in the Hobby area on 8326 Broadway St., was owned by an African gentleman. ANAN Beauty Supply. He was wonderful and extremely helpful and honest about making suggestions for my haircare needs. He had lots of supplies and hair, so I'm thinking he had no problem getting product from the distributors. The videos below are from a few I searched and found this morning on youtube. Thank you Karen Halliburton, for sharing your website as well. Very informative.
And so BOBSA was formed.
The struggle in London as well.
Nappy Roots Documentary
Some of my girls are so "fogged" in their self perception, it's nothing for them to walk up and down the hallways with their hair alllll over their head. They are getting better about not walking around with a comb stuck in their hair. I will tell them in a second that that's "Ghetto". I tell them, "You are a princess" and ask them to kindly remove the comb from their hair. If I can just get them to become "aware" that they can be seen and that they are not isolated. So in one way they are image conscious, and in another way, they aren't.
It's weird because one of the boys was commenting in a very direct manner to one of the girls in class about how her hair was breaking off and that she was becoming bald headed. He told her to "do something" with her hair. The sad part about it was, he was telling the truth. The sadder part about it was, she was trying to do something about it. She is one of mine who has the comb in her hair daily, yet her hair is all over her head. I saw how helpless you looked trying to defend herself, rebutting to him that she was gonna get a perm. My heart sank.
The kids look at my locks and some admire them, but have no clue or idea of how they can get to the place I am in. Jen and I discussed investing in one young lady who's a good braider and getting her trained in SLs and have her help the revolution begin here in Waco. I really believe if they knew what to do, they would do it. I know these girls are tired of damaging their hair at their young tender ages already, but do not know how to get out of this trap. Until then, they will just do what they see in the videos, in the magazines, and among each other, all the while for those who can't take care if it, will continue ruining their hair. My question to the online natural hair community is how do we become an agent for change? Do we just complain about what we see, or do we do something about it?
We have a lot of store front Asian owned hair supply stores in Waco as most small and large cities do as long as there is a decent population of blacks to fork over their hard earned money to. And yes as the videos below display the community in which these stores serve are often poor, depressed and economically disadvantaged.
I know when I was a hair care junkie, whenever I went into, and still if I did today, the beauty supply shops, there was a low interest from the staff in giving me products to help my hair, but instead a high interest in them selling me whatever. I will say that when I lived in Houston, my favorite hair supply store which was in the Hobby area on 8326 Broadway St., was owned by an African gentleman. ANAN Beauty Supply. He was wonderful and extremely helpful and honest about making suggestions for my haircare needs. He had lots of supplies and hair, so I'm thinking he had no problem getting product from the distributors. The videos below are from a few I searched and found this morning on youtube. Thank you Karen Halliburton, for sharing your website as well. Very informative.
And so BOBSA was formed.
The struggle in London as well.
Nappy Roots Documentary
Some of my girls are so "fogged" in their self perception, it's nothing for them to walk up and down the hallways with their hair alllll over their head. They are getting better about not walking around with a comb stuck in their hair. I will tell them in a second that that's "Ghetto". I tell them, "You are a princess" and ask them to kindly remove the comb from their hair. If I can just get them to become "aware" that they can be seen and that they are not isolated. So in one way they are image conscious, and in another way, they aren't.
It's weird because one of the boys was commenting in a very direct manner to one of the girls in class about how her hair was breaking off and that she was becoming bald headed. He told her to "do something" with her hair. The sad part about it was, he was telling the truth. The sadder part about it was, she was trying to do something about it. She is one of mine who has the comb in her hair daily, yet her hair is all over her head. I saw how helpless you looked trying to defend herself, rebutting to him that she was gonna get a perm. My heart sank.
The kids look at my locks and some admire them, but have no clue or idea of how they can get to the place I am in. Jen and I discussed investing in one young lady who's a good braider and getting her trained in SLs and have her help the revolution begin here in Waco. I really believe if they knew what to do, they would do it. I know these girls are tired of damaging their hair at their young tender ages already, but do not know how to get out of this trap. Until then, they will just do what they see in the videos, in the magazines, and among each other, all the while for those who can't take care if it, will continue ruining their hair. My question to the online natural hair community is how do we become an agent for change? Do we just complain about what we see, or do we do something about it?
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