Nappy Hair

Stereotype. 

Is it me, but do you ever reflect back on those pivotal moments when you had those "A-ha Moments" in learning that were very fascinating? I still have them to this very day. When I was in the 6th grade, I was full of excitement to learn how to use different words to express myself. 

In reminiscing, nothing quite tickled my fancy that I can recall, like learning the word, "stereotype." Now, if my memory serves me correct, which it doesn't as I age, I recall thinking the word stereotype meant some kind of stereo. I just knew my guess could not be wrong. After all, I knew what a stereo was and I knew what type meant; so how could I have went wrong on that word? Boy, was I wrong. 

Since learning what stereotype meant, I've come to realize that it is just as real at 48 years old as it was at 11 years old. If it has been a while since you've read the definition of stereotype, let me refresh you. As defined in Websters, "stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing."

Being a hairstylist, stereotyping, unfortunately, is very commonplace. For example, it is not uncommon for a hairstylist to assume that a person is black if they have brown skin with textured hair. I highly recommend licensed hairstylists to do a thorough consultation. A consultation gives the professional  a chance to get to know the customer first before they even touch their hair. It is the consultation that reduces the likelihood of stereotyping. 

Artificial hair.

In no place do I see stereotyping like I see it in the hair industry. Stereotyping has moved from the eyes to the thoughts, to the pages and now to the computer screens worldwide. Words and images of "natural hair" being predominantly associated with women of color regardless the location. As a matter of fact, stereotyping is also changing the meaning of words. Stereotyping promotes the ignorance that "natural hair' is textured hair for Black girls and women. Funny, what about boys and men?

Yep, it's that bad. I was in the salon the other day and my new guest asked, "What is your take on natural hair? I notice in all that I read about you, you shy away from that word." I responded, "Well...if it grows from your head, it's natural." She was like, "Oh." I told her that I was not trying to be funny or not sensitive. I told her that I was being professional. In being professional, it is in one's best interest to avoid stereotyping. I doubt any customer I serve would find me credible if I asked if they had "natural" hair as I touch it or implied it wasn't natural because it was chemically altered. To me, that would not be professional. To me, that would be stereotyping.

For the record, a wig or weave in any fashion is the only hair that is not natural. It is sewn onto some sort of netting, weft or is attached to the natural fibers growing from your scalp in many ways from gluing, to sewing, to clipping them in, fusing and the likes.  Seriously, not much of hair styling can take place without some hair. Except In the many cases of people who can not grow hair, is on medication that causes them to lose their hair or for those who simply shave it off because they don't want any hair; then no hair it is. They may opt for a wig in the many ways they can be made. 

Natural hair! 

Natural hair is hair that grows from the scalp in the varying textures of curly, kinky, wavy, straight and Afro. Everybody of the same race or within the same family does not have the same hair. Natural hair is not a black thing. Textured hair is most certainly not a black thing. Natural hair that is chemically altered via straighteners, texturizers or hair color REMAINS natural. Just because it is altered does not mean that it is not natural. It means your hair is altered. Promoting altered hair as anything but natural is like saying, "If you wear makeup, earrings or put clothes on; you are not natural." 

For the record, hair is a pliable resilient fiber that you can safely do many things to alter it. Hair's chief purpose is adornment because adorning yourself is innate. The unknown desire to be cute or alter your appearance (hair included) is natural as scratching an itch! To be exact, they still have not found any scientific or biological reason why we have hair. Aside from the obvious theory of protection, research has not yielded anything profound about why we have hair.

If it grows from your scalp, it's natural.

Rather a person wants to braid, twist, loc, color, relax, perm, wave or weave their hair; it is still natural. Texture and race have nothing to do with determining whose hair is natural. Again, if it grows from the scalp or skin; it is natural. 

The deliberate act of excluding others who do not look like you is along the lines of discrimination, racism, classism, sexism. When you clump people together and assume they are all the same and share your sentiments is stereotyping. I professionally and deliberately do not do business with any hair company, styling tool manufacturer and hair stylists who overtly or indirectly incorporate stereotyping in their scope of service for financial gain. When it is at the expense of uninformed people, it makes my skin cringe. 

Natural Hair

As much as I am a fan of social networking, I do not like it when I see people stereotyping the phrase, "natural hair." Then they have the audacity to take it to another level by indirectly cyberbullying and using overt racism by promoting that "natural hair" is a black thing. That type of behavior is exclusive. Natural hair is inclusive. Most humans are designed to grow natural hair. Therefore, promoting it as exclusive to one race or textured hair group of people is not true. Exclusion is mean spirited. It scares people and it confuses people. 

This "natural hair" movement in some ways is not moving.  The "natural hair" movement has an element of rhetoric that misinforms, divides and hurts. It is rhetoric that takes advantage of people who want to belong. It misleads those who are looking for solutions to hair styling challenges. It is also rhetoric that has an element of a clique that only a certain photo filtered shades of brown with made up faces and innuendos of being "black enough" is natural. That is wrong on every level and you know it. 

If you cut us open, humans are
pretty much wired the same!

Stereotyping happens to me often. I once participated in a "natural hair" event and was questioned the "naturalness" of my race and hair because my hair was artificially colored blonde. My hair is still blonde. Regardless if my hair is artificially colored or not; I am a woman of color and my hair is still natural. Challenging a person's authenticity of naturalness based on the color of their skin or if their hair is chemically altered or artificially enhanced is preposterous.  Suggesting that girls and women must somehow be validated as "natural" by images that rarely looks like them when they wake up and get on with their day is uberly unrealistic. That challenge and suggestion give way to a belief that "natural" is carefree and automatic. Natural is never carefree and automatic. Natural requires time, creativity, care, attention, and patience. 

In conclusion, as a licensed hair stylist, I know for certain that "natural hair" really does grow from the scalp of all who can grow hair. I know that "natural hair" is not a black thing. It is a biological thing.

Ridculousness

Is it me, but is there something about the "natural" hair phenomena that makes you go hmmm? Going "natural" with hair to me is like going "natural" with race. In both instances, you are already natural. Just because you alter them doesn't mean they are not natural. It simply means they are altered. And that is the natural beauty of the varying hair textures and skin complexions. You can alter both. You can alter them topically, chemically, surgically, permanently, temporarily, organically and naturally. You can alter your hair and skin color any way you like for any reason you want. For some reason, there are people who like to make people feel some kind of way about altering their hair. Regardless the method. When a person does something another person doesn't like we use words to express it. And one way we use the words are via semantics. Americans are good with semantics; we love wordplay. For example, there are individuals who are playing with the word "natural." They are using the word with hair and is taking "natural" hair to places it should never go. 

In my professional and personal opinion, "natural" hair care should never go to ridiculousness. Just a few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about the crazy "natural" things people do to their hair. I actually thought I was blogging about something. Just when I thought I touched on a topic and covered its bases, another interestingly ridiculous "natural" hair care phenomena had spewed from the mind of an individual into the homes, salons, and typed into the search bars of millions of computers world wide. What ridculous "natural" hair craze am I referring to? In the words of one my favorite hip hop groups, Stesasonic; "Brace yourself for the ultimate rare!" 


The latest ridiculous "natural" hair care craze that is spreading like the Ebola virus is the use of Monistat Vaginal Cream. Yes, there is one person who is responsible for this ridiculous non medically proven ignorant concept and practice as they tout it as "natural' hair care. You are reading that sentence correctly. Monistat Vaginal Cream is being touted as a "natural" alternative stimulant that can promote hair growth. How? Well what I've read is that, due to the anti-fungal ingredient in Monistat called ketoconazole, it is supposed to help your hair grow. There is a theory that the Ketoconazole ingredient supposedly can act as an interceptor to a gene that lies deep down inside the walls of the follicle that causes hair to thin or not grow at all. The follicle is the tiny hole that hair grows from. In theory, the ketoconazole in turn lets some of the hair grow in pretty fast because it blocks those gene receptors in the follicle from receiving the signal to not grow. There is nothing "natural" about applying Monistat Vaginal Cream to your scalp to act as an interceptor to a gene that makes hair thin or not grow because the makers of Monistat Vaginal Cream has NOT said so. While it may not be natural, it is ridiculous.

Monistat Vaginal Cream is suppose to block the thinning hair gene
from receiving the message to shrink and thin or not grow.
Yeah right.

But wait, there's more! Oh yes, my dear readers and fellow hair care junkies, there's more. The other ridiculous "natural" hair phenomena that is not cleaning hair is called; water wash.  What is this, again, you ask? I don't know. But, to me, "water wash" is very close to a oxymoron. I mean water is not a verb.  It is a noun. You know; a person, place or thing. Right? And isn't water a odorless, tastless clear liquid that is the basis of the fluids for all living ORGANISMS (microganisms are organisms). And isn't wash a verb that uses water and soap/detergent to clean? IJS (I'm just saying).

Now, don't go getting your hair into a bunch. According to what I watched on YOUTUBE, the "water wash" method is a simple technique of "washing" you hair with water with the intent to redistribute the sebum (scalp oil) oil from the scalp throughout your hair using water and hands only. NO COMB. Never mind the fact that your hand can absorb water and oil. Now, how is this "natural" redistributing of sebum oil works is weird science to me? The concept is being highly recommended by these ordinary people as an alternative for those who have sensitivities to shampoos, those who have textured hair but is low in density (number of hair fibers per cubic inch) and for those who want to maintain or improve the texture of their curly, kinky, wavy or Afro tresses. Now these people in these video; I don't know readers, but they are some dirty haired ladies instructing ordinarily sane clean haired women to do some insane stuff to their hair. Now that is not the word I really want to use, but I digress. Again washing implies the use of water and soap. So the term "water wash" makes me feel all foo foo frilly on the inside.

Something about this image reminds me of rinsing and
not washing.

Now in both cases, I must say my gut reaction was, "How ridiculous!" After my research, I am now yelling as loud as I can, "How ridiculous!" As a cosmetologist, my job's primary focus is not hairstyling, nail care and skin care. Instead, my primary job is public safety.  The Ohio State Board of Cosmetology allows me "to do" hair, skin and nails as I please. Provided, I practice public saftey and sainitation is the midst of me working. So while these ordinary people on YOUTUBE are promoting this practice at home. The "water wash" increases your chances of not being able to enter a salon almost anywhere in the United States due to the critters that will automatically grow in your head or make you a breeding gound for all kinds of micro icky stuff that will make a going into a salon illegal. Can you say microorganism, bacteria, MRSA, staph, lice, scabies and so on? Every salon in America has "state" rules and guidelines for public safety and sanitation that we by law must adhere to in order to safely serve the public, work, and let you sit in the chairs at our salons. No licensed hair stylist can provide service to a person with live bugs on their persons (hair included). To do so violates public safety. So wash your hair and wash it good with soap and water.

The Ohio State Board
of Cosmetology, by law requires
every hair, skin, nail and spa to
post the Rules, Regulations
and Law around PUBLIC SAFETY.

With that, I will conclude this blog with two informative facts about using Monistat Vaginal Cream in any fashion on your scalp to grow your hair and using "water wash" only method to clean your hair. Both are natural and both do not work. The mere act of squeezing Monistat Vaginal Cream from the tube and rinsing your hair with water as you rub your hair is indeed natural. Make no mistake. However, if you really want your hair to grow, increase your blood supply to your hair bulb located inside your follicle that is on your scalp. You can do this via washing your scalp or a scalp massage. Ketoconazole has not been medically proven to affect any gene via topical application. So don't use it and if you are, stop, 

If you want to preserve or improve the texture of your hair, you need to use soap and water. Lawd, people! Water is interestingly beneficial for you and your hair when you use it frequently properly.  I am certainly no Water Treatment Specialist and I do not work for the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).  If your curly, kinky, wavy or/and Afro texture is being compromised from the use of any kind of shampoo and conditioner, it is because you are not 
using the right kind. You also are not using or is using the wrong kind of protein on your hair. Lastly, your hair could be coated from not being properly cleaned.  Water washing will only make matters worse after extended use. How? At one point in my life, I was a "Soap Hating" kid. One summer I decided to water wash and not use soap when I bathed. You know getting in the tub, dipping the soap in the water and rinsing off. One night I was itching profusely. When my sister and cousins asked why was I scratching and itching so much, my mother walked passed and said, "Micororganisms." When they asked, "What's that?" She replied, "The cooties!" No one wanted to play with me for the rest of the summer and I and the "cootie" touch all that summer....lol

Cootie Science Humo

The meaning of ridiculousness is "causing or worthy of ridicule or derision; absurd; preposterous; laughable. Absurdly or unbelievably good, bad crazy, etc." Now, let's use it in a sentence. Mixing Monistat Vaginal Cream with hair cream to apply to your scalp for your hair to grow is ridiculous. And to wash it off using water wash method and call it natural hair care is ridiculousness!"