The Clean on Dirt

I absolutely love blogging. I love the excuse to read, research and learn. I love to take the information I read about and share it with others. Blogging is pretty cool! Blogging gives writers a chance to share their love of reading and writing for the sheer delight of it. I'm gonna use my love of reading to share with you a little bit about the truth on dirty hair.

Dirty hair is a very very touchy topic. As a matter of fact, talking about dirty or unclean, anything can be difficult. However, when you work in a business that requires you to clean and be clean, guess what? You can do it! So, here goes the clean on dirt.

Now, this blog is not limited to or is focused on women of color and women with textured hair only. But-ter-umm, the practice of not washing hair for weeks to months at a time is a practice that is predominantly used by women of color and women with textured hair. Why? Well, my research leads me to the answer that slavery is the culprit. Damn it! I know.

Kemsit, Nubian Queen of Kemet Pharaoh Mentuhotep II
(2061-2019 B.C). Queen Kemsit having 
her hair beautified by her servants.

Slavery is always going to be more difficult talk about than other topics because it evokes pain on the descendants of slaves and the descendants of the colonizers (thank you Shuri of Black Panther for bringing light to the word). There is nothing good about slavery. The effects of slavery have stained America forever and there is no way of avoiding the topic whenever America is discussed in the past, present or future. Unfortunately, even when it comes to dirty hair, the topic of slavery is responsible for yet another difficult topic in the making of America.

Now, getting to the point of dirty hair. It is to my understanding as a cosmetologist, there is a school of thought that has been passed down in some cultures of African American families and families of people with textured hair (some people with textured hair do not consider themselves Africans or descendants from Africa. But that is another blog) that textured hair should not be cleaned as often as people who do not have texture. The other school of thought is...the less texture (curly, kinky, wavy or Afro) one has in their hair, the more "they" can wash their hair. As an African kid raised in America, I was raised to shampoo and condition my hair weekly or more, especially during the summer when we went swimming. And my hair looked like Chaka Khan on steroids when I was a kid! So that captures a just a few scenarios around cleaning textured hair.

Well, the practice of not washing textured hair frequently is not a good one. It is no secret that when one of the most inhumane conquistador of all times, Christopher Columbus explored the sea to find the shortest route from Europe to Asia, he obviously had no sense of direction or what he was doing because he ended up in America. History tells us that according to his own journal in his own writing that he enslaved 6 natives on the first day upon them welcoming him and his cronies on their island. He wrote, "they make good servants." And within 60 years, that crook and his cronies physically enslaved thousands of Africans and killed some 250,000 indigenous people (Tainos)  with guess what? Rape, torture, lynching, disease and you guessed it, FILTH.  And from there, the White lie that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 to discover America began. To think some 526 years later, the American world leader proudly summons masses of people to do what? "Make America great again." Meaning?

Understand that when the slave trade began, they did not do so with slaves. No, Boo Boo Kitty, they did so with Africans who were stolen and captured. When they stole the Africans, they did what any typical thief does when they steal, they take what they need. And typical of any thief, they do not bring other things along that are of no use to them in the selling of their stolen items. Just ask any thief. When a person steals clothes, they don't steal the soap powder and the iron to care for the stolen goods. When a thief steals a car, he does not steal the gas to fuel it or the garage door opener to park it. No, he takes whatever he deems of value to sell on the black market. That was slavery. Slavery was not only about stealing Africans, it was very much about selling Africans as slaves. The slaves were not things; they were African people who were moms, dads, teachers, priests, chiefs, daughters, sons, grandmas, mathematicians, architects, scientists, doctors and more. So, when the Europeans stole these Africans from their homes to enslave them for sale for labor, trust me when I tell you, African hair care was not on the roster and neither was their soap.

Alata Samina or Ose Dudu a.k.a black soap

Soap was not on the roster because Europeans did not use it. We know that Greeks love to claim the fame of every damn thing. Let the Greeks tell it they are responsible for geometry, history, numbers and writing. That is not true. Claiming and owning or starting are three different things. When you read the history of cleaning (even on the internet), Google and the peeps who do that thing called "algorithms" would have the average scroller to believe that the Greeks invented and set the standard on civilization, including cleaning some time during the era of 300 BCE. And you know what? They're right. But guess what else those algorithms capture? If you search for it the right way? They reveal that meanwhile back in ancient Kemet (Egypt) on the Nile between the period of 9000 BCE to 300 BCE, way before the Roman Empire, Africans were hunting, gathering and growing their own food. They had dynasties, spirituality, writing and pyramids. They were sustaining on their own. It was the Greeks, Romans and Persians who entered into Egypt for help. They were in the "Dark Ages" the Medieval times. They had very little going on and needed help desperately.  Oh and soap may I unapologetically add! African and African American scholars such as John G. Jackson, Cheikh Anta Diop, Dr. Ben Yosef Johchannan, Dr. John Henrik Clarke and Anthony T. Browder, are writers on the history of ancient Kemet who all attest in their books that the birthplace of mankind and the start of civilization  began in the interior of Africa along the Nile Valley.

It is imperative for all people, regardless of age, sex, race, nationality, and texture of hair to know that cleanliness began in Africa. No such practice of not cleaning self and hair is in the history or practice of Africans and people with textured hair. Not cleaning hair as needed is a practice forced on enslaved Africans by Europeans slave masters and colonizers alike. Unfortunately, enslaved Africans were forced to drop and disown their lineage and lifestyle as Africans. They were demoted to labels and titles such as Negroes, Blacks, people of color and minorities.  As a result of that kind of mind control, rape and physical abuse that the enslaved Africans endured caused a "loss" of mind and their ability to identify with their homeland and lifestyle as Africans for hundreds of years afterwards to the present moment of me typing this blog.

Thus began the tragic practice and belief that descendants from enslaved Africans now called Blacks, people of color and minorities can not wash and comb our hair like Whites or people with less texture in their hair. In addition to creating soap, varying excavations of ancient ruins reveal that Africans even carved and made combs out of animal bones and wood. Today many believe that "Goody,"  "Diane," and "Dupont" invented combs. They did not.

The iconic ‘fist’ comb from the
1970s and a 5500 year old
comb from Abydos Egypt.
Taken at the origins of
the afro comb exhibition.
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 2013

Now we know that Europeans did not civilize the world as we know it.  Nor are they the creators and soap. We can now reveal just how the ancient Africans along the Nile created soap. Simple, they did so with the use of essential oils, plants, flowers, and vegetables! Soap in different parts of Africa is also known as Ose (black) Dudu (soap), Du Du Osun, Alata Samina, and Anago Samina. These different names for soap were the original cleansing products of choice for ages to follow. These soaps were not only for cleansing the body, they were also used for cleaning hair. Just as they were good for both during ancient times, they are also good for both now. Nothing against Dove, Caress, Lever and the likes; but Africans invented soap.

Again, the practice of washing hair and scalp every two weeks or months on out, is one that got its origins from slavery. Our ancestors from Africa knew the power of little and tiny; hence microbes. They knew bacteria was harmful and could kill, so cleaning was vital and essential. Cleaning the body along with the hair and scalp is something that is done daily, to three, or to once a week. The choice, of course, is yours. It is your body and your hair. You are free to do as you please.

Understand, that if you are touting yourself as a person who enjoys the freedom of "natural hair" and textured hair, as well as a person who enjoys the freedom of letting it (hair) be; do so in the knowing that "natural hair" is not limited to people of color or people with textured hair; it is everyone and everybody who has a scalp or and hair. This blog points to the interior of Africa along the Nile is where mankind started and where the African diaspora began. Understand that the scalp and every texture of hair need to be cleaned within 7 days. Failure to do so results in advanced hair loss, hair damage, hair breakage, balding and thinning. It also increases the financial gain of every hair care company you can imagine.

Co-washing, washing hair every two weeks, washing hair every month, dirt makes hair grow, and growing dandruff are simply more myths and lies planted in the heads of the descendants of European slave owners and colonizers. Unknowingly, the enslaved Africans passed the lies and practice to their children out of igorance and necessity. Washing hair with soap and water is the most popular way to clean hair. However, it is not the only way. You can also clean your hair and scalp with essential oils or an antiseptic using a cotton ball or white face cloth daily to control the growth of bacteria on the scalp and hair.

That is "the clean" on "the dirt" about hair.  The lies of Blacks and people with textured not having to wash their hair weekly or waiting every two weeks to clean their hair and scalp is not the way of us as a people according to history before slavery. It is nothing to brag and tout about as a practice of status, class, decorum, and hygiene for anybody regardless the race. What it is, is a preference. If that is your preference, it is your preference. The clean on dirt is not to make America great again by not washing your hair.

Love, peace and hair grease!

Black Hair Care

"Have you forgotten that once we were brought here, we were robbed of our name, robbed of our language. We lost our religion, our culture, our god...and many of us, by the way we act, we even lost our minds" is the quote so eloquently spoken by the late Khalid Muhammad on Public Enemy's track "Night of the Living Basehead"  from their album, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back."

In this blog Ndogo, I too ask, "Have we lost our minds?"

What has taken place in hair care when people are in constant pursuit of hair styles and hair care practices that are not their own? What has taken place in hair care when something called a "natural" hair care movement is not moving? After all, if it grows from your scalp it is natural. Why are people going for this? Why are reports reflecting that Black women contribute every dollar to the billion dollar hair care industry that we only profit millions from? Why when their schools of cosmetology only include Black or White mannequins with straight hair to make curly? Why are people trying to tame the Afro? Why are people not wanting to care for the Afro? Why are people demanding acceptance of textured hair that has no choice but to be accepted? Why are people wanting a hairstyle that they can sleep on, wake up and do nothing to it? Why is it a Black, cultural or ethnic thing? Why is textured hair segregated from hair? Why do we have "ethnic" hair care aisles and hair care stores to shop from and they have "hair" care aisles hair care stores to shop from?

Answering these questions and talking about textured hair is far more taboo and dangerous than discussing AIDS, ISIS, cancer, trigonometry or debt and taxes. Why? Slavery. 

The beginning of bad hair care.

Yes, slavery. The effects of slavery are real in present day America. And no place is the effects of slavery more pronounced than in hair. The varying textures of hair in America is an overt admission everybody's connection to one another by way of physical and mental abuse at the hands of White slave owners. Nobody wants to go there. But, "there" is where we are! Somebody is going to have to admit that White men raped black women here in America. Somebody is going to have to admit that White men have always liked, loved and lusted after women of color before and during slavery. Somebody is going to have to admit that the varying hair textures are speaking. Textured hair says, Alkebulan; it says, "Africa!" Depending on your age or viewership, who can recall in 1977 when ABC-TV first aired "Roots?" Who can recall when Kunta Kinte was brought here in chains? Who can forget that savage vicious beating given to him from Massa to say his name was not longer Kunta Kinte, but Toby. We all watched as he was robbed of his name. He was robbed of his language. He lost his religion, his culture, His God...and he even lost his mind?" You know what else sticks out from that savage beating as he hung from the chains? His hair!  

As a cosmetologist, I witness first hand the impact of a "Kunta Kinte" beating via the loss of minds on thousands of predominantly African American and biracial miseducated and uneducated females as it relates to their hair. Many are not aware that their hair care practices and hair style desires. They have no clue as to why? They do not know why they wish to be tangle free. They do not know why they pray to the de-frizzing the Afro god to not make their hair so puffy. They beg to straighten the curls. They cry to curl the straight. Yell to lighten the black and fuss to darken the blonde. 

It all is a direct result of slavery. The slave owners were relentless in their pursuit to take away from us everything they could. This is not a perspective. This is a fact. And when a sect of Blacks displayed no desire to have anything to do with the imagery and care of hair like Whites, the Whites did not like that either. Black people would allow their textured hair to do what it would do naturally when it was not combed; lock. The Whites were so appalled, they called that hairstyle "dreadful." Hence, the phrase "dreadlocks." Umph, the nerve of them.

The impact of slavery is real. It can not get any more live and direct than KRS-One on stage at a hip-hop concert. No, my dears; the struggle is not real. There is no struggle when it comes to hair care for anyone of any race with any kind of texture on their hair. There is no struggle when many with textured hair search the internet for hours in search of a quick-fix to cleaning their textured hair or an easier method to styling their textured hair. There is no struggle when mothers want their daughters to automatically know how to care for their hair without allowing their daughter to share mirror and hygiene time with them in the bathroom/bedroom to show them how to do it. There is no real struggle when little boys know the intricate details of their mother's weave application. These little boys know where their mother's buy the hair from and at what cost. There certainly is no struggle when those with textured hair no longer want to even clean it. Instead, they want to replace soap with conditioners, oils or just plain old water. 

The movement?

Something is terribly wrong when a person convinces others of a movement in hair care called, "natural." Hair naturally grows from the scalp. Everybody knows that. Yet they are paying and watching to be told again. Something is terribly wrong when people profess to be doctors of trichology when it is clearly a certification for anyone who wants to pay for one. Something is wrong when consumers turn to YouTube for help with their hair as they sit in the waiting room of a hair salon to pay a hair stylist to do their hair. What is worse? When the hair stylist knows it. Something is wrong when the hairstylist gets angry with the customer for going to another salon. Something is wrong when the hairstylist demands full control of the customer's hair based on a school of thought called, "I have my license and you don't." No, my dear, this is not a movement or revolution. This is-Is. This is propaganda. This is learned helplessness. Not wanting to care for your hair is either a dislike of self, your hair or what it takes to care for and style your hair. Rather it is propaganda or learned helplessness; a dislike of self, hair or a dislike of what it takes to care for or style it; it all stems from slavery. 

To enslave a person, the slave master must physically and mentally hold and lock away a person as they rob that person of their identity and the connections to their identity. Upon being brought to the Americas in the 1600's, Africans were immediately robbed of both. The first thing slave owners did was physically maim and shave the heads of both women and men for one reason and one reason only; so they could not identify each other. 

Who's you daddy now?

White people had no such order in their culture. You see, our (Africans) hairstyles spoke. Of what, you ask? Our braided, wrapped, shaved, and locked hair spoke directly to our location in Africa and our position within a tribe. White people had no such order, pride and association within their culture. So what did they do to copy the Africans? Wigs. A la Louis the what's his name and ye old founding father, first president of the United States and lover of Black women, George Washington.  

To truly address textured hair, we are gonna have to address more than phenotypes, evolution theories and anatomy. It will require a level of awakening that only a rare few will want to see and explore in the 5th dimension.

We started this thing called "beauty."

Prior to slavery, only the deranged and grieved were excused for not combing their hair. Africans prided themselves in the varying cleaning, beautifying and grooming practices. The ancient practices of milk baths, hot oils, cocoa, shea and coconut butter, wig making, use of sea salts, earth salts, crystals, essential oils, plant and herb extracts and the use of clay from the earth to purify skin were all practices that were discovered and utilized by the Africans from all over before slavery was even a thought in the oppressors imagination. These cleaning, beautifying and grooming practices were passed down from generation to generation. Upon arriving in the America's, Africans were not allowed to wash, bath and clothe themselves. They were not allowed to do so until they were mentally and physically broken from their emotional, spiritual, cultural and physical ties to their culture.

By the time the slave owners and White America decided to allow us to do and show our hair; the effects of not being able to comb it and simply care for it had compromised the self-esteem and self-worth of millions of Black women and textured hair women for generations to come. Today, we are descendants of those enslaved. Some of us are descendants of those who were able to remember and pass down practices of hair care and hair styling; while some of us were not.

Today, there are many Africans and African Americans who live the tradition of kempt hair. I was brought up in a home who practiced the custom of knowing who was from whose family according to the style of their hair as our foremothers did prior to slavery. When I was a kid, I could walk into a home or store and often here someone say, "You must be Dean's daughter, your hair is always combed, neat and pretty!" or "You must be Ms. Louise grandbaby, cuz yo hair sure is pretty." I was brought up in a home where we were not allowed to answer the door if our hair was not combed. There were no terms of endearment for hair. Terms such as, "good hair, nice texture or baby hair" were not used. Instead, I was brought up, "Hair is good if you treat it good by way of cleaning it, combing it, braiding it or simply having it styled." 

What a euphemistic way to apologize for slavery.

Racism continues to be the scene stealer of slavery. We cover up and deny the generational and societal effects of slavery by blaming everything on racism. Naw bruh, no one is falling for the okey doke. The effects of slavery in America is real. You don't think so? Do not look at the color of a person's skin.  Do not look at their gender or religion. Do not look up their zip code. Forget about how much money they make. Just look at their hair; your hair. Rather you want to remember, forget the past, let it go or all get along; we are related in America by slavery. Forcing imagery and dominating what we see and hear can not smother what people are yearning to know about themselves and their hair. The truth. And something has to be done about it. Something has to be done about caring for textured hair regardless the race. And I am the person to tell it and offer real life solutions. Seeing as the racial lines are so blurred; the term race will probably be obliterated soon. But the blending of all humans reflects the love and lust of one another in more ways than the mere appreciation and inclusion of cultural diversity.

So, you can call this " is or it' whatever you want. Just don't call it, Black hair care.