What Lies Beneath

Healthy hair is on the minds of millions. Billions of dollars are being spent on just about every continent all in the name of hair care products. In Africa sales are up, in Europe sales continue to soar and in Asia sales soar as companies pair with scientist using the latest in stem cell, plant and flower technology to meet the ever growing needs of the consumers who are in hot pursuit of beautiful healthy hair. There are those who want it stronger. Some want it longer. While other want is shorter. Some like it full and thick. While others prefer bald and no maintenance. Whatever it is and however it is styled, healthy hair and healthy scalp are what most are after. 

When the goal to have healthy hair falls short for any reason; there are those who turn to hair weaves, hair replacement, scalp grafting, hair extensions and custom wigs as an alternative. But for those who want resolve for such issues as thinning, balding, scaly scalps, itchy scalps, sensitive scalps, damaged hair and more; hair care products and salon are the go to source for the masses. While dermatologists and trichologist would seem the obvious choice for those with scalp and hair concerns should turn to. They do not.

In reality, hair care products and salon visits can be of assistance when you need a resolve or do not now what you are doing. The challenge is to find qualified sales reps at stores and skilled hair stylists at hair salons. Hair care companies, hair care stores and unskilled hair stylists have a tendency to create too much hype around hair care by keeping consumers shrouded in mystery as they hold the key to the answers and solutions.

So, what's all the hype about? How are they creating this hype? The hype is created in denying consumers the knowledge. It is the, "not" understanding of what is exactly growing from the scalp. When a person has no clue of what is growing from their head, all sorts of fear and wrong doings will take place. The fear, wrong products and wrong styling tools will create all sorts of scalp and hair problems. Thus being the reason most people do not have healthy hair.  They are experiencing excessive hair shedding, coated hair that won't come clean, dull hair that will not shine, split ends that continue to tear, lose length and for some; total hair loss. All of this because they simply do not know the very important role the scalp plays in having healthy hair. After all, the hair is what is growing from their scalp. 

Yes, people get the just that hairs are microfibers that can be manipulated via heat, chemicals, hair care products, and water.  They also get the just that it can be combed, smoothed, curled, braided or brushed. But the hype of the mystery of hair is what has most in a pickle about their hair as it relates to how to get it healthy. They are asking questions like; what is it, why is it, how is it, when is it gonna grow, where is it and so on. 

Hair care companies and their fancy marketing are doing a good job at keeping you away from your hair. They want you to care for and style it the way they see fit. In addition, some of the hair care practices that are being passed down to us from family members are not on the up and up or for the best interest of our scalp and hair as well. So, therein lies two problems. It is imperative that scalp and hair care remain in the hands of the person on which it lies. Why?

Because the scalp is a microbial habitat. A what? A microbial habitat. What do I mean by microbial? Microbes. Yep, the same microbes you are thinking about. Those tiny critters that live outside our bodies, on our skin's surface and can not be seen with the naked eye. Those microbes. Those tiny critters that can wreak all sorts of havoc on our scalp and hair that leads to unwanted scalp problems, hair problems, hair loss and for some outright death. Therefore, washing your own hair is as imperative as washing your own vagina. Nobody can clean it consistently and thoroughly, like you!

Microbial scalp critter.

Yes, that was a far stretch to use as a correlation. But, I have to got to get people to understand that clean scalp and hair is a personal hygiene matter. Scalp and hair care is no more the responsibility of a hairstylist than a dentist is to your oral care. Teeth are best cared by individuals who have teeth in their mouth versus the dentist. I mean no one goes to the dentist every two weeks to have their gums cleaned and teeth scrubbed. In addition, clean hair and clean scalp are vital to the health of the hair and performance of all hair styles. While shampooing and styling daily may be a bit much for most, that is an option as well. However waiting past those 7 days is unacceptable, when healthy hair is the goal. Why?  Because microbes are real and they love dirty scalp and hair. Microbes can be good and microbes can be bad. What makes them bad? Dark moist places. The same thing we've been told the moment our parents started teaching us how to clean our bodies and teeth. Bacteria loves dark moist places. That is why our parents were staunch ear checkers, mouth pokers, belly button pickers, hand smacking from our butt scratching and "get back in that tub" yellers! Our parents knew our dark and moist places were still damp and half cleaned. While those types of microbes seem pretty much par for the course for our bodies, mouths, buttocks, armpits, ears, and vaginas; the same microbes can get jiggy on our scalps and compromise our hair as well. 

Because scalp and hair care are mostly cultural; many people take care of their scalp, hair and style their hair according to what has been passed down to them from one family member and so on. For some African Americans, this seems to be the culprit to why what lies beneath. What lies beneath stays there and eats our hair away from our scalp and irritates our scalps to the point where we want no parts of hair care. 

Many African Americans with textured hair, especially Afro-textured hair are under the notion that they can not care for their scalp and hair the way people (mainly Whites) without texture do. The belief is only around the hair texture, nothing else. I've been researching this phenomena for over 18 years. My research continually leads me back to slavery. Slavery is the culprit to the belief that Africans with textured hair can not clean their hair like Whites. Slavery is the culprit to the practice of African Americans not caring for their scalp, improperly caring for their hair and developing hair styling practices that often compromised the scalp and hair to the point where hair loss was the inevitable. 

The infamous, 'pat yo weave."

Slave owners did not allow slaves to care for their scalp and hair; let alone style or groom it. Slave owners did not supply Africans with hair care products and styling tools from their native homeland to ensure that the health of their scalp and hair. And slave owners most certainly did not allow them to get back on the boat to return home to get what they needed to care for their scalp and hair.  

So, the Africans had to improvise. They had to make do with the resources and time the slave owner allotted or not allotted them to care for and style their hair. Because slaves were responsible for 95% of the labor force in America, slave owners made no adjustments in the lifestyle of African slaves to prepare for the day. As a result scalp and hair care took a back seat. Simply having a clean body and mouth sufficed to make it in America upon being freed. The practice of not being allotted time for scalp care,  hair care, and hair styling became a way of hair care that exists today. 

Many books, teachings, lessons, lectures and talks primarily promote African Americans or those with textured hair like Africans to not clean their scalp and hair frequently like Whites or those with less or no texture. While that may seem like the logical solution considering textured hair is different from hair with no texture. Texture hair also takes longer to cleanse and style than hair with no texture. However, microbes do not care about textures, sex (male or female), race, rather you are of a pure race, slaves, slave owners, what continent you come from and so on. Microbes mean business. Microbes mean extra business in dark moist places. 

Excessive itching has many culprits.

What lies beneath are two assumptions. The first is, those with less texture can clean their hair more frequently than those with texture. Therefore, they have the healthier, longer, stronger hair. The second is those with textured hair. They are taught to not shampoo and care for their hair because of the texture. This school of thought stems directly from the abuse and neglect in hygiene practices for Africans as a result of slavery is a specific group of people from the same racial-ethnic makeup?  No access to what was best for their scalp and hair and the time to do it. What lies out in the open is we still see the same abuse and neglect from the 1400's being practiced in 2016. The difference is, there is no slave owner preventing scalp and hair care from taking place. However, America still has not made adjustments to lifestyles for African Americans with textured hair and those with textured hair closest to Afro hair. African Americans or people with textured hair closest to Afro hair are not allowed more time to care for their hair after activities such as swimming, gym time, working, caring for the kids, or any other activity that causes Afro hair and textured hair to revert. As a licensed cosmetologist, I can not tell you how much hair damage and hair loss I see in small children and adults who can not dry their hair after swimming, gym or some physical exertion school or work activity. The powers that be simply have not incorporated the infrastructure of more time in between time for those with textured hair to prepare for their next stop of the day. So the saga of those with less texture will have healthier hair hair and those with textured hair closest to Afro textured hair continue to struggle with obtaining healthy hair.

So, on the one hand; slavery and societal norms are the culprits to denying those with textured hair more time to care for it. On the other hand; improper family practices of caring for and styling hair are the culprits as well to increased microbial activity on the scalp and hair. 

Scalp is scalp and hair is hair on all humans. Microbes will multiply. Scalps will ferociously itch. Sores will continue to damage follicles. Scalp and hair that is not cleaned within 7 days will continue to soften and the hair texture will become compromised. Bacteria will continue to produce odors that are offensively coming from the scalp. Weaves that are left in beyond those seven days without cleansing the yeast from the scalp and hair will continue to contribute to damaged hair and hair loss. Dirty scalp and hair does not promote healthy hair. It damages and compromises the scalp and hair on all textures of hair. 

Tell yourself something good!

Microbes are what lies beneath. The myths that promote those with textured hair to not shampoo their hair as much as those with less texture are designed to promote what lies beneath. Wealth. The myths are where wealth in the lies. Those with textured hair spend 10 times more money on scalp an hair care compared to those with less or no texture. When the scalp becomes compromised the hair becomes compromised. During that process the hair is deteriorating. People will spend lots of money to stop the deterioration. They will spend even more to cover it up. Microbes do not care about your money or what ever it is you want to hide. Microbes will live anywhere and on anything that is dark and moist. 

Instead of masking the itch by not cleaning you scalp and hair for fear that it will fall out; it won't. Instead of wearing a weave because you just don't have the time in between workouts, a career and family; care for your scalp and hair. Please make the time.  

What lies beneath are not only the microbes that are compromising your scalp and hair; what lies beneath on your mind is sometimes what takes up space in between your ears.

Free your mind from the notion that if you have textured hair that you can not shampoo as often as those with little or no texture. 

Extension of Lies

Have fun with your hair!

Blog writing is a great source of inspiration. It gives me the ability to inform and entertain readers. For the most part, I have been enjoying writing posts to my blog. Doing the research and writing is everything I dreamed it would be. I dreamed it would be intense, fast paced, exciting and meticulous to detail. 

Through all the information gathering, entertaining thoughts, long intense hours of typing and retyping; blogging has brought me joy until I took on the challenge to investigate and write about...the human hair weave!

Boy oh boy! What was I thinking? I was thinking I could educate readers about the simplicity of human hair weave. I figured I could start by outlining the varying types of hair available, but that was a joke. Because apparently, the only hair that is available is the hair that people want that is nothing like the hair that grows from their scalp. Instead they want Euro, Malaysian, Indian, Peruvian and Brazilian hair. 

Funny, when other people stereotype people with certain physical features they call it racial profiling or stereotyping. In return, we call those people racist or classist. But in the hair weave industry they call it. ethnic hair and the people who sell their hair, "Donors." 

Aside from the popular "ian" types of hair one can purchase, I can start off by letting you know what you already know and that is, if you put anybody else's hair on your head, it IS fake. I just don't see why women are paying so much for the words human and real next to the word "hair." The reality is sometimes caring for your own hair is a drag and what better way to eliminate that stress than buying somebody's hair. But the cost of using the words "human" "virgin" "Brazilian" and so on before the word "hair" is pretty costly.

The artificial and virgin hair business is a very lucrative business. I have been in business for quite some time and I've managed to avoid hair weave until a few weeks ago. A customer was just dying for us to give it a try. So, quite naturally I had to do some investigating before I made the big investment. My investigation led me to my blog.

Brazilian Hair Weave

Since I could not begin my blog with hair types and the facts of it being a multi billion dollar trade, my research took me to a place of ethics. I am certainly in the mind of DJ Quik when it comes to business. "If it don't make dollars; it don't make sense." However, I like making good dollars with the good sense I have. And nothing about the propaganda in hair weave makes much sense in spite of all the dollars it makes. 

Therefore, I am opting to expose the mind, cash and culture washing that is being done with hair weave. I wish I could inform you of some interesting things about hair weave. But, I can't. Hair weave remains something of an enigma in my opinion.  Either, the folks who are in charge of marketing and branding do not know how to write or I do not know how to comprehend what I read when they write. Since, I am thinking too hard about what I am reading about hair weave, I'm going to do the other thing I know how to do best when I write...entertain!    

Lace Front Weave

So here goes it. For starters, in my research I could not find out if there really is a difference between using the term "weave," "artificial," or "extension." Therefore, for entertainment purposes only, I'm going to refer to added hair just like the masses and refer to it as, weave. 


Fake is Real and Real is Fake
The other thing is using the word "fake or artificial." For some reason, they (being the people who sell and write to describe hair weave) don't even refer to weaves, extensions, sew ins, glued in, taped in, snapped in, clipped in and laced in as artificial hair. Nope, they keep insisting, the hair is "real." 

I do not know how they are pulling this off. But, the last time I checked, if it grows out of the follicle (little tiny openings on your scalp and body that hundreds of thousands of strands of hair protrudes from), it's real. If not, it's fake. Rather it is sewn or glued to a net; rather it is sewn or glued to your hair, it is fake hair.

Well, in the hair weave and hair extension business they have millions of men and women sincerely believing that because they are purchasing real hair that has been cut off from a human or animal; they are purchasing "real" hair. While the hair may be coming off of a real person, make no mistake the minute they cut if off someone else's head and you glue, sew, snap or clip it into yours; it's fake hair. Bur for a minimum of $200.00 per quality bulk to write the words human, virgin, Brazilian and so in in front of the word "hair" to make you feel good about your purchase? Hey, it could happen. It is most certainly legal. In the world of marketing and branding, they call it the "emotion quotient."

Remy versus Virgin Hair

The Remy PROCESS.

Next is this whole thing about Remy Hair versus Virgin Hair. Now, this time, they (you know who they are by now!) want you to know that Remy hair refers to a particular process. The Remy process is a method. The Remy method is a way of cutting the hair from the donors head and  "collecting their hair" that ensures the cuticles (outer layer of hair that looks like fish scales) are laying in one direction to decrease the likelihood of tangling. Now, I'm not sure what  "Remy process" is, but something tells me the "process" is to literally pick the donor's hair up off the floor. Which is a violation of state board rules here in America in the states that license hair salons. My research goes on to to reveal that the Remy hair is more likely to consist of mixed hair fibers that are collected off the floor from when they cut the hair from the hair donors of varying ethnicities to create a Remy bundle, bulk or weft of hair. Can you say, "Grossburger?" Lastly, to preserve Remy hair, manufacturers often chemcially alter it by dying it and dipping it into silicone to make it look and feel nice. You have to be careful of the quality of Remy, regardless the process.  

Virgin Indian Hair donor process

Next they (yep, here they go again) describe another category of hair weave named "Virgin" hair. Virgin hair is human hair that is collected from one single donor from a certain ethnicity (Brazilian, Peruvian, Malaysian, Indian and the likes). In addition, Virgin hair has never been chemically altered, the cuticle is in one direction to decrease tangling, the life of the hair is longer and of course this type of hair is even more expensive.

So if you are buying Remy hair, you are buying hair that can or can not be mixed with other fibers off the floor with the cuticles in tact or going in one direction. If you are buy Virgin hair, you are buying hair from one human donor of a particular ethnicity whose hair has not fell to the floor with the cuticle in tact and their ethnicity will be placed before the word "hair" (i.e Brazilian hair). Umm, yeah right!

BBS Hair and Non Toxic Hair

Hollylujer!

Now they moved on to Non-Toxic Hair versus BSS (Beauty Supply Store) hair. What's the difference? They say non-toxic hair is, again, hair that they harvest and cut from one donor without chemically altering it in any capacity. What is harvest? Harvest in the hair weave business means, the person who is responsible for overseeing the donors who are growing their hair with the intent to cut and sell it. The one website, I visited claimed that their Non-Toxic hair is also Christian hair. "Tank ya Jesus. Praise ta lort!" Gimme a break, will ya?

As for BSS (Beauty Suppy Store) hair. Well they say, this hair is mostly Chinese (really now?) hair, animal hair or even a mixture of both Chinese and animal hair that is processed to make it look like virgin hair. Now the Chinese people shouldn't take that...LOL They also say, the cost is the determining factor in the quality or authenticity of every kind of hair. Bu, the BSS hair also commonly called YAK (yep from the the animal Yak) is the cheapest of all human hair weave. My research reveals that this BSS hair looks and feels great until it is shampooed or heat styled. My research also reveals that BSS hair typically can not be heat styled. If so, use very low heat.  Afterwards, the BSS hair becomes a tangled mess. They also report that BSS hair causes more skin allergies than other hair due to the stringent chemical processing done to make it appear real. I don't know about you; but, I'm not buyin any hair termed "BSS." Those initials alone would make me change my mind...ijs

Artificial Hair

Hair for Braiding

My research stopped at artificial hair. They say artificial hair is hair that is made from old tires and plastics that are cleansed, steamed and shredded into micro fibers for sale. They also say this hair is best for braiding, twisting and creating faux locs. No wonder folk's skin breaks out. Can you say, "Tox-ick?" All I'm going to say about this stuff is be careful. Purchase your hair weave like you do your meats. Know your source, know your seller, know your animal, understand how the meat is being prepared for sale, know your body, know the cost, know what dish the meat will be used for. When in doubt; go vegan!

Root and cuticles in tact; lying in one direction

Winding this blog down to the root of the problem. Now, I watched many videos and read many articles that claim the root and the follicles are attached and is on one end of the hair and the cuticles are in tact lying in one direction. "Listen Honey listen," follicles can never be attached to hair because follicles are ograns. Organs that each hair grows from. As for the root, well that is up under your skin, located under the sratus granulosum or sumthin' like that. The root of anybody's hair, dead or alive, will never be seen by the naked eye or felt with human hands (unless they are doing an autopsy or disection of some sorts). So as for ther root and follicle being part of quality hair weave anatomy; forgeddaboudit.  Next, them that darned cuticles in tact and laying smooth in one direction claim? Well that is true that hair will not tangle when they are lying flat and........ NEVER combed, colored, braided, twisted, flipped, rolled, set, dipped in hot water, tucked, wrapped or brushed. Whew! Imagine if they put that on the packaging...lol

The truth of the matter is any product claiming to repair damaged cuticles or detangle hair will suffice to protect your hair weave just like it will for the hair on your head. Therefore, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars just so you you can buy it new tangle free. I mean, at the end of the day all hair; good, bad, damaged or healthy, Remy or Virgin will tangle. And tangled hair will benefit from protein treatments and conditioners claiming to seal or smooth the cuticle to help detangle it.

No way can this be attached to any hair weave.

In the end, I dunno. It all sounds fake to me. It, being the branding and marketing of this hair weave stuff. For them to dupe women into thinking that they are buying hair that is real when it is obviously fake, give me a break. Then they put all these names and lables next to the word "hair" by lableing hair according to ethnicities. Then they charge hundreds and thousands of dollars for it? Sign me up, I'm selling hair at my salon right now...lol But with strict purchasing guidelines to ensure a worthwhile investment.

In conclusion, the extension of hair weave lies are just that, lies. An extension of a hoax gone too broad, too costly, too far and too viral. In this world, when we want to dupe people, we simply add a high price to it. People will swear it is real and of excellent quality. Not so in the hair weave business. Buyer beware is my advice. 

Back in the day if you attached any form of hair that was weaved into a net onto your head in any capacity, it was called a wig. Wigs were worn to embellish just about any hair style. A wig was considered a hat in many instances for the varying occasions from a walk to the store to a full-fledged formal black tie event. Both words; wig and weave were synonymous with one word and one word only...FAKE. And if you treated both your wig and natural hair good, it was beneficial to both your natural hair and the wig. I recall my aunts taking good care of their $40.00 wigs. They used oil sheen, cleansed them with special sprays and heck they even had a special styrofoam head to keep the wig in shape. When it comes to these hair weaves, I've seen women spend in excess of $400.00 buying hair and $300.00 to have it installed to their natural hair. Then they have the audacity to spray $3.99 oil sheen on it, smoke in it, and refuse to wash it for at least two weeks. I don't get it. I just don't get it.

Believe it or not; people are ok with that. And that's no lie!

Girl You Betta Watch Out

The Big Chop? Folk been chopping off
their hair!

As a cosmetologist who works behind the chair, teaches, speaks and collaborates with others in the hair care industry, I meet a lot of people who say to me, "I am interested in doing hair." Whenever I hear that, I always say, "Well, I suggest that if you wanna DO hair, get a mannequin."

I would be out of my hair styling mind if I seriously believed that every person who sits in my chair are looking for a hair "DO." The first thing I realized before I became a licensed cosmetologist was that women are very serious about their hair. They are not serious as it relates to looking good, cute, pretty, fine, gorgeous, sexy, better and all that jive. They are serious in as much as they TRUST us. When a woman (man, teen or child) sits in the chair of a licensed professional they are saying, "I trust you." There are a handful of licensed professionals who thinks that, "doing" hair is one of those careers where you can make fast cash and hide it from the IRS. Which is why I affectionately named this blog, "Girl, you better watch out!"

Remember this is my blog ndogo (small), so I'm going to get straight to the point. At the salon

Exactly what is a "natural" hairstylist?

(The Reverence Design Team Hair Salon) where I work at, we do not "do" hair.  We care for hair. As a team we teach and "do" things to care for your hair as well as your image to provide the ultimate salon experience which results in a great hair doo. So, girl you better watch out for these self appointed professionals who profess to be experts at things that made their debut as a trend. Why? Because ultimately after you have your hair serviced to receive any type of service, be it natural, synthetic, organic or chemical; you are ultimately still paying for a hair style. The trending of natural hair, healthy hair, organic hair, chemical free hair is just that a trend. Natural hair, healthy hair, organic hair care and chemical free hair has ALWAYS been staples in most salons. With the paradigm shift in beauty being half for textured and the other half straight; money hungry hair care companies with their savvy marketers as well as money hungry hair styling swindlers are capitalizing on one's desire to change their hair as they see.  

Hair Extension ad.

Girl, you betta watch out for the hair stylist who is quick to jump on any sort of trend. I am not against trends. Trends in the industry are good. They keep us moving, growing and help us look different. The trend now is natural hair versus hair weave and chemically altered hair. Unfortunately, the education is not catching up fast enough to the money making ventures. As a result, hair stylists are at anxious or some times forced to meet the demand by teaching themselves. In the meantime, the manufacturers of hair and hair care products are limiting what education they offer (if any) to supply the demand. In return, that puts both the consumer and hair stylists at risk.

Hair care companies (manufacturers of hair weave as well) view the hairstylist and their customers as the same? There are absolutely no requirements for any one to buy weave, sell weave or apply weave. There is no need to quote a statistic or research. Just go to one of their websites. To meet and create the demand, these companies are selling de-scalped hair. They are calling this cut and de-scalped hair "real human" Remy, Brazilian, Peruvian, Indian, Polynesian and any other "ian"  hair to both the consumer and the licensed professional? Tisk (teeth sucking) come on, don't give me that (in my Biz Markie voice)!  Consumers actually believe they are paying for "real" hair. If it does not grow from your scalp (regardless the bulk, weft or track); it is fake. Real human hair grows from a living human body. Hair texture is pre-genetically determined and hair is biologically categorized by texture (curly, kinky, wavy or straight) not race (Brazilian, Peruvian, Indian and so on). How are women world wide falling for that kind of savvy marketing that was more than likely put together by a man who does not even have hair? You betta watch out for that kind of #trending. 

Girl, you betta watch out for front laced weaves. Now, all of a sudden the "glue in" weave, the dreadful, cancer causing; the "dun dun dun dun"

Exploited Countess Vaghn

bastard of all weaves, "Front Laced" wigs. Yes, they (licensed, untrained and unlicensed people) are about to do "front laced" what they did to the "creamy cracked" relaxer. Because they have permanently disfigured folk and made some permanently lose their hair, they are about to pass the blame on the glue. Knowing they had a responsibility to learn about every aspect of that service. Now the media with their licensed experienced talk show experts have exploited poor Countess Vaughn's image beyond repair. Seriously people? She consents to an expose' on the dangers of hair glue (medical adhesives, bonding and the likes) but at NO point does any of those million dollar making talk show doctors (you those highly educated and trained professionals) bring up the reality that licensed professionals in the United States need to be required to get at least half the education of a doctor (if not more). Considering all the varying medication people take that affect their hair and walk into a salon for service. Considering all chemicals hairstylists use, touch, exchange, roll, inhale, rub, slather, smooth, apply, wash, blow dry, press, flat, iron, and  curl daily for a minimum of 4 hours per day for 3-7 days per week?  

Is a relaxer a perm or is a perm a relaxer?

Girl, you betta watch ou! For your hair stylist has very little, if any, education on any sort of chemistry or science of hair and hair care products ingredients. They have no clue about the chemical make up and reaction about most things they use and put on your hair. We are not taught the chemistry on natural, organic or synthetic science of what we use. The most common understanding one may have about hair glue is that some people are allergic to it. Licensed professionals only know what the companies tell them about the products and hair weave they just bought. Keep in mind that your hair is not a product or accessory that you can return. Your hair and it's texture is assigned to you in-vitro. It has a genetic code that is uniquely passed to you from your parents. The mind rape, cultural rape and swap of what textured hair is and where it really comes from, is NOT hidden. The marketing mavens who the hair care companies hire are overt. They are very much in the open about what they are doing. The mind and cultural rape of hair texture has many denying their genetic assignment. Without knowing it, people are removing their parents from their image and replacing what their parents biologically gave them. They are denying their parents and replacing their genetically assigned hair with the beauty supply stores and the hair stylists for new "real human" hair. A beauty supply store and a hair stylist can not give you the hair TEXTURE you were not born with. All they can do is exchange what you want to change about your hair for change, if ya know what I mean. IJS

Since when does the prefix "co" means
in lieu of?

Girl, you betta watch out for that "natural" hair stylist. Remember that is the same hair stylist who said relaxers where the "whip." She/he is the same person who re-booked your chemical services every 4-6 weeks and would have the audacity to penalize you if you did not keep your "touch-up" appointment. She/he is the same stylist who called the perm, the relaxer, the relaxer the perm and the relaxer the creamy crack. Now the stylist is natural. Girl, you betta watch out. The same stylist now promotes, yet, another trend: CO-WASHING. "Co" means to assist. So if one was to apply conditioner to their hair to help detangle the snarls and kinks and then shampoo their hair. I'm all in. Only in the hair care industry do we change the meaning of a word like "co" to "in lieu of."  I challenge you, the reader of this blog, to turn that bottle of conditioner around, call that 1-800 number and ask the associate on the other end of the phone can you "wash" your hair with their conditioner instead of soap? Trends, schmends. I can not wait to see the research in a few years about the hidden dangers of co-washing!

Girl, you betta watch out because she/he is the same stylist that is saying permanent color is 

A rinse still chemically alters the color
of your hair.

bad for your hair. This hairstylist insists that the "rinse" is a safer. She says the "rinse" is a hair color that would rinse out. Now all of a sudden, that same stylist and others alike can not explain why that "rinse" will not rinse out. They can not explain why your gray hair has a murky metallic color of some sort. They can not explain nor do they know how to remove this safe color called a "rinse" from your hair. Really? 

Girl, you betta watch out. Those kinds of stylists are only about....that thang; that thang; that tha-a-ang!