Welcome to 2015, where salons are becoming empty, relaxer sales are down, Afros/ weaves/braids are relevant, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Ladies all over the world are cutting off their stringy relaxed ends and re-joining the natural way they were born: with kinky, curly, or wavy hair…. But are they doing this because it’s the “in” thing to do, or do they really love their natural look?
Remember being young sitting on the floor as your mom sat in the chair pressing the crap out of your scalp to get it straight for the week only to have it messed on by the 3rd day and a butt whooping waiting for you at home? Do you remember that cold white devil in a jar that your stylist used to slap on your scalp and edges only for you to remember that you didn’t grease your scalp last night and you just visited Hell while still alive? Yeah, girl… I remember too. I personally gave up those days for the better.
Now, most of the ads featuring African American women have natural hair. No relaxers in sight. So is this a trend we are following or do we REALLY love our natural hair? Are relaxers ever going to make a come back?
I think now, us ladies are more educated on what we put in our hair. We’ve learned to read labels, what ingredients are great for our hair, which are not so great, and which will completely burn our scalp off.
Knowing all of this… why in the green eggs and ham would anyone purposely use this stuff in their head? Don’t get me wrong; I never had a horrible relaxer story. Relaxers never burned my scalp, never left me bald, nor did my hair fall out BUT now that I’m more educated on what exactly is in that white devil in a jar… I’ll never go back.
In the end, I feel that the natural movement is here to stay and it’s not a “fashion statement.” Knowing “if you can’t pronounce it, don’t use it” has helped us African American women keep the hair we grow on our heads and not on the floor. We are here for the bantu knots, the braid outs, the twist outs, the faux locs, weaves, and box braids. Yes we look fashionably great and our scalps don’t have burn marks in them.
