 Some of you who follow my work may know I started off as the Chicago Black Hair and Health Examiner, left and then came back. Well, I’m back full force now. At first I was wondering whether I could stay interested in talking about hair. But over Christmas break, I started having countless discussions with family and friends about their hair care issues. The more I chatted with them, especially the ones who asked me how did I manage to keep my hair thick and continuously growing, the more I thought about my paternal grandmother. I remember when I was four years old and had to get up from nap time because my grandmother was there to pick me up to go to the beauty salon. At the time I thought it was pointless, but I wanted to get this beauty salon thing over with so I could sit in my grandparents’ living room and hang out with my favorite person on Planet Earth, Grandad. There is nobody I could have as much fun with than my grandfather. I learned how to play pool, Poker, Blackjack, Tonk, War, how to write Roman numerals and learned some cooking tips from my grandfather. To this day, there's not one topic I won't talk with my grandfather about. (Yes, that too.) But I have to thank my grandmother for scooping me up every other Saturday from four years old until I was about 14 years old because she saved me a helluva lot of money. Sitting in beauty salon chairs for over a decade with three different hairdresses taught me a lot about hair care. And even when my grandmother stopped taking me to the beauty salon, I decided to chop all of my hair off and go back to the beauty salon to rock a million new hairstyles. What I found out immediately was that I stopped needing to go bi-weekly. Why? I’d watched so many beauticians stack, flip and curl hair. I knew how to perm hair by the time I was 12 and never paid anybody to do that. I’d permed family members and friends’ hair so many times I can’t count. When I want to rock a new hairstyle, chances are I can copy anything I see in a black hair magazine. But chances are if you see me now, it's a wrap, flowy curls or a pulled-back ponytail. However, when I really want to do it up, that's not a problem for me. I don't even know how many times I've cut my hair or how many hairstyles I've had, although I've grown bored with doing a billion different styles within the past couple years. The only thing you'll never see me rocking is weave. I just cannot make myself put somebody else's hair in my head. It grosses me out, and I think we spend there are some sistas who spend far too much time trying to look like someone else instead of themselves. The only time I came close to wearing hair that wasn't my own was rocking an afro puff for a '70s party, and even then, it looked natural. I think I go to a beauty salon maybe once a year if that. And finally I was able to use my hair and health knowledge not just to save money but to make some dinero too. So check me out as Examiner.com’s Chicago Black Hair and Health Examiner. Comments Your comment will be posted after it is approved. Leave a Reply |