Hair & Skin Care for People of Color (Part 2)

And now, for the Hair Care... (Go here for the intro to this and the skin care part.)

Some tips

• Hair cannot be cared for with just any hair care products. Try to stay away from products that are not geard for the hair texture you are treating.
• Wash hair once a week, or as needed. You can tell it needs to be washed by squeezing the ends of the hair (not the roots, as the skin will come off like exfoliating) with a white paper towel. If you see dirt and dust on the paper towel, it's time to wash the hair. Use conditioners often - leave-in conditioners are good to use as well. After washing, be sure to oil the scalp and the hair.
• If the hair is up in braids, you can still wash it - just put an old nylon over them, and shampoo and rinse through it. (I remember a college friend of mine doing this - and she had really long braids with the extensions - she always said her neck hurt after she washed with her braids in, because they soaked up all that water and took a long time to dry - it was heavy!)
• Oiling/massaging: part the hair in a straight line from front to back until the scalp is visible, and apply oil (Softee was recommended) in the part. Make sure the head is covered in oil, then massage.
• Combing - must be combed through thoroughly, use a wide-tooth comb - if it doesn't comb well, section it and work on one section at the time. Hold the hair close to the scalp so it doesn't pull on/hurt the scalp when you're combing. (Especially if the child is "tender-headed", i.e. not used to sitting still and having her hair combed out, and it's painful for them.)
• Sleep with the hair covered with either an cut-off pair of nylons or a silky fabric night-cap. This will pto prevent it getting caught in the sheets/blankets or from lint getting in caught in their hair, which will cause the hair to break off at the root. You could also use a silk pillowcase (although I'm not convinced on this one, because kids move around so much in their sleep).
• Do not use hair relaxers on children, unless done by a professional - the chemicals can burn the hair and skin if left on too long. This was demonstrated by using a hair relaxer creme on the hands of a man in our class who does manual labor for a living - his hands were so dry and calloused before, and very soft afterwards - it just dissolved the callouses, and he said it stung on the less/non-calloused parts of his hands. Especially if you are sending a child to have their hair relaxed, don't wash it first.
• Trimming/Growth - trim the ends of the hair every three months, except for little girls' hair. It's hard to grow it back (about three times longer for black children's hair than other children's hair). Keeping the hair braided fosters growth. She also demonstrated gently pulling on the hair after oiling and massaging.
• Swimming - BEFORE getting in the pool, soak with water and then lotion/oil, so the chlorine won't dry it out. AFTER swimming, shower and shampoo it out well.
• Styling gel - try to stay away from products with a high alcohol content. Strictly use African products for African hair.
• The recommended sectioning a girls' hair, putting it in a pony tail, and then braiding the tail. This will keep the hair from getting snarled/"nappy" if you just leave it to its own devices. Use cloth rubberbands close to the scalp so they won't break the hair. If you use rubber rubberbands, don't try to save them or pull them out - just cut them out.
• For boys' hair, she actually cut a 10-year-old boy's hair in our class. I'm not sure I'd ever try that myself, unless I was completely buzzing it. It looked a little complicated. Think about how if you cut a white boy's hair real short, it would just stick straight out. Not so with a black boy's hair. Apparently it will lay different directions depending on where the colics are. So if you use just the same guard on all of it evenly, it will still look uneven - you have to just eye it and do it free-hand to get it to look even... (Karen - will definitely need your help here!!!)

Some products

• Shampoos: Motions, *Creme of Nature, *Therapeutic T+Plus (Can also wash athlete's feet in it), *Mane & Tail (horse shampoo), Sulfur 8, Scurl, Silk Elements, Stay Soft, DuGro, Pantene (only in the brown bottle, specific for colored people's hair)
• Conditioners: Lutrasilk Cholesterol, *Parnevu Leave-in Conditioner (they used this in the class demonstrations - about 1 Tablespoon all over the hair), Queen Helene Placenta Cream Hair Conditioner, *Mane & Tail, Creme of Nature, Motions
• Oils: Blue Magic, Bergamont, *Softee Hair food (especially good for curls that won't come out), DuGro, Oil Sheen (good for boys hair), Sulfur 8, African Pride, Coconut Oil, *Pink Lotion/K-7 Extra Lite Oil Moisturizer (for boys only - not good for girls long hair), *Olive oil (is fairly cheap, helps grow hair, and the body absorbs the oil so it's good for the skin too)

The ones with the *s are the ones I circled, that she specifically mentioned in class as favorites.

Enjoy! Have fun! I'm excited that I now have some tips I can use, and feel a little more confident about what I'll be doing. I'm sure I don't have it all figured out yet by any means, and will take some trial and error. However, I plan on having these notes, tips, and products handy to help me out.