Hair & Skin Care for People of Color

Jock and I went to a class yesterday to fulfill our requirements for our state foster care and adoption license. The foster and adoptive parents association offers free classes that we get to choose from. This time we chose a class regarding hair and skin care for people of color. It was a great class - very informative, and very fun as well. The lady who taught the class is a black woman who is a mom of eight children of different races and mixed race as well. I think she said she had two biological children, and 6 that she adopted (or fostered?), of many different races/ethnicities - hispanic, african, african-american, white, asian, mixed-race...

She also was trained as a beautician, and is now a nurse, so she gave us MANY helpful hints on how to care for children of color. She came armed with a huge rubbermaid tub full of products, of which she said not all will work on all skin and hair types, but you just have to try things out and see what works for each individual. You don't have to spend a lot on name brand items - she shops mostly at dollar stores and WalMart. She had asked some of the parents in the class to bring their children of color with them, so she could show us some things. She also brought two teens that she works with in her church and in a school to help her out. They did hair-do's for 4 little girls and one boy, and showed us some things about their skin.

Here are a few helpful things we learned about skin care:

• People of color by nature have dry skin, and the oils have to be replaced daily - 2-3 times per day. The darker the skin, the heavier the oil you need to use - using things like lotions with vitamin E moisturizer, vaseline, baby oil, olive oil, and mineral oil.This is especially important before bed, first thing in the morning, and after baths - more often if the skin appears powdery/ashy.
• If the skin isn't kept moist it will tend to crack and bleed - especially on the elbows, knees, hands and feet. Keep an eye out for cracked and open, red areas, and seek medical advice if this doesn't clear up. (Oh - she also said doctors don't always know some of these tricks, as they've never had to do it themselves - these things aren't in a textbook that they learn in med-school. :)
• People of color need sunscreen when outdoors in the winter as well as in the summer - the dark skin soaks in the sun and burns, even that reflects off the snow.
• Baths - still need to be done daily, and be sure to oil up afterwards. Generally people of color use dark-colored wash-cloths. Think about it - when you wash, your dead skin comes off onto the washcloth - don't mistake this for dirt and keep washing if you're using white washcloths. (same with sheets). Use a shower cap though, because you don't wash hair daily - more on this later.
• Scarring is more pronounced for people of color. Try to keep your children from scratching their faces - that's a place to especially keep moisturized. When they first get a cut or scratch, use cocoa butter and vitamin E when healing. Afterward, use Ambi creme to get the scar to fade back to the original color of the skin.
• ALWAYS keep on hand at least 4 tubes of Monistat-7. (there were some funny stores about this too - imagine a woman walking out of the dollar store with 8 tubes of it :) It's much cheaper and can be bought in larger quantites than anti-fungal cream like you use for athlete's foot - and does the same thing.
• For exema, she had a special recipe: 10 capsules of Vitamin E - open caps and dissolve powder in: 3 Tablespoons triple-antibiotic ointment and 3 Tablespoons of Monistat-7. Keep in a small container, and apply 2-3 times a day - it should clear things up in 3-7 days. This works for white folks too, but exema is apparently much more common in people of color. (I think I'll try this recipe myself, and recommend it to some others that I know with exema problems).
• Mongoloid spots are common in people of color. They don't really go away, but sometimes they will fade or get smaller over the years. Document these, because mandatory child abuse reporters (teachers, medical professionals) sometimes think that these are bruises and report them. As far as the documentation, the same goes with scrapes and cuts, because the scars don't go away - call your social worker, document how it happened, the exact size and location, and what the headlines were on the news that day. (This is more important for foster parents because of the higher incidence of abuse allegations, but it could be important for adoptive parents as well.)

Just a couple general things... She said everyone she knows of color covers their furniture. The oils they use on their hair and skin will soak into your upholstery and ruin it. You can use specific furniture covers or towels or throws, but do cover them. She also said she didn't let her kids just lie around on her good furniture. She apparently has her basement finished with some furniture that she doesn't care about as much, but her living room is off-limits - even though it's still covered. However, when company comes, they do quickly pull up the coverings. Also, think about phones or any other things that typically contact your skin and/or hair...

This is getting too long - I'll blog on the hair-care stuff later. That was lots of fun too!