Ethnic Hair

I had a conversation yesterday with one of the residents where I work.  She is  a stylist and she was talking about how she might move from our large suburban city to a really big metro city. Her reason was that she specializes in ethnic hair and she does not feel it is easy to get a large clientele here. 

I was surprised as demographically we are pretty diverse.  But I also have lots of black friends who either do each others hair or do trek into a big city a few times each year to get something special done.  I said something about the fact that I didn't know she was trained in black hair and that I had met very few stylists who were so it seemed like she'd have a good potential market if she got the word out.  I was just ready to suggest that she consider tapping into adoptive family groups and foster care groups for potential clients, when she happily chirped. . .

"oh yeah, I know all about extensions, and relaxers."

Can you hear the brakes screeching in my mind???  LOL I am all about natural hair for my daughters.  Fiona's hair has been relaxed so much it will never recover and I have no control over that, but Lissa is another story.  I said something about really liking to keep their hair natural.

"oh," she answered, "well we could just do a texturizer then."

OK now the brakes have stopped screeching  in my mind and the train is chugging like h##l in the opposite direction.  I smiled and said I just wanted to learn how to do corn rows.  (I have learned so many things from you tube videos but this one thing just doesn't translate into my brain via video.  I think I will have to actually see a person in front of me do it in order to learn.)

In all reality, my tenant is a very nice person and probably very gifted in those arenas that she mentioned.  And there is a significant segment of the black community that WANT those services and I hope they find her so she can provide them.  But it does sadden me to realize that the natural hair experience is still not front and center as a healthy and attractive option to celebrate with our black daughters.