Comments on: How NOT to Care For Your Child’s Hair

By: Christina

Christina — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 22:43:37 +0000

The video has been removed. From the comments, clearly it was a painful display of child abuse. The memory I have from my childhood came up. Being of mixed race (Purto Rican/White) with a white mother, she didn’t know how to care for my thick curly hair. I was five years old, we had recently moved into a new place. I remember that day in the pink bathroom like it was yesterday. I really was trying to stay still and not move…apparently I was still moving.
My mother cut my long curly locks right off! Right up to the scalp. I went from having beautiful hair down the the middle of my back, to less than a half inch of hair in 5 minutes of rage. I’m surprised my hair was all that got cut.

Then she came up with a way to save herself from the public humiliation- I can hear her telling me now- like it was some great adventure story. Her plan was for me to lie to everyone and tell them I did it.

I was picked on “are you a girl or a boy?” kids would ask me. I did lie to my family and listen to them say for years “oh, don’t go cutting your hair again!” It was a hurtful experience. I have forgiven my mom.

By: Links of Great Interest 8/7/09 | the Hathor Legacy

Links of Great Interest 8/7/09 | the Hathor Legacy — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:20:42 +0000

[...] talks about little black girls and [...]

By: Courtney

Courtney — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 05:36:07 +0000

Props to my mom and step-mom for never doing this to me.
I don’t have too many bad hair memories. I just hated/feared getting water in my eyes when getting my hair washed and hated how tight my step-mom braided my hair at times.
Poor girl.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 04:07:52 +0000

I watched about half of the video. Madness! How can a black woman have no clue how to comb black hair. It’s not rocket science – if what you’re doing is causing pain and ripping/ breaking hair, ****ing stop!

By: missmajestic

missmajestic — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 02:03:07 +0000

The video is horrible. I can’t believe she’s cursing around a child like that. I was tenderheaded and even cried sometimes, but my mother never attacked me like that. If I started squirming or whining to much, she just left me alone. I hated sitting still I’d like to emphasize the role of proper maintainance regardless of whether is relaxed or natural. For every little girl with chemically overprocessed hair, there is another with dry, unkept (sp) braids or locks. My point is that relaxing a child’s hair isn’t inherently bad if its well-maintained. My mother relaxed my hair when I was 5 and I never had a problem with breakage or other problems associated with relaxers, nor did I have some inferiority complex about my kinky roots, thinking it was something to be ashamed of or whatever. I’m relaxed now, but I wore my hair natural for years and locked for 3. Sometimes I think people assume that just because you’re relaxed you abhor kinky natural hair. We should be able to switch our hairstyles without that baggage.

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:21:49 +0000

I hated having my hair done as a child because even though I’m white, I had thick curly hair that my mother would straighten weekly. That said, my mother never brushed my hair that way, and even though she damaged my hair (and subjected it to relaxer) she would at least hold my hair to brush it.

Frankly, the woman in the video is abusing that child and if she’s willing to put that much on a video, then I’m really concerned about what goes on behind closed doors. I couldn’t make it through half the video, but if I never hear the “camera woman”‘s cackle again, I will be better for it. I have a few choice four-letter words I would love to use on both of them.

It’s one thing not to know how to properly care for someone’s hair, break it and it’s another thing to essentially and mercilessly rip the hair out of a child’s head while laughing about it.

(On the other hand, I read here and at AOLBV and both articles were wonderful. How cute was the Emory Prof. and his daughter? What a lovely and completely opposite image.)

By: Link Cariño | Hissip

Link Cariño | Hissip — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:04:45 +0000

[...] for kids’ “ethnic hair” comes with [...]

By: Misty B

Misty B — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:21:21 +0000

I wanted to send this link to Afrobella, because I knew that this video would hurt all Afrobella stood for.I have nightmares about this video. Forget about hair products and children who dont sit down to do hair, but this video is about ABUSE.She was not even trying to comb the girls hair. She was inflicting pain.Pure pain. The mother knew what she was doin, while she cleared the comb of hair that she ripped from her daughter. I really do have nightmares from this.I hope wherever she lives, that people know what she’s done. I want her to answer for this. I was debating to send this video to Afrobella, because of the cruelty.Thank you for bringing it up. I want to call the police.This isnt the only story out there. This video hs nothing to do with relaxers, hair texture etc because she wasnt even “doin” the girls hair.This was a case of brutality. Thats what i cant get over. Thank you Afrobella. Thank you. I needed to express myself. And i still want to do more than call the police on her!!!

By: Samantha

Samantha — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:48:09 +0000

Yesterday over dinner I mentioned this story to my dad, but I ended up getting angry. He stated that my current hair, which is natural and short “is not a hairstyle” and that I should go back to relaxing my hair. He further stated that the only reason I removed my relaxed hair is because I was lazy and that my hair looked like “naps”. Gah, it’s so ridiculous!

By: AzizaW

AzizaW — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:25:55 +0000

Poor child. The combination of the rough combing/brushing and the vile language hurled at the girl makes me want to vomit. My stomach is in knots