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| Back to School and Coily Girl Hair Styling |
With my daughters, their back to school hair styling is pretty important. Especially since they wear uniforms. Hair and shoes are a few of the ways that they have to express their sense of style. About 8 years ago, when my older daughter was 7, she and I felt like her natural hair was a problem. So we put a relaxer.
Looking back, that was way too young for her to get a relaxer. I heard somewhere that it's recommended to wait until the child reaches puberty. Quick check on some of the big name brand relaxer ingredients, and some of them contain ingredients that are well known endocrine disruptors.
Anywhoo, before the relaxer, we used to spend our Saturdays crying (her) and saying sorry (me). That was before I knew how to care for her waist length coily hair. Not only was her hair coily, but it was extremely long and thick.
Well, the relaxer took care of that problem in more ways than one (unfortunately). I relaxed her hair for the first time when she was going into 1st grade. Yup, I took all of that beautiful, virgin hair to the hairdresser, who relaxed it without clarifying it. There was loads of chlorine on her hair strands from the Summer long pool days at camp and home. I didn't know any better, but I think HE should have. Long story short, waist length hair had to be cut about 4 inches to her lower back. Even after that, her ends would constantly be a source of extreme breakage.
I've got a few posts about the relaxer in regards to ways to avoid damage, but I will share with you the insane story of what caused me to put a relaxer on my 7 year old's hair. http://angelsringlets.blogspot.com/2011/09/top-5-mistakes-i-made-that-caused-me-to.html
Hopefully we can share experiences and this can help others to avoid making the same mistakes that I made.
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| Under 12 Years Old? Chemicals May Not Be the Answer to Hair Care Problems |
Finally, I just want to say that WE don't see our coily hair as a problem anymore. Wow, with age comes wisdom! My views effect my little ones to some extent. So as we start our 1st grade year with coily hair, we invite you to our world of daily styling (styles will be updated weekly), and we hope you share your hair styling for the little ones with US! We will be playing with lots of texture, accessories, and all the while keeping a healthy hair regimen to grow long and strong.
Wow! I've been racking my brain wondering what could have sent my 8 year old into precocious puberty when she has none of the "main causes". Less than a month prior to the shocking discovery of the first step to puberty, I used a well known texture softener on her hair.
ReplyDeleteHello NewlyNatural! What a confusing, frustrating, and upsetting experience this is! Yes, puberty is a naturally wonderful time in everyone's life (minus the hormones LOL), but 8 years old seems to be too young! I would have to wonder if 1 application of the texturizer would be able to cause the onset? However, these days, nothing surprises me with the hair/beauty industry not being monitored by any agencies that can restrict their irresponsible use of known carcinogens and toxic ingredients. Are you considering to transition her (no touch up applications?) It's going to be okay, you are in good company. We survived this very same situation, just let nature work things out.
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