Why Questioning Your Traditions Is A Good Thing

Sometimes at the salon we get asked to do services that confirm why

questioning your traditions is a good thing.  Often people carry on traditions that affect them but only question it if it threatens their mental health and hair!

Hair salons get calls for help with various odd jobs like detangling hair, combing out knots, etc.  They are

unusual in that most people would chew off their arms before doing this but others get frustrated and do make the call.  We are able to help most people unless the problem has been happening for a long period.

What I have noticed is that problems with detangling happen a lot with people with curly hair.  Usually,

the rest of the family has hair on the straighter side.  This individual is caught in a web of constantly straightening while other family can run a brush through theirs and be done in five minutes. 

Parents have no idea what to use in that hair type and they end up using straight hair products and   

tools.  It can also be a source of embarrassment for the child being constantly reminded they are “different” because no one knows how to manage their hair or cares enough to find out.  Many have told me of being ostracized by stylists who were unschooled in curly textures and made unkind comments whenever they were taken there.

Needless to say, the person with curly hair is reluctant to do family activities that involve water or

humidity.  Their daily activities always involved straightening their hair.  By the end of the day, the curls won. Now they are older and in charge of their haircare, I have found that it is important to ask what products, accessories, and behaviors they have when doing their hair.

There are several instances why questioning your traditions is a good thing.  For example:

• Knotted hair is often a sign of bad hair practices, wrong products, not keeping the hair trimmed regularly.
• Hatred for combing the hair out is often a sign of using bad tools e.g. a small-toothed comb on waist-length hair.
• Pulling the hair from the scalp down while combing,  instead of combing from the ends up.
• Not moisturizing the hair properly before combing.  This causes split ends.