A picture of a 4-month-old baby girl with straightened hair (seemingly by flat ironing) has circulated Facebook, sparking outrage and broaching the question: How young is too young to introduce children to hair straightening and relaxers. While women, both natural and relaxed, have denounced the mother because the child is so young, my question is, how is this any different than straightening/relaxing a child’s hair at age 4 or 8 or 12 or 15? The message being transmitted from mother to child is the same: Your hair is not okay as it is and would look better if it were straight. Sending that message to a preteen girl is just as harmful as sending it to a baby (I mean, at least the baby doesn’t fully understand what’s going on!) It’s unfortunate how hair insecurities are so often passed on from black mother to child, almost like a rite of passage. Ladies, what are your thoughts?
Many people have asked what is wrong with relaxing or heat processing a child’s hair. The same thing that is wrong with doing that to an adults hair but magnify it by 100. Relaxers do not just sit on the scalp they penetrate and form a thick black/green layer onto the skull. They cause different health problems the longer you use them. Some people have reported severe migraines, seizures, etc. A mortician told me that when a body comes onto her table that is unidentifiable she can usually determine if she is a black female by the amount of burns on the scalp and skull. When my Aunt had her brain tumor removed they charged her $300 for a scalp scrape to remove the relaxer residue before they drilled into the brain. It is more serious than just self esteem it is a health issue and this should be considered child abuse. The same way we would consider taking our young children to a tanning booth or giving them a tatoo. Just because the parents do not understand the seriousness does not change damage they are inflicting on the child. When it comes to self esteem if more parents focused on personality traits instead of beauty than that would be a big help. Telling your child constantly how beautiful she is the way she is will do wonders. I NEVER recommend relaxing but if someone wants to heat process and doesn’t mind the shedding or the awkward “in-between” stage then more power to them as long as you don’t overdue it and cause breakage or burning. This young child however, does have soft spots and it is quite dangerous to put a hot comb or flat iron on her hair. Even if she says she didn’t go close to the scalp the heat travels up the hair and to the scalp anyway. This is really sad on so many levels. Not only what she did as a mother but the amount of people who have no idea what they are doing to their bodies by using different chemicals.
Um..maybe it’s a bad idea because of the dangerous chemicals and or damaging heat that the ‘mother’ is exposing ths baby too. Forget natural or relaxed, who cares. But, where in heck is the common sense and maternal instinct?