Got to love the hustle and bustle of the New York City MTA. All kinds of people on this 2 train. Hispanic, African American, Caribbean, Indian, Middle Eastern, Caucasian, European, Asian, Hasidics. The elderly, middle aged, the cougars, the sugar daddies, the B-Ballers and wait, what is that. No, no, I am not seeing this. That is NOT a newborn baby with some damn extensions in her hair.
This child doesn't even have a full head of hair yet and her mother got four Yaki braids on her baby's tender scalp. Sigh! Pound: IOFFICIALLYCANT.ORG
How young is too young to put extensions, weave or a perm into a little girls hair?
Now lets start by saying that not all African-American girls require a perm, weave or extension, no, its not a rite of passage for us and if you get or have one it should be your choice and not something forced upon you.
Allegedly, there are only three types of hair textures, Caucasian (European) Straight or wavy, Black (African) Course or curly hair and Mongoloid (Eastern Asia) Straight thin hair and as far back at the Thomas Jefferson days, cultures have reproduced with others to create life. This caused people to have more than one kind of texture and type of hair.
Throwing a perm into a young child's hair not only gives the chance of chemicals seeping into the scalp, but it destroys the natural follicles from growing the way it wants. It's like telling a homosexual to be straight, but he or she can't because they were -- in Lady Gaga's voice -- born this way.
Sowing, gluing or clipping extensions onto the scalp of an impressionable little girls hair -- in my opinion -- sends the message of who you are isn't good enough and this is what you need to look better. Little girls don't know where they like the color tangerine over orange since their life experiences are not as broad as their adult parents. They only know what they are taught and if they are taught that what grows from them isn't presentable or doesn't look good and that this Yaki or Remi hair will do them justice then what kind of message is that for their self-esteem.
Here's I little back story:
In my freshmen year of high school, everyone brought their junior high school year books to school and this one girl who wore a sown in wig, showed everyone her class picture along with baby pictures and I couldn't help but noticed that she didn't have one picture showing what her real hair looks like.
So, being the person I am, I asked, "Have you ever seen what your real hair looks like?"
She replied, "What do you mean?"
I cautiously said, "Well, [girl's name] all your pictures from the time you're a baby have you in extensions or wigs, what does your real hair look like?" and she looked at me and said, "This is my hair, my momma bought it for me."
Needless to say the question turned into an argument and that girl was never my friend again, but really she never walked outside of a hair salon or her home with her real hair.
In college, she reached out to me on Facebook and said, "Look at what my real hair looks like, can't believe I wore those stupid wigs and weaves all those years."
She has such gorgeous, full hair and she never knew it because her mother only showed her that a weave or wig was all that looked good for her.
So again, I asked, How young is too young to put extensions, weave or perm into a little girls hair?
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