Happy Wellness Wednesday, Garden Fam 🌸
I'm back with Part III of our 'Cleaner Living' series!
If you haven't caught the other two posts, go check them out. This week, we're talking about one of my favorite things:
HAIR 💇🏾♀️
Black women’s natural hair has not always been accepted & praised in the ways it is today, nor have products and information always been so readily available to care for our natural hair. So it is understandable how we came to embrace products like chemical straighteners to make our hair more “manageable” for ourselves and “palatable” in professional and academic spaces. Thankfully, we are in a time where our hair is finally being embraced in its natural state and we have so many tools and resources at our fingertips. The stigma is being broken, and it is wonderful to see, but the ties to old ways of doing things are not easily broken. In today’s video, I share the science behind chemical straighteners (relaxers) and the risks of introducing our bodies to their harsh ingredients. My goal is to present you with the facts so that you can make well-informed decisions about your hair regimen that are in line with what is best for your health.
To learn more, watch the video and/or check out the information and resources below!
Here’s to giving up the creamy crack, embracing our natural hair, and living a cleaner life 💁🏾♀️
As always, have a healthy and wholesome week!
Love you bunches 🍇
Focus Scripture
Psalms 139:13-14
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
Video Notes
Getting Off the Creamy Crack: The Journey to Natural Hair Care
Learn to love your hair in its form
This IS the part where I tell you to love yourself as you are, including the process involved in taking care of you (and in this case, your hair!)
Psalms 139:13-14 NKJV
Enjoy and embrace the journey
If you’ve been getting relaxers forever, expect there to be some transition and adjustment along the way.
Make it enjoyable like an adventure of learning or relearning your hair.
Find style inspiration and follow natural hair channels on YouTube
Replenish your hair and your body with nutrients for health
For your hair
Protein treatments
Natural rinses and hair masks
Protective styles
Not good with hair? Find a good natural stylist near you, or even a good girlfriend!
For your body (and your hair, too)
Eat well – fruits, veggies, collagen, biotin, etc.
Check out our ‘Giving Your Body What It Needs’ series for more guidance
Don’t relapse!
Stick to it and don’t go back to the creamy crack! 😆
Review the Facts
How we temporarily or permanently change the curl patterns of our hair
Our hair is made of keratin proteins that are held together by two kinds of bonds
Disulphide bonds (stronger)
Hydrogen bonds (weaker)
Our curl patterns are based on the shape of our hair follicles
Protein bonds impact curl patterns once hair grows out of the follicles
Straightening our hair
Temporarily
Hydrogen bonds are affected by temporary heat straightening through methods like:
blow drying
flat ironing
curling
These bonds can be restored upon wetting the hair
Permanently
Disulphide bonds are broken when using permanent straightening methods like relaxers
These bonds are not restored upon wetting the hair again
Recent Lawsuits
There are a few links below detailing the lawsuits that have been filed against companies making chemical straighteners. Women are suing due to being diagnosed with:
endometrial carcinoma
Uterine cancer
Ovarian cancer
Uterine fibroids
Problematic Ingredients
Endocrine-disrupting chemicals
Our endocrine system is responsible for our hormones
EDCs affect this system and therefore impact hormone functioning
Phthalates are EDCs that are often found in relaxers
Phthalates are a group of chemicals used to make plastics more durable.
They also can be used to help materials dissolve.
Can also be found in vinyl flooring, lubricating oils, and personal-care products
Possible adverse and long-term effects
“Previous studies have found hair product use to be associated with a higher risk of hormone-sensitive cancers including breast and ovarian cancer…” – JNCI
“Exposure to excess estrogen and a hormonal imbalance of estrogen and progesterone have been identified as key risk factors for uterine cancer” – JNCI
Salon workers may experience the following due to repeated exposure:
Respiratory difficulties
Dermatitis
Other forms of skin irritation
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