I wrote this article in response to a friend boldly telling me (out of frustration) that she hates her nappy hair.

Unfortunately, this is the sentiment of many Africans and African-Americans, especially African/African-American females.

NOTE: African and African-American includes Moors, Nuwaubians, Asiatics, Hebrew Israelites, Bilalian, Negro, and any other name used to describe Black people.

However, this sentiment supra only exists due to a self-consciousness that was born out of the ugly climate of White racism from the past 500+ years.

Basically, without being made conscious of the texture of their hair as being some wicked curse stemming from the fictitious Biblical Ham character, or some mark of sin placed on Africans from God Almighty, or a defect on God’s part while making the African, Africans/African-Americans would not have the hang-ups on their hair (and other facial characteristics and physical anomalies, e.g. dark skin, broad nose, thick and protruding lips, large posterior or butt) that many of them have today which has led to the exploitation of such sentiment with the creation of a hair care industry that reaps hundreds of millions of dollars that don’t see any of that money returning to the communities where most Black women live in the form of beauty school scholarships and inner city beauty pageants.

I’m quite sure that before coming into contacts with Whites (Europeans), Africans had no problems with their hair. It only occurred when a contrast was made (between European hair and African hair) and contrast can only exist with isolation and separation, which is the cause of most problems in the world today regardless of race or nationality.

With anything Black or African being the opposite of anything White or European, which was allegedly good, positive, and pure, and which was accepted by both Africans (or Blacks) and Europeans alike (due to custom, law, social conditioning, etc.), you automatically have an institutionalized system in place that will reinforce and breed the erroneous and injurious notion that any and everything African or Black in nature is bad, sinful, defective, flawed, or negative. However, this can only exist with the false White (European) concocted paradigm (that White is good and Black is bad) in existence and effect.

And for the African to believe such negativity about him/herself (due to conditioning predicated upon an insidious form of slavery that stripped the African of his/her culture and cultural identity, knowledge of self and God, language, name, and religious-spiritual belief system, etc.), the result or outcome could be no other than one of acute self-hatred, poor or low self image, and low or no self-esteem, which are sentiments that are greatly exploited (especially for financial gain) in Western nations and the nations that have been conquered and impacted by Western colonial powers in past centuries.

While this exploitation is piercing and stinging in effect and nature for the conquered people, it is just as piercing and stinging in effect and nature for members of the dominant and ruling class people, which is greatly evident in the United States and which is seen in various industries such as beauty (cosmetics), plastic surgery, Botox, breast and lip augmentation, liposuction, etc.

Because many people of all races or nationalities in general and not just Africans/American-Americans are beleaguered with issues of self-hatred (covert or overt), poor or low self-image, and/or low self-esteem, certain industries survive and thrive off of the lower and negative emotions supra. The fashion, beauty, body augmentation, self make-over (like what is seen on television talk shows); alcohol, cigarette, sex/pornography and illegal drug industries are so powerful today (especially in the minds and eyes of females in Western nations) in part due to self-hatred, low/poor self-image, and low self-esteem.

The people with the greatest desire to be made over, appearance-wise, are people who don’t love and accept themselves and who have low self-image and self-esteem.

You will find the people with the greatest addictions to fashion and beauty are either frivolous and/or superficial or suffering from self-hatred, low/poor self-image, and/or low self-esteem (whether they are conscious or unconscious of the fact) and usually due to some perceived notion that they are unattractive, defective or flawed, or inadequate in some shape or form which has been ingrained into their minds and psyche due constantly hearing negative things about themselves which led them to be self-conscious (about their outer appearance).

This is very true of people who must always have some name brand piece of clothing on their person. For many people who deem themselves to be nothing, worth-wise, wearing a piece of clothing with a famous person’s name on it, makes them someone or somebody in their mind.

“Fool this Nike!” “Michael Jordan wear these!” You see, Jordan is somebody! Jordan is successful and famous in the world. So some individuals link their worth to Michael Jordan’s worth, and they do this via Nike tennis shoes and/or sportswear. These individuals who have Nike on their person now feel better about themselves. They are somebody in their minds because they are annexed to Michael Jordan via some tennis shoes with a unique logo on it. Never mind the shoes really only cost $3 in a so-called Third World Nation to make. The simple fact to many individuals that the shoes bear the Nike logo on it and cost over $150 is enough to make them feel important, at least in their mind.

I could use the same example supra for people who feel their clothing and other products (i.e. luggage, purse, etc.) must by Gucci, Louis Vutton, DKNY, Giorgio, Dooney & Burke, Calvin Klein, BeBe, Sean John, Chanel, etc.

But how does having a famous person’s name on your butt give you worth?

The majority of people who are addicted to drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, sex and/or pornography, and illegal drugs suffer from self-hatred, low/poor self-image, and/or low self-esteem; all third chakra (solar plexus) blockages in particular, but lower chakras blockage in general.

NOTE: Chakras are invisible energy centers located above the body that store information about us (from both past and present life).

These people feel inadequate in some way, shape or form. Doing these things above helps the person to numb the pain of their lives and feelings (negative emotion). Through the vices and things supra, they are looking for a temporary “high” or “feel good” sensation because number one, they don’t believe they can have a “permanent high”; number two, they are “low” or feeling “low” in spirits and that’s why they want to get high; number three, they feel “bad” and thus want to feel good!

People who are naturally high in life don’t want to get high, at least off of unnatural things. People who are in charge and control of their life and who don’t live by default don’t need a temporary high because they have a permanent high from being naturally high on life. They have a “natural high” as late soul singer, Curtis Mayfield, sang about on the Superfly soundtrack. They don’t need a “Doctor Feel Good” as soulstress Aretha Franklin sang about. They are they’re own Dr. Feel Good.

When people feel “down” they are suicidal in many cases and don’t even know or realize it; however, the clues and messages are in their statements:

“I’m about to go get f**ked up!”

“I’m about to go get my head bad!”

“I’m about to go get blasted!”

“I’m about to get stoned out of my mind!”

“I’m about to beam up to Scottie!”

These people want to get (escape) out of their minds and quick because they don’t like their reality (that they’ve created via their thoughts and choices in their lives thus far) and feel powerless to change their lives, which they have the power to do if they would only become conscious (aware) believe in themselves, take initiative, take responsibility, and take action. They want to escape the hurt of their pain and frustration in life.

All negative feeling comes from chakra (major energy center) deficiency, e.g. fear, shame, guilt, grief, inability to express or communicate, illusion, and attachment predicated upon life issues such as survival; being unwanted after conception and after birth (by both or one parent); sexuality issues (being raped or molested), relationships (bad familial and sexual relationships), poverty consciousness, being made to feel inadequate or flawed in some way, not receiving love and/or feeling cared for; having one’s creativity or expression being suppressed; and/or being made to feel frightened and/or threatened due to one’s higher gifts (e.g. psychic ability, clairvoyance, ability to see and communicate with the Other side, etc.).

Self-hatred is a very dangerous programming and conditioning because when you hate yourself it is very easy to harm self and others who look like or remind you of self. This is part of the reason Black-on-Black violence and homicide is so high in urban areas throughout the United States.

African hair is manageable depending upon our diet, how we feel about ourselves (including our hair) or self-image, and our thinking or thoughts. This is something I have discovered through personal experience.

The hair especially improves along with improvement in diet. A healthy and balanced diet that provides needed or necessary nutrition makes available the food in the form of nutrients that the hair requires for its health. And yes, improved diet as well as mentality can even override genetics.

Hair structure changes with diet, mindset, lifestyle, thought, etc. Hair is alive. It is programmable! It holds information.

Crystal skulls are said to hold a lot of valuable ancient information and knowledge due to the programming of the crystals with the hair of ancient women. The ancient women would rub the quart crystals against their hair and the information their hair held or stored would be transferred to the crystal, which was shaped in the form of a human skull and would later be buried so as to preserve the information and knowledge for future generations, especially those who would lose their way.

African hair tends to give many African/African-Americans a problem because hair responds to emotion and most Black people, subtly or consciously, don’t love their hair so the hair responds to this -- it gets all hard and nappy (unmanageable). But isn’t the hair nappy by nature? Of course it is; but it becomes more stiff and rigid than it normally is.

Africans and American-Americans, generally speaking, do too much to their hair. They never leave it alone. They are always “processing” it and in the process of “processing” their hair, they are torturing their hair. Remember, hair has memory and it does not forget all the abuse (torture), just as an abused woman or child does not forget their abuse. Every part of our body holds memory - good and/or bad.

Abuse makes a person shut down and become hard and rigid. Same thing with hair!

Because African-American females have serious issues with their hair (subtle and overt) which leads to dissatisfaction and hatred of their hair in many cases, a $500 million + dollar (and growing) hair care industry that caters only to Black female hair has been created.

The words of certain things Blacks do to their hair say a lot. Getting a “relaxer” makes the statement that the hair is “wild” and “upset” and thus needs to “calm down,” hence “relax.” However, the word “wild” really means “free.” Europeans used to call Africans “wild” because they went around naked or nearly naked and did certain things that Europeans didn’t understand. However, when you truly understand that “wild” means “free”, these Africans where just being themselves - they were being free to be themselves; and you can’t enslave that which is free (wild), so in order to enslave that which is free, e.g. a person (African, Native American, aborigine, etc.), a horse (Black stallion), etc., you TAME it!

Processing the African hair (or really any hair, for that matter), means, “taming” the African hair.

Basically, the European process of processing (which didn’t originate in Africa or amongst African peoples) is a form of enslaving the hair. Though free from physical slavery today, the African is doing the enslaving of him/her self in the area of hair amongst other things, simply due to the fact that mental, psychological, and spiritual slavery is still in effect with the African (though all people regardless of race or nationality are subject to these forms of slavery today by the Rulers of the world).

To “process” the hair means to alter or change it. The word “process” means: “A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result.” American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition, 2001, pg. 670

Hot combing is a form of hair branding. It’s like what the meat industry does with animals that are “processed” for human consumption for purposes of carnivorism (meat-eating). Hot combining is torture to the hair. When you burn an animal, it smells. The same thing happens when you burn the hair - it smells! I know because I grew up with a Black mother, a Black sister, and Black female cousins and aunts who were always sitting or standing by the kitchen stove hot-combing their hair.

And I can’t forget about weaves. Weaves really blew up and took off in the 1980s. It seems weaves replaced wigs. Back in the 1970s, Black women wore a lot of wigs. My mother owned a few wigs. Wigs never made any sense to me. Why put on someone else’s hair because you don’t want to fix or prepare your own hair? And after all, whose hair is this anyway? In most cases, the hair is from a deceased person (that you never met). But remember, hair holds memory and where are you putting this hair (wig)? On your head, which houses your brain, which houses your mind? That’s some scary stuff to me!

Many women were subjecting themselves to information from women who were now deceased by wearing the hair of these dead women. These women could have been prostitutes, fornicators, lunatics, murderers, or God knows what else.

Weaves were also made from horse’s hair, which really didn’t make sense to me. Think about it, where does horse’s hair hang on the horse’s anatomy? Does not horse’s hair hang above the horse’s ass or rear end? And then you wonder why so many Black women are quick to act a damn ’ass,’ especially the sisters from the hood who were known to wear extensions (hair weaves).

Horse’s hair emits horse’s ass energy! Some Black females enjoy being rode like a wild ass (horse, pony) with the dude pulling their hair and spanking them on the ass like a thoroughbred pony while hittin’ the skins (slang term for having sex) from the backside (doggy style). This is true! Rapper Xzibit made a song a few years ago with a female saying: “Spank me and pull my hair!” Music programs the mind; especially repetition of certain songs, for repetition of a message constitutes mental programming.

But Black or African hair is so strong, no matter what you do to it (and/or no matter how much money you spend on it), it reclaims and returns right back to its natural state. But the mentally conditioned African keeps fighting nature. The African processes his/her hair constantly, but the African hair returns to its natural state and the unconscious African processes the hair again. This goes on over and over until the hair begins to die - turn gray, fall out, and bald.

And a new thing is happening today due to excess processing of the hair with dangerous and caustic chemicals - BRAIN CANCER! Yes, use of all those chemicals in hair sheen, shampoos, conditioner, dyes, relaxers/processors, etc. and all those hours under those RADIATION-emitting hair dryers are pivotal in the development of brain cancer. I myself lost a beautiful young cousin to brain cancer.

Cancer was a very rare disease in the Black community prior to the 1980s, but due to acceptance into the larger American culture, which gave Blacks more access to foreign and strange foods, lifestyle (actually a death-style) and actions, thoughts and concepts, and environment, cancer has not been a foreigner or stranger to African-Americans in the last 25-30 years. In fact, though just a mere 12-15% of the total U.S. population, they lead the nation in certain forms of cancer such as colon cancer and rectal cancer with breast cancer not being too far behind.

You see, good living and eating that is not in harmony with Nature and/or the laws of the Universe will kill you. Just because you claim to live and eat good doesn’t mean you are living and eating in accordance with the laws of Nature and the Universe. You can never fool Mother Nature! But you can delude yourself as much as you like.

So when you say: “I’m about to get a process or get my hair processed”, all you’re really saying is “I’m about to alter or change the natural state of my hair!” I’m not saying this wrong, or even right; because I respect free will and thus choice; however, I’m stating the truth of the matter.

Black women are very conscious about their hair. Black women will not get in water to go swimming because of their hair. They are afraid that their hair will nap up (and it will) and they just can’t have that. Hair is a major part of the Black woman’s idea of beauty. Beauty is a high priority on the Black woman’s list (actually all women’s list), and understandably so, especially in Western society, the United States in particular.

Some Black women will not even go out in public unless their hair is done and if it is not done, they’ll cover it up with a rag or something, which also makes a statement, i.e., “I’m ashamed of the state of my hair.”

A lot of the hatred of African hair by Africans and African-Americans, especially the African or Black female comes from racist mythological teachings about Africans being cursed. European Christians taught that Africans were the descendants of the fictitious Biblical Ham and thus cursed through ham’s seed of Canaan, which is outright Biblical mythological bullshit!

And then you have Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, and his warped and racist mythological view of how Black people’s hair become nappy (coarse). The Nation of Islam, which subtly teaches white supremacy hidden under Black supremacy teachings or dogma, teaches that Black people (in America) are the descendants of a mythical Tribe of Shabazz who were a people who were taken into the jungles of Africa by their leader, a scientist named Shabazz, in order to prepare for a hard jungle life, and as a result of living a jungle life (though Africa has no jungles), their noses became broad, their lips thick, and their hair coarse.

Then take a look at the God of the Nation of Islam, Master Fard Muhammad, a man with a White or Caucasian complexion and who has very smooth and silky hair. How come their God has straight hair while the members have coarse or nappy hair?

All of this plays out on the subtle level and does damage, especially when people are unconscious.

And even while nappy, African hair is very powerful. It is helixical in nature (like the human DNA strand). It is the greatest transmitter and receiver of cosmic information (until you damage it with hair chemicals).

When I was a little boy, I couldn’t comb my hair without first softening it with water. Today, I can put any comb straight through it without water or anything else. What happened? What changed? Answer: my diet, lifestyle, views, environment, thoughts, etc. And my hair followed closely behind.

In eating healthy and nutritious food, I began feeding my hair (the nutrients I starved it from previously and originally). I started using good hair oils made from natural and edible substances instead of harsh chemicals made by manufacturing companies. I stopped using all those harsh and unnatural hair pomades that were made from petroleum. I was out of my mind putting petroleum jelly on my hair to hold it in place or for purposes of hair waves. I was suffocating my scalp and when the scalp is suffocated and can’t breathe, this is what kills the hair and causes it to fall out and off. It does this because it is dying. The petroleum suffocates the scalp and the scalp must breathe.

When I became vegan back in 1998 and started eating all those good and nutritious fruits and vegetables, changed my thinking to that which was more positive and progressive, stopped using unnatural and man-made chemicals on my hair and body, and stayed happy and blissful, the state of my hair (and skin) changed! My hair (and skin) reflected this change in my life. Hair will reflect your life and what’s going on in it. It really will! I have always noticed this with women. Their hair says so much about how they’re feeling. Hair really is a woman’s crown.

Today, while my hair is still helixical, it is very manageable. I have no “naps” and not that naps are a bad thing. It is a healthy kinky that I am proud of. I know my hair is alive. I know it is a transmitter. I know my hair must eat. I know my hair holds memory. This is why I constantly tell my hair that I love it and I do! My hair responds to this just as a person responds to loving words, especially the words “I love you!”

When I show my body attention and get into planned personal relaxation, luxuriation, and grooming (steaming, waxing, pedicure, foot spa, getting my hair cut and trimmed, etc.), I see it in my hair and skin. Always! If I get too busy with my work and neglect or delay my planned personal relaxation, luxuriation, and grooming, I can always see the effects of this in my hair and skin, plus, I instinctively know it as my body starts talking to me. I’m just glad I’m in tune with my intuition, especially being a male and all.

How we feel molds our face, skin, and hair! An essential nutrient of good hair is good emotion. People whose skin looks all hard, dry, rough, and riddled with wrinkles are people who live hard and unrighteous and who live with negative thinking and bad emotions. You program your hair and skin by your thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and actions.

Also, hair ties into glandular health. A woman’s hair ties into her ovaries and a male’s hair ties into his testicles (male form of the female ovaries). Show me a woman with split ends and I’ll show you a woman with ovarian insufficiency or degenerating ovaries.

You cannot repair the hair without addressing the endocrine or hormonal system.

Remember, your hair needs nourishment just like every other organ of your body. Hair needs to eat! It needs nutrition.

Essential hair nutrients include Zinc, Biotin, Silica, Niacin (Vitamin B3), Pantothentic Acid (Vitamin B5), Inositol, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Pyridoxine (Vitamin B6), Copper, and Sulfur (MSM).

No natural substance helps hair (and nails) to grow quicker than MSM (methyl sulphonal methane) sulfur, known as ORGANIC sulfur. This is not the harmful inorganic sulfur grandma used to use back in the day that damaged skin. Grandma didn’t know any better back then. Today, we use organic sulfur.

Many natural herbs are rich in the nutrients above and are thus great to take for purposes of providing nourishment to the hair. Good hair-nourishing herbs include: Horsetail, Sage, Rosemary, Shen Min (Ho Shou Wu), Amla (Indian Gooseberry), Bringraj, Kelp, Alfalfa, Sarsaparilla, Red Raspberry, Gotu Kola (a/k/a/ Brahmi), Maidenfern, Dulse, Rose Hips, Chamomile, Irish Moss, Spirulina, and Comfrey Root (which is not poisonous, so don’t believe the hype)!

Though not an herb for internal consumption, Henna is an herb that is great for purposes of dying the color of the hair. Henna also makes hair resilient, lustrous, shiny, untangled, and manageable. I perform henna treatments on my hair periodically for purposes of optimal hair care. Henna is very safe compared to all these synthetic, chemical-based hair dyes, and very economical as well. Please reference the following:

"Synthetic hair dye penetrates into the cortex of the hair, binding to (or altering) your natural pigment. In order to penetrate into the cortex the cuticle of the hair needs to be lifted - that’s why ammonia and hydrogen peroxide are used in synthetic hair dye.

The repeated lifting of the cuticle causes weathering of the hair - some cuticles are destroyed and some will not close properly after repeated colorings. That’s why colored hair will loose luster and shine over time. A closed cuticle lying flat along the strand’s surface equals shiny hair that also won’t suffer from much tangling (there is nothing to catch against other strands). The more weathered the cuticle, the rougher the hair will feel and the more it will look like the proverbial “rat’s nest” you see on some people with long hair that has colored it repeatedly over time. The ammonia/peroxide combination actually breaks down part of the keratin/protein in the hair each time you color your hair. With repeated colorings you actually can remove enough of the protein to weaken your hair to the point where it breaks off (i.e. disintegrates because there is no structure left to keep it together). That’s why protein treatments/masks are so popular with people who color regularly. They’re used to replace some of the protein lost to regular colorings - they work to some extent, but not nearly as well as keeping the protein in where it should be - i.e. in the strands - in the first place. I’m sure you have the commercials in the US as well where the large cosmetics companies try to convince you that the hair color is “moisturizing” and contains “special care ingredients” to “leave your hair completely natural and undamaged”. A bunch of bull****, by their very nature they will cause structural damage to your hair - they wouldn’t work otherwise. With that not said that hair colored with regular hair color can’t look good - it can and often does - but requires some special care and pampering to conceal and to some extent rectify the damage done by the chemicals used. Henna on the other hand will not lift the cuticle the way regular hair color does, nor will it break down the protein structure of your own hair. It will in fact strengthen it as it combines with your own keratin to make it stronger - think of it as a natural protein treatment.“ SOURCE: Fia ”Henna For Hair.Com"

Now do you understand why so many hair-care companies use protein in their products? It’s to help repair the DAMAGE of their chemical-based product. Also, know that the protein these companies use in their products (especially their shampoos) comes from PLACENTA. Now you know why if you unwisely have a baby in a hospital (a place where only sick people go and pregnancy is NOT a sickness) they keep the placenta. Conscious people who have home births keep the placenta and bury it, planting a tree over it. And yes, some people strangely eat the placenta because of all the nutrients in it. I don’t recommend or advise this, but to each his own!

Horsetail, Alfalfa, Dulse, Irish Moss, and Spirulina are “high mineral” herbs and thus are great sources of nutrition for the hair. Alma and Rose Hips are great natural sources of Vitamin C. Fo-Ti (a/k/a Ho Shou Wu, Shen Min) naturally darken hair and prevent premature graying. Rosemary and Pipli stimulate hair follicles. Sarsaparilla improves scaling skin conditions and helps with dandruff. Maidenfern is a hair tonic. Chamomile and Sage helps to rejuvenate the hair.

If you use hair oil, make sure the oil is from a natural and edible source, i.e. olive oil, sunflower seed oil, coconut oil, safflower, grape seed, Black seed, red palm oil, or Kakui Nut oil, a/k/a Tung oil (native to Hawaii and China). Your hair has to eat! If you feed it oil, it must be edible oil. Would you eat petroleum jelly or mineral oil? If not, then why would you feed it to your hair? Whatever you put on your hair (and skin for that matter) gets into your bloodstream and thus your body. The body requires FOOD! Not chemical.

Black males using harmful petroleum-based pomades would be wise to stop using such products. They suffocate the scalp! Hair is a breathing organ and must breath. Lack of oxygen causes death! Petroleum is made from rocks. Petra = rocks and stones. Petroleum comes from the same place gasoline comes. In fact, they’re the same thing. Replace the letter “G” from “Gasoline” with the letter “V” and what word do you have? GASOLINE!

It’s not wise or salubrious to put congealed or gelatinous gasoline on your hair.

Harmful petroleum-based pomades (such as Royal King and Dukes) should and can be replaced with natural butters such as African shea butter, African kpangnan butter (commonly called yellow shea butter), and/or cocoa butter. These are better for your hair than man-made pomade.

Shea and kpangnan butters naturally moisturize the scalp. They also contain an abundance of healing ingredients, including vitamins, minerals, proteins and a unique fatty acid profile. Shea butter, kpangnan butter (and coconut oil) naturally enables your hair (and skin) to absorb moisture from the air, and as a result, your hair becomes softer and stays moisturized for longer.

When purchasing and using she butter, make sure it is unrefined and raw. There are many brands of processed (refined) shea butter on the market today, so beware! Chances are if the shea butter is coming from a European country, it’s refined for cosmetic and eye and nose appeal purposes. Your raw and unrefined shea butter will always come from Africa (i.e. Togo, Ghana, West Africa, etc.), so start learning your African countries.

There are also great essential oils (plant blood) that can help the hair by nourishing it, repairing it, and revitalizing it. These essential oils include: Chamomile (Roman), Sage, Rosemary, Foraha, Pipli (Black Pepper), Patchouli, and Ylang Ylang. A mixture of these essential oils will have your hair smelling unique and good. We use these essential oils in Dherbs.Com hair oil.

Chamomile and Sage helps rejuvenate hair. Pipli and Rosemary stimulate hair follicles. Foraha helps prevent and reverse split ends. Patchouli tones, strengthens, and rejuvenates hair. Ylang Ylang nourishes hair and stimulates hair growth.

Products that assist in hair care and maintenance include Hair-Skin-Nails formula, Vitamin C formula, MSM Sulfur, Copper Phosphate, Multi-Vitamins and Minerals formula, Vitamin E formula, Zinc Phosphate; and our Hair Oil.

Below is a list of companies that sell hair care products and other personal hygiene products utilizing natural ingredients (though you may still have to check the ingredient list of the products because all companies don’t know what “natural” really means).

Aubrey Organic
Avalon Organics
Bazaar of India
Desert Essence
Earth Science
Home Health
Monoi Tiki
Nature’s Gate
Nubian Heritage

My family and I personally use products from Auromere (Neem shampoo), Aubrey Organic (shampoo and conditioner), Avalon Organics, Bazaar of India (awesome hair oils), Kiss My Face, and Nubian Heritage (awesome lotions).

Below are a few resources/websites for companies that specialize in black hair care and maintenance for those individuals who believe in buying from Black-owned businesses.

Afrikan Republic
Baka Beauty
Bambi Products
Beauty Gensis
Exclusively Mr. Charles
House of Nubian
Nubian Heritage
Nuanace Plus
Sistas Place
Treasured Locks

The Black Beauty Association’s website is www.bbsa1.com

Remember, folks, regardless of whom you buy from, CHECK the ingredients of the products. Don’t put color or race before your health. You shouldn’t have to compromise one for the other.

Let’s not forget and remember that as African (Black) people we have many natural hairstyle choices to choose from. We can wear our hair “natural” (like we used to do back in the 1960s and 1970s before we were hit by the Jheri Curl invasion), “braided,” “locked,” “twists,” etc.

You are seeing a lot of Black people sporting “locks” today. Locks are very common nowadays, even in White corporate America. Locks are so popular today and have been for a while that you actually see a few a White people sportin’ “locks.”

Notice I call them “locks” and not “dreads” or “dreadlocks.” Dreadlock is a pejorative term originating with Europeans who “dreaded” the locks of some Africans who wore them, hence “dreaded” locks, which have become “dreadlocks.” But dreadlocks are “dreaded locks.”

Many African-Americans began sportin’ locks when they discovered and connected with their African roots. It’s funny, because if a person with locks bends down and over and let their locks fall or hang, the locks will look just like long “roots” from a tree.

African people have been wearing braids for thousands of years. If it was not for braids, Africans enslaved and brought here to the United States would not have had any native foods (vegetables). Many of the female Africans would hide seeds in their braids.

One of these seeds transplanted across the Atlantic Ocean was okra, Hibiscus esculentus. In Africa, okra was called ’ngumbo.’ And what is the name of that dish we put okra in today? GUMBO! In the United States, ’ngumbo’ became ’gumbo.’

"Okra was known as ngumbo in its native Angola and hence gumbo in the American colonies. The slaves made a stew from it, modeled after a dish prepared by Native Americans, which they also called ’gumbo.’ Don Vorhees [Why Does Popcorn Pop? And 201 fascinating Facts About Food], p. 45

In closing, African-Americans and even continental Africans (especially those in Ghana) would be wise to stop torturing their hair with harsh chemicals (relaxers, perms). African hair does not need to be “relaxed” because it’s free (natural). Relaxing the hair is imprisoning the hair. You are incarcerating your hair with this process. Your hair has not committed a crime nor is it a crime to wear your hair in its natural state.

A perm is a misnomer because this hair process is not permanent. As the late Kwame Ture said in a rap song by KRS-One (“Ya Strugglin”), “No matter how hard you try to disguise yourself, it can’t be done. Africa is so strong, that regardless of what you put in your hair, she will snatch it off!”

This is what you call “new growth” but ignorantly equated to ’needing to get your hair redone.’ We spoke like this in our Jheri curl days. Any time our hair was naturally throwing off the harmful chemicals (shackles imprisoning the natural state of our hair) we’d instantly say to ourselves (or others), ’It’s time to get my curl redone.’

I spent a lot of money on Jheri curl activator. I used to have a dresser-top full of Jheri curl activator, conditioners, and spray. I had all brands too - Moxie, World of Curls, etc.

You used to be in bad shape too when you ran out of curl activator and didn’t have anything to put on your hair. We became dependent on Jheri culr activator and didn’t even realize it.

I messed up a lot of pillows and shirts too! I had slimy curl juice running down my neck and into the collars of my shirts. I always had ’ring around the collar’ in those days. But hey, in those days, you had to have a curl for the girls. Like Akon sings on India Arie’s hit jam “I Am Not My Hair”, “Nappy headed brothers never had no ladies!” Well, that was true until nappy-headed brothers became ’ballers’ and ’hustlers,’ at least in my hometown of South Central Los Angeles. Money was enough to blind those young sisters to a lot of things whereby if a brother with nappy hair didn’t have any major money in his pocket, he wouldn’t get any play at all.

Believe it or not, periodically I have bad dreams (if you want to call them such) whereby I’m sportin’ a curl again, in modern times. These dreams negatively impact me. I wake up feeling rejoiced that it was only a dream.

All those times I was getting my hair Jheri curled and sitting in that chair with harsh chemicals on my head (scalp) burning the living daylights out of myself, my scalp was recording this abuse on a cellular level and the fact of the matter is, the damage is still there and sometimes in dream state I revisit (replay) this trauma I did to myself in my days of ignorance.

The above would be the only so-called bad dreams Djehuty Ma’at-Ra has these days, and they are very rare, but do occur. I know most people will not consider the above as bad dreams, but for me, they are - LOL!

Black hair is alive! It is electrical and you know it. You may have experienced combing your hair only to feel a static shock. This is because hair is electrical and it is electrical due to the combination of carbon and copper. Our hair is black or melanated in color because of CARBON and COPPER. It is an antennae and receiver that allows us to pick up cosmic transmissions in the Universe and to process them in our bodies. This is why Blacks who wear their hair naturally tend to be more in tune and in line with universal and multiversal consciousness. They may be more spiritual as well. Most religified people (mainly our Christian brothers and sisters) are the ones who process their hair.

It is true that you are not your hair, but your hair is an integral part of you or who you are, so embrace it, care for it, and listen to it.

Black people (and every other race of people, for that matter) - ACCEPT YOUR OWN and BE YOURSELF! God made you perfect just the way you are. All you have to do is just take care of (maintain) what you have.

There’ a whole industry out there that profits off of self-hate. Self-hate and self-inadequacy is a billion dollar industry.

As the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in a lecture in California in the mid-1960s pertaining to Black hair: “It’s good hair! It really is!”

Dr. King told the truth!