Red Eye: Pharmacy Trip and Relaxing Hair

I realise I have not done any scientific posts of late so I will redeem myself and answer Courtney's question on why exactly pH does not affect hair.......tomorrow (lol!).



For today I have two stories to share with you

I actually shop at Superdrug (another UK Pharmacy) most of the time but I do drop in to Boots occassionally just to confirm to my el cheapo self that I really am saving money (Superdrug is cheaper than Boots). Anyway today while I was looking at some products a black lady tapped me on the shoulder and she had a complete look of glee in her eyes. She excitedly said, 'Go to the other side they have products for us!'



I walked over and lo and behold here was the 'black product section' stocked with the nasties that you would find at a typical black hair store. I will spare you the brand names but suffice it to say I know you know what I mean. I picked up the bottles and all bar one started with water then mineral oil. The single product that didn't was a brown gel which had water then PVA carbomer (even I would have to look that up, what sort of gel is that anyway)



I have an insular life where I think that the modern new products produced by black companies are the norm, sometimes I have to remind myself that being active on the internet is what opened my eyes.



Still I wonder, why oh why do we still do this white product, black product stuff? Is it so wrong that I wanted to morph into Darth Vader and zap the products off the shelf?




I did my surfing rounds today and found that two natural ladies whose pages I like had relaxed their hair......well technically texlaxed. In both cases oh my, the sporadic bursts of vitriole was unbelievable. To be fair, I didn't think too many people were that concerned and many gave measured criticism, there were just 10% or so who were super bothered . One comment really cracked me up, the person just put down 'Betrayer!' (which isn't a word, yes I am quite sad, that made me laugh some more)



Seriously, how can one person be so bothered about someone else's hair? Why the outward focus, why not focus that energy inward and promote your own aesthetic? Why rely on someone else, why not be your own role model?



There are so many 'natural hair gurus' some who had this status bestowed upon them others who self proclaim it. Ultimately my opinion is that we need to stop idolising people and get busy loving our own hair.



I am personally a natural till I die person but I would not want to hold someone else to my ethos. Operative word - MY.