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Dear white adoptive parents of #black #adoptees
Finding a black hairdresser to braid or otherwise care for your child& #39;s #Natural #hair is not a "treat", nor should it be rare, nor should you sit your child down and tell him/her that #NaturalHair styles are sooooo expensive..../1
Finding a black hairdresser to braid or otherwise care for your child& #39;s #Natural #hair is not a "treat", nor should it be rare, nor should you sit your child down and tell him/her that #NaturalHair styles are sooooo expensive..../1
It& #39;s #haircare, and it& #39;s necessary. Sorry I can& #39;t go to the white "express" salon and get a $20 haircut from someone who doesn& #39;t know any black people except for me. Sorry my hair is difficult. (It& #39;s not.) .../2
Sorry there are no black hairstylists to be found (or you don& #39;t know where to find them) because you live in such a homogeneous white town. If you adopted a black child, you took on the responsibility of finding someone who could care for their hair and teach them about it.../3
...You should be bringing black hair products into your home. You should be consulting the stylist if you don& #39;t know what to buy. You (and your child) should learn how to gently detangle instead of ripping hair out with a brush. Your child should own a bonnet & a pick.../4
And once you& #39;ve seen how she smiles at her #cornrows in the mirror, or proudly shakes her #braids because she& #39;s never had hair that moves, how could you ever let her go back to having a dry, brittle, tangled mess on the top of her head? How dare you?.../5
You& #39;re so afraid of people judging your parenting? TRUST ME, that mess on your baby& #39;s head says something about it. If you don& #39;t have money to take her to a salon, find her someone to do box braids in the kitchen, and show you what products to buy.../6
It shouldn& #39;t be too hard. After all, you& #39;ve made sure that your child has black mentors in her life, right? Right?.../7
Your #black child& #39;s #hair is a part of her identity, and it should be her pride. It should be a reason for her to hold her head up, not a reason for her to want to hide.../8
Your child should *never*, as a young adult, become self-conscious around other black folks because she now knows her hair is a mess, but she doesn& #39;t know how to fix it.../9
She should not be in salons, getting scolded like a child for not knowing the basic hair care she& #39;s never been taught. Adulthood should not be the first time she steps into a black hair salon. Kind black co-workers shouldn& #39;t need to take her aside at work and offer advice.../10
If you adopted a black child, you accepted responsibility for caring for all of the realities of who she is. For the love of God, DO YOUR BABY& #39;S HAIR.
