Google
 

Friday, June 20, 2008

Taking It Back to the Old School

Wearing my hair in two cornrows (well, really flat twist-ish things since I don't know how to cornrow) really takes me back.

Two cornrows was my sister's staple style back in the day, along with super short red shorts with the white piping and long white socks with the two stripes at the top...if you grew up in the 80's you know what I mean.

I wore the style from time to time too, when I wasn't wearing two plaits on either side of my head, crossed over the top of my head when my mom or sister felt like getting fancy. Wearing this style today with very fuzzy sides reminded me of the whole purpose of side combs - remember those?? I have some, and I'm going to wear them when I redo my lopsided-and-uneven cornrow wannabe's.

Of course, thinking about side combs reminded me of other things - nappy pink-roller bangs, nappy pink-roller "spitties" (if you know what spitties are, holla, lol!), of course the nappy "back bang"...wanting to wear my hair "out" and not understanding why my mom wouldn't let me, "spider" plaits on wash day...

The funny thing is that I never saw a drop of vegetable glycerin, shea butter, or any of the other fancy things I seem to think I need to put on my hair now. We had a big jar of unaturally you green-blue Bergamot, a giant jar of red Dax "curl wax" for pressing, a bottle of Creme of Nature, and that was about it. A fine toothed "unbreakable" comb (false advertising!), a boar bristle brush, and a blow dryer with comb attachment was it for tools.

There was no "no poo," no satin scarves or pillow cases, no stretching, no fancy conditioners or natural products, no protective styles, definitely no hair growing supplements or scalp treatments, my hair was blow dried with a super hot blow dryer faithfully every time it was washed and pressed periodically...yet our hair was super long and healthy!

Our moms may have been trippin' when it came to the perms at a young age, but before that, they were onto something!

4 comments:

Elegance said...

Thats funny. I think my hair was in better condition before my mother started to relax it and I started to use curling irons way too much. I had the same hair dryer and had very few products too. I love the stuff I have now but I shudder to think about how much money I have spent over the years on my hair!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Hi Kaya; You forgot the "Mommy Grease"!!!(lol). The grease I made myself using my grandmother's old remedies. Petroleum jelly, coconut oil, castor oil, olive oil, bergamot, and a few drops of sulfer. I believe this is what made everyone's hair healthy back in the day.

Love; Marmy

Admin said...

you're right mom, a lot of the new stuff is just rediscovered old stuff. :0)