So, those of you out there who are Caucasian and parenting an African American girl likely have experienced hair. You know when you plan to adopt an African American child you will need to learn about doing hair, but you really don’t understand the magnitude until you are all in, fighting to learn and understand how to take care of your child’s hair.
I know how important hair is culturally, and I don’t want to ever be the cause of my daughter not ‘liking’ her hair. It has been a learning curve, for sure. So many products tried and so many products in our cupboard that I don’t really know what to do with. We have settled, for now, on a certain product and it seems to be working okay. Our daughter hates to have her hair washed, combed and braided. She has a very sensitive head (goes along with other sensory things we have noticed in her) and she wishes she had short hair like her brothers. We may go with that down the road if she really does still want it, but for now, we try hard to help her feel pride in her hair and love that part of who she is. Sometimes she comments that she wants hair like mine, which breaks my heart, and reminds me to tell her often how beautiful her hair is. We got our family picture taken a little over a week ago for our church directory and on our way out one of the photographers made a comment that she looked like Mickey Mouse. She had puffs in – that were stinking cute by the way – and that one comment made my stomach turn. I am certain he wasn’t trying to be mean, but it is just the reality of those that are “white” around us not understanding that she had “ponys” in … which with her hair, are actually puffs. Although Mickey Mouse is a cool guy, I’d rather my daughter not think that she looks like him. One website I have found to be helpful in my hair style quests is the website “Chocolate Hair Vanilla Care”… that is where this latest style came from. I think she is pretty cute even despite her mother’s continued learning of how to do hair! 🙂
