Most of you may be familiar with the pic to the right. If you are a person of color, you have no doubt what it is. This little hair care device struck fear into the hearts of millions of young african-american girls during their childhood. Sweat beads the size of golf balls would appear across my brow every Saturday evening when the mention of getting my hair straightened for church Sunday was spoken from my mother's lips.The fear of the STRAIGHTENING COMB.
Oh sure, for millions this was a God send. A way for people of African descent to straighten their hair. No more naturally wavy, kinky, hard to manage tresses.
With a lot of heat, a bit of iron and a scalp to sacrifice...it was all good.
Later products like hair relaxers and other harsh chemicals replaced the straightening comb. But I still remember sitting in the kitchen on a small stool between my mother's legs while she literally "set my scalp on fire"!
It was a time consuming process. Between me sliding off the stool in an attempt to escape the heat and the fact that she had to straighten my entire head...the whole fiasco usually took about 45 minutes to an hour.
Some young girls were fortunate enough to have this process taken care of at the local hair salon. But oh no...my mom thought she could do just as good a job as those money leeches. What she failed to realize was these women were trained professionals which one should most definitely be if they're putting a comb heated on a hot stove millimeters away from your flesh!
It was like a snowball effect. Each time she would knick me with the comb...I would begin to perspire which made the process even worse. Oh Oh the horror. Perspiration, pressing oil and a red hot comb....
My meetings with the hot comb weren't just on Saturday evenings after my weekly hair washing. They would occur whenever my mother felt I needed a little retouching. You see water of any type caused the hair to return to it's natural state. So, if I went swimming, got rained on or just perspired a bit too much - more HOT COMBING!
Natural hair isn't for everyone. Heck, some people would rather sell their first born than have to deal with natural hair. It can be challenging. But for me it's the right choice. I've always liked going against the grain.
I'm going au natural. And if that means rocking an afro the size of a midget...then so be it.
