In The News: Healthy hair for young girls

August 31, 2009 Chicago Tribune article about hair and young girls.

Stylist preaches healthy hair and lifestyle to Chicago schoolgirls

Here are some of the key points from the article:

• For the last 10 years, Frances Simmons has been going into Chicago public schools on a mission to educate young African-American girls on the importance of healthy hair and a healthy lifestyle, and how the two can be interwoven into an even healthier self-esteem.
• For blacks, hair travails are deeply rooted in a sad history that too often has defined beauty by a white standard and divided locks into two camps: "good hair" or "bad hair"
• "You've got some mothers who are getting their kindergartners hair weaves or hair pieces," Simmons said. "It breaks your heart. All that weight on those tiny heads."
• In Illinois, stylists who braid aren't required to be licensed so training can be a crapshoot.
• We've been taught not to love our hair and not to love ourselves. Part of having healthy hair is accepting who we are and what we have."

What I really like about this article is that the information is coming from a stylist. Many times we try to share advice or tips we have learned, through reading and research, with our friends and family and the look at us like we don't know what we are talking about. So maybe the same information coming from a professional will open their eyes and ears.