I ran in to a childhood friend the other day and I instantly noticed how short and damaged her hair was. This was the first thing I noticed because when I met her as a little girl; I was amazed with how long and beautiful her hair was, especially since her skin was as dark as mines. When I was younger, it was rare to see a "full" Black child with as much hair as she had. I was in awe with how long her braids were without having to add extensions like the majority of the little girls did, including me.

As I finished up my conversation with her, I thought about all of the little girls that I've known over my lifetime that started out with a lot of hair and either lost it due to damage and breakage, or their hair seemed to just stop growing all together. My own daughter was born with very little hair and then lost the little she had to eczema. She was left with a couple of strands of hair in the very top of her head, but other than that she was as bald as her bottom everywhere else.

During this time I was still looking for hair care products that were gentle enough for her delicate scalp yet effective enough to manage and strengthen my relaxed hair. I had noticed that my friend's daughter's hair seemed to be pretty thick and growing steadily, so I asked her what she was using. She gave me the name of a product and of course I rushed out to the nearest beauty supply store to purchase it. When I got to the store I was disappointed with how small the jar was and how expensive it was, but even more disappointed when I read the ingredients; it was full of everything I was told not to use, so of course I didn't purchase it, so I was back to square one.