Can you afford your hair?

With all of the many, many different hair products out there, it can put quite a dent in the old pocketbook to get try a variety. When I arrived on the natural scene, I ended up spending a hefty sum to get my hands on as many products as I could. I don’t regret this much, as it helped me to establish this blog and the many product reviews that I am able to share here.

Now that I am able to receive a lot of samples to try out, I don’t have to spend as much money to satisfy my PJ (product junky) needs.

Having said that: This issue of money and hair care brings to mind a disturbing trend. It really became apparent to me after viewing the movie “Good Hair”. Look at the following scene to see what I mean:

If you can’t see the  video, it’s the scene where Chris Rock is in the beauty salon flabbergasted by how much weaves cost. When he asks the ladies what jobs they have one replies “childcare” and the other says she’s a school teacher, to which Mr. Rock replies “What a minute, school teachers don’t make no money!”

Ya’ll, I of course laughed and laughed about that until I took a serious look around my own neck of the woods. As I may have said before, I work with a mostly African American, low income population.

A good majority (not all) of these folks may not have a ride to the hospital ,they may not have enough money for the electric bill, and they may have to ask a local charity to feed them….but dangit, they are gonna have money for their hair!

I am DEAD serious. It still shocks the living daylights out of me to see this, and I see it entirely too often.

It’s just very distressing to see so many people who say they can barely afford to get the rent paid (and I see this in the online hair community a lot though I am hoping there is exaggeration in most of these cases) and then come in with your hair in a differently style every week with a ton of human hair (not to mention that Louis Vuitton bag, but that’s a whole ‘nother post).

I’m not saying that people who are broke should just completely ignore their hair or even that they should go natural (because ya’ll know how expensive salon relaxers are!) . I have been broke before, I have been hungry before, but you best believe that I wasn’t going to the beauty salon because I had more important things to put my money towards like, um….food? I would spend money on some products just to make sure my hair looked decent, but that was it.

What’s my point in all this? To say, we all need to prioritize. A lot of ladies come to this blog and see all of the product reviews and get overwhelmed, by both the selection and the prices. Guess what?

You don’t have to buy any of this stuff. There are many, many, many more affordable alternatives to the products that we all love. Would I love to always use natural and organic products? Yes I would! But if I ever become a stay at home mom again, I know that this is not going to be possible. I already have some locally available selections from this post  and am currently working on a part II.

Let’s be real: Natural ingredients are not cheap, shipping is as expensive as H-E-double hockey sticks, natural salons will often ask for your firstborn child in return for doing twists, and the economy is bad.

You do not need to go broke to be natural. You can learn to do your own hair. You can find local, inexpensive products or make your own. Cute hair accessories can be found at the Walmart and Target just like they can be found online.

All of this is said with much love.

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