my white grandma...

[mixedcurlz3]

Don't get me wrong I love my grandmother, but she thinks she can to give me advice on my biracial hair. First of all, I do A LOT of research to find ways to care for my hair, so I pretty much know what I'm doing. So I cut my hair recently (got rid of my relaxed ends! yay!!!!) and she wanted to see "how I did". She took me to the bathroom and BRUSHED MY HAIR OUT so that poofed out into a flipping triangular shape. She was looking at me in disgust the whole time and she was like "you like it like this?" I said "not when its brushed out!" Then she said well you didnt do a horrible job on it. Gee thanks!

[MysticSpiral]

awww bless her heart. It's like that in my biracial family too, only my white grandmother knows more about black/biracial hair than my black one (My white mother's family grew up as the only white family in a black neighborhood, while my black father's family grew up as the only black family in a white rural Kentucky community).

When I'd visit my black grandmother she kept trying to comb/brush it out, and complaining about how broken it was. By 8 she kept offering to take me to get my hair relaxed 'You're old enough now! And it'll look so pretty' because straight hair was like a rite of passage in that family.

When I'd visit my white grandmother, she always said my hair looked really pretty, and said I should get my aunt Jodi to braid it out so I didn't have to worry about it. She still combed it out though and destroyed the curl pattern, but that's run of the mill curl ignorance.

I love my multicultural family's shenagins

[ninja dog]

That would bother me, too.

Why on earth did she brush it? I'm a 2, and even my hair turns to fuzz and fluff when I brush it. (Then it weeps in horror.)

[MysticSpiral]

Originally Posted by ninja dog

That would bother me, too.

Why on earth did she brush it? I'm a 2, and even my hair turns to fuzz and fluff when I brush it. (Then it weeps in horror.)

Ninja dog you always have a new great icon!
also, I swear I can feel my hair flinch when I look at a brush.

[Sandi]

That's what my Vietnamese grandma used to do. When I was younger, before my first relaxer, every shower I'd sit in the bath and she'd rake out my hair with a brush.. geez.. it hurt like heck.
Then I got my first relaxer, and it was awesome for me then (I didn't know about the real effects of it). I got a second one in 6th grade from a lady who had no clue wth she was doing. After that, I went natural with the support of my mom.
Happy update: Someone complimented my curls today! And I didn't even mention it first. I was having really good clumpy spirals today and they were bouncy and springy . There's actually a lot of curlies at my school, but they're all 3a-3b at the curliest. Besides me.. there's about 2 or 3 3c's. Funny how teenagers work..

[mixedcurlz3]

Well I feel better now and sorry for you ladies who had bad experiences

[Rotini]

I'm lucky. My mom is a former member of NC. (now she just lurks around the blogs) and she completely understands my hair. Anyone that would do my hair in my family, has the same hair. They understand.

[Nicolette]

All grandmas try to brush your hair. And until I was 8, my grandma actually used psychological techniques to lure me to her so she could attack my hair with a brush "to get the tangles out".
After 8, I began to realize she was poofing my hair so, being an advanced little child, I declared to her that she was prejudiced against my hair texture. She laughed and said "It'll look pretty if I brush it!" once again.
Then, at 11, I finally find out about going CG, and I thought my hair looked pretty. "Your hair is so tangled! Wash it again! Straighten it! What's wrong with your hair, it isn't neat and tidy like the other girls' hair at school!"
She says those things to this day, even though I have a curly cut, my curls look defined and not "TANGLED", etc.
"Brush your hair!"

[Alexjoujou]

Well my daughter had the same experience..even though it was with me (sort of!)

I had NO idea. My ex is Egyptian and has type 4 hair. My daughter has 3A to 3C hair (she has both strands in her head! We thought it was type 4 for a while but turned out it was just not moisturized well so has settled into about a 3C range for the black/red coarser hair and her medium blondish/brownish hair is 3A). I had no idea how to care for it!! I brushed it all the time and used terrible products. My mom was no better either--haivng no experience with any other hair than fine and straight except for me. I had ringlet's as a kid but they would just cut my hair off.

Best thing I ever did was to do the Curly Girl for my daughter! I think it people really *knew* they would follow it..so I tell everyone I know!

[McCurlie]

My family was actually really supportive and good natured about my hair. They would joke about it all the time, because I was a 'wild child' I always had leaves, sticks, and mud in my hair. My mother finally started leaving tons of homemade conditioner in it and braiding it up (like Heidi's hair) because she didn't want me messing it up anymore!
By the time I was 13 my hair was very long (tailbone stretched) and we had a decent technique down, but I still braided it up. I remember at a cousin's wedding I wore my hair down and everyone was in love with it! My sister actually told me she was jealous because her hair just "looked like everyone else's" - my whole family is 1 - 2b. My Gran actually told me that my hair was curly because my wiry personality is so big that it had to move into my hair for extra room

[lldm2]

Goodness, my grandmothers the exact same way. She tells me what to do with my hair when she doesn't have a clue. She brushed it out for me one day.. I still haven't forgotten that pain. And she keeps telling me I know nothing about my hair. Her hair is straight && and she's Caucasian!