December 24, 2014

Beware the Bandwagon!



Ok. Here's my beef/rant/tantrum for the day. Being on YouTube, Facebook, Blogger, etc DOES NOT make you a natural hair expert. I find more people willing to simply "follow" someone's advice because they sell themselves as an expert. Fact is, if you can run a digital camera/webcam, you too can sell yourself as an "expert". I say, no matter who it is (myself included) before following someone's advice or a natural hair trend...you need to make sure that what is being said/sold makes sense and is backed up by science. I try to ensure that I give you the science...not just my two cents...when I post, blog, vlog. 


Don't get me wrong, I understand that when you are newly natural, you want to find someone who can help you along the journey. I too jumped on the natural hair bandwagon. But, while I started on that road I QUICKLY jumped off.


I started doing videos and blogs because I found there was WAY too much opinion and WAY too little science/research behind a lot of people's "advice". I say it all the time...the first step towards healthy hair needs to be education...not allegiance...education. That is why I did The ABC's of Hair Speak. I see people running to buy this, try that, etc...yet they have NO clue as to WHY they should or should not try something/some process. I do the opposite. I learn the science and then use that knowledge to decide if someone's advice is worth taking.....very often...it's NOT!  



I say all of that to say this...before you jump on the next natural bandwagon, heed the words of one Vanilla Ice...STOP, COLLABORATE and LISTEN! 



Here's some advice on following 'natural hair gurus' and jumping on 'natural hair' bandwagons....



Think I'm being overly-dramatic? Well no need to take my word for it. Grab your shoes honey. It's time for a trip down memory lane.


The Rio Hair Naturalizer System

I might be aging myself but around the time I was in high school (mid 90s), commercials began running for a miraculous new product line called the Rio Hair Naturalizer System. The line included two products, a relaxer without (neutral) and a relaxer with hair dye built-in (the "black/licorice color enhancer"). Why you ask? Hey, nothing says health like hair that's been fried, dyed, and laid to the side in one sitting (rolls eyes). 


While the Halle Berry/Toni Braxton look was just around the corner, the Rio system came out when we brown girls were trying to get the Robin Givens, Jody Watley, Karyn White, look. Hardly the fool, the World Rio Corporation capitalized on this trend by heavily marketing to African-American girls and women. Heck, you couldn't listen to "black radio" or watch "black tv" without seeing a commercial for the stuff! Be it Showtime at the Apollo, Martin, In Living Color, or A Different World, every commercial break featured a commercial/infomercial for the stuff. 




Promising to make hair bone straight by "retexturiz(ing), revitaliz(ing) and gradually releas(ing) tight curls; the Rio commercials came replete with the stereotypical prototype of beauty- a light-complexion black woman with super thick, super long, super straight hair blowing in the studio-created gales of wind (think Black Christie Brinkley). Bless her heart, not only did Debbie Allen star in the Rio commercials...she brought her daughter along as a sacrificial lamb.


As if the prospect of having Debbie Allen hair wasn't enticement enough (because face it, for many of us, it was), Rio took their advertising game to a whole new level!!! To prove itself a safe, chemical-free, all-natural product, the Rio clown...I mean spokesperson... eagerly downed a mouthful of the relaxer for our viewing pleasure. Well needless to say, the masses couldn't pull those credit cards out fast enough! Rio permeated the hood like gub'ment cheese!



Fast forward a few months/year later...



While the jury is still out on Rio as a meal, as a relaxer/hair dye, the response was resounding...OH HELLLLLLLLLLLLL NO!!!


Reportedly, the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) had NEVER BEFORE received so many complaints about a cosmetic product. Thousands of Rio customers filed reports (and later lawsuits) claiming dry hair, burnt scalps, discolored strands, uncontrollable breakage, and worst of all, massive hair loss/alopecia; both short and for many, long-term.


Now I don't mean to make light of a truly sad situation but y'all already know. There are very few things that can take a perfectly reasonable black woman from calm, classy, and cultured to hot, hurt, and damn-near-homicidal so quick as messing with her hair! I can't even imagine the grief those poor FDA officials took behind this! Heck, it even made the national news. Check out Tom Brokaw's special report on the fallout (no pun intended, womp womp womp).


Skip to minute 8:40 for the report:






Want to learn more about the Rio fallout? Check out this article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)'s September 2000 publication of Dermatology. 





Want a good laugh on another bit of natural messiness? Enjoy!....






Got your own natural hair bandwagon stories? Got personal trials and tribulations you'd like to share. Please do so in the comments section. Remember, we're all in this together. One natural's mistake is another's precaution! 

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